Feb
8
(via zyxst)
Brain-Rain.
Science in action. And also, goofing off.
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Posts tagged math
Apr
14
The only female in the Mathematica exhibit.
This is an unnecessarily huge model of a Möbius strip, found at the Boston Science Museum. Simply put, it’s a surface with only one side. So, if you drew a line in blood all around one side of the strip, you will have covered the entire thing. It’s pretty crazy, actually. It was in the “Mathematica” exhibit, which I dragged my father into. I tried to explain this figure to him, but he threw his hands up and left to go look at a machine blowing soap bubbles. I can’t say I blame him.
Apr
28
Statistical distribution plushies. Am tempted to buy them for my future children, point at the corner of the standard distribution plushie, “you need to be STDEV 2.0+ above your class!” #futuretigermom #justkidding…
(via freshphotons)
Jun
24
Oh, Math. Is there anything you can’t make complicated?
This cool soap bubble thing is brought to you by MATH™
Sep
16
![matthen:
Benford’s law says that in many sources of real life data, the number 1 is the most common first digit, then 2, 3 etc. For example, in non-fraudulent tax returns, the number 1 will be the most frequent first digit (otherwise it could be faked.) But why might this be? In the animation we are simulating a process where lots of random numbers are multiplied together, and drawing a histogram of the results- but on a log-scale. Because multiplying numbers is just adding them on a log-scale ( log(a * b) = log(a) + log(b) ), the histograms look similar to what you’d get from just adding lots of random numbers- i.e. Bell-curve-ish shapes. The next thing to realise is that on the log scale, the first digits are not distributed evenly- but 1__ numbers (purple) take up the most space. So if the Bell-curves are broad enough, then they will be more likely to produce numbers which start with 1 than, say, 8 (orange). As time progresses in the animation, more and more numbers are being multiplied- so the curve moves up the scale. A lot of data in real life comes from multiplying various random numbers or exponential growth- which behave like this example. [more] [code]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpcodd3liS1qfg7o3o1_400.gif)
Benford’s law says that in many sources of real life data, the number 1 is the most common first digit, then 2, 3 etc. For example, in non-fraudulent tax returns, the number 1 will be the most frequent first digit (otherwise it could be faked.) But why might this be? In the animation we are simulating a process where lots of random numbers are multiplied together, and drawing a histogram of the results- but on a log-scale. Because multiplying numbers is just adding them on a log-scale ( log(a * b) = log(a) + log(b) ), the histograms look similar to what you’d get from just adding lots of random numbers- i.e. Bell-curve-ish shapes. The next thing to realise is that on the log scale, the first digits are not distributed evenly- but 1__ numbers (purple) take up the most space. So if the Bell-curves are broad enough, then they will be more likely to produce numbers which start with 1 than, say, 8 (orange). As time progresses in the animation, more and more numbers are being multiplied- so the curve moves up the scale. A lot of data in real life comes from multiplying various random numbers or exponential growth- which behave like this example. [more] [code]
Sep
24
Roman Opałka was a French-born Polish painter whose medium was numbers and specifically, infinity. In 1965 he began painting the process of counting – from one to infinity. While we often think of art as the expression of emotion, there’s something startling, something starkly beautiful about the expression of process. Starting in the top left-hand corner of the canvas and working to the bottom right-hand corner, the tiny numbers were painted in horizontal rows. As of July 2004, he had reached 5.5 million.
(via FlavorWire)
It must be OCD art week around here! I can’t even focus on counting to twenty.
(via jtotheizzoe)
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