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The cos rule without cos
Ever since I first learned it, I've always loved the cos rule. It says that if a triangle has two sides a and b, with an angle of C between them, then the remaining side c can be found in this way: c2 = a2 + b2 - 2ab cos C.
Mathematical collocations
There is a phrase people use when talking about statistics that really bugs me. It's "non-parametric data". I see it all the time in statistical teaching materials and I hate it because I know what they mean, but what they've said is simply wrong. Whoever writes this phrase has a tenuous grasp of what the word non-parametric means. If they really understood what it meant, they would realise that the word non-parametric can only be used to apply to a statistical procedure, not to the data itself; the words "non-parametric" and "data" just can't be put together like that.
The Pied Mathematician of Hamelin
Have you ever been in a situation and felt like you were reliving a scene from a book or movie? Well it happened to me the other day when I went to visit my daughter's school. I felt exactly like I was the piper in the Pied Piper of Hamelin, because an ever-growing crowd of children followed me across the oval as I walked in.
Bathelling in assignments
The Deeper Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd defines the word bathel like this:
Quick Iggle Piggle! Catch Makka Pakka's Og-Pog before it hits the Ninky Nonk!
The CLPD head administrator Cathy told me a story the other day about an experience she had on the train: She was sitting opposite a pair of students, and one was helping the other prepare for a test. The first student was reading out words from a stack of cards and the second was trying to correctly say what they mean. After listening to this for a while, Cathy leaned over and asked what it was they were studying. The students said "pure maths".
[Read more about Quick Iggle Piggle! Catch Makka Pakka's Og-Pog before it hits the Ninky Nonk!]
Dagwood Dogs at the Gawler show
I went to the Gawler Show with my family the weekend before last, and it was a wonderful day. We had camel and pony rides, patted the animals, looked at all the stalls, bought some toys, got given balloons and generally had a most excellent day.
The shoemaker and Dobby
Do you know the story of the Shoemaker and the Elves? Well, I've known it since I was very young. It's a Brothers Grimm, and it goes something like this:
Pi, Tau and Eta
Recently, I've heard a lot about the number τ, and I find the whole thing a bit odd.
Rule collision
The same experience has happened to me several times in the Maths Drop-In Centre recently – with different students from different courses – and it was such a strong pattern I need to talk about it.
The students are doing some algebra involving negative powers on the tops of fractions. Something like this:
Rapunzel's Epiphany
We bought Disney Studio's newest film "Tangled" on the weekend and I have to say it's one of my favourite movies ever. It's certainly Disney's best movie since "Beauty and the Beast", and I dearly loved "Beauty and the Beast". I should warn you now that in order to say what I want to say I'm going to have to reveal a bit of the plot, so let this count as your spoiler alert.
