This year, 2011, is ending—unexpectedly—in December. To celebrate, we pay tribute to the winners of this year’s Ig Nobel Prize in mathematics. The prize was awarded to:
Dorothy Martin of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1954), Pat Robertson of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1982 [and whose book is pictured here]), Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1990), Lee Jang Rim of KOREA (who predicted the world would end in 1992), Credonia Mwerinde of UGANDA (who predicted the world would end in 1999), and Harold Camping of the USA (who predicted the world would end on September 6, 1994 and later predicted that the world will end on October 21, 2011), for teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations.
BONUSES: Camping schedule for October: The Halting Problem; and Let’s go, Camping! How Harold does his math; and Congratulations to Ig Nobel winner Harold Camping!! [October 21, 2011, the day the world was predicted to end]
BONUS: Video of the 2011 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony:
BONUS: Claire McConnell, writing in the Irish Times, looks back at some of this year’s other Ig Nobel Prize winners.