“One problem with using nomenclature that gives credit to specific people is that you either create a winner-take-all situation or you create an ungainly string of names separated by hyphens. Also, if some hitherto unknown forerunner suddenly pops up, you suddenly have to change the name to acknowledge the newly discovered ‘winner’ “. So writes […]
Caterers who cater to every whim can tuck away this cookie recipe, saving it for the day a customer demands mathematics-laced cookies: This recipe was cooked up by Jon Jacobsen and Kym Louie, for the Mathematics Association of America. (Thanks to Stanley Eigen for bringing this to our attention.)
Mathematician Jim Propp worries over a concept he’s been trying, for decades, to digest: Null Salad. Propp explains: “If you have arugula, basil, celery, dandelion, and endive leaves, how many different tossed salads can you make?” That question, or something like it, was asked in a Math Bowl that I participated in back in high […]
The theoretical advanced in pancake flipping, discusses in the August 2020 issue of mini-AIR, were not the end of the story. Further advances can be found in this study: “Successor Rules for Flipping Pancakes and Burnt Pancakes,” Joe Sawada and A. Williams, Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 609, part 1, 4 January 2016, pp 60-75. The […]