Latest news from Plus magazine! - http://plus.maths.org
In this newsletter:
- Latest news
- Browse with Plus
- Mathematical moments
- Live maths
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Latest news
Forget Sudoku and smile for the camera - An algorithm for solving Sudoku
puzzles from an unexpected source
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr06/sudoku/index.html
John D Barrow wins Templeton Prize - More honours for the director of the
Millennium Mathematics Project
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr06/templeton/index.html
A fat chance of chaos? - Some news on Julia sets
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr06/Julia/index.html
Plus... more news from the world of maths
Frequently flipping fields
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr05/plusmore35/index.html#geomagnetic
Happy Pi Day to you!
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr05/plusmore35/index.html#piday
Gravity kills dark energy?
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr05/plusmore35/index.html#gravity
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Browse with Plus
Felice Varini - Plus first stumbled across photographs of the amazing work
of Felice Varini in several blogs all marvelling at the magical effects he
creates. Varini paints rooms, buildings and even cities in such a way that
an optical illusion appears for those standing at a unique vantage point.
Flat discs appear to hover in mid air, lines cut through space and
concentric circles make buildings appear to bulge. Varini's site can be
difficult to navigate for English speakers, but the images are well worth
the effort.
Visit Varini's official site:
http://www.varini.org
read about his artistic intentions (in English):
http://www.varini.org/03dem/adem01.html
and browse one of the galleries of his work:
http://www.varini.org/02indc/indgen.html
You can read more about Varini on:
http://laura.moncur.org/archives/2006/02/16/felice-varini-art-of-perspective/,
http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_0498/ap98swis.htm and
http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/artistInfo/artist/5501
and more about perspective and the mathematics in art in the Plus
articles:
http://plus.maths.org/indices/keyword_urls.html#MATHEMATICS%20AND%20ART
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Mathematical moments
Karl Pearson - Born 27 March 1857, died 27 April 1936, England
From a young age Karl Pearson was interested in a broad range of subjects:
his studies included philosophy, religion, physics, medieval literature
and physiology. Eventually he decided to pursue law, but he never
practised and instead worked as a research mathematician. This was
fortuitous for mathematics, as Pearson is now known as one of the founders
of statistics, developing mathematical methods for studying heredity and
evolution. Among other things, his work contributed to regression
analysis and the chi-square test of statistical significance still used
today.
"The mathematician, carried along on his flood of symbols, dealing
apparently with purely formal truths, may still reach results of endless
importance for our description of the physical universe." - Karl Pearson
quoted in "Mathematical Maxims and Minims"
You can read about Karl Pearson on the MacTutor site:
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Pearson.html,
and about the use of maths and statistics in biology in the Plus articles:
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/may-aug04/jaguar/index.html,
http://plus.maths.org/issue30/features/dartnell/index.html and
http://plus.maths.org/issue13/features/walking/index-gifd.html
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Live maths
Maths and Natural Disasters - The Earth is a beautiful place, yet it is
struck by earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and, most recently, climate
change. Little can be done either to stop or to alter the occurrence of
such events, however, can they be accurately forecast, with a view to
mitigating the associated hazards? Herbert Huppert explains what we
understand about these natural disasters and how mathematics can help us
learn more. A few desktop experiments will be performed during the
lecture - all guaranteed risk free!
When: Thursday 27 April 2006, 5.00 - 6.00 pm
Where: Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Clarkson Road, Cambridge
More info: http://mmp.maths.org/events/eventlist.php
Women in Mathematics Day - The London Mathematical Society runs an annual
Women in Mathematics Day to provide women (though men are not excluded!)
with an opportunity to meet successful female mathematicians at various
stages in their careers. All women active in mathematics, particularly
students and those at an early stage in their career are encouraged to
attend. For further information about the event, or to register to
attend, please contact Isabelle Robinson (email: [log in to unmask], tel:
020 7929 9979).
When: Friday 28 April 2006, 10.30am
Where: De Morgan House, 57-58 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HS
More info: http://www.lms.ac.uk/
Happy reading from the Plus team!
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