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We are launching a campaign to raise the funds we need for the
continued development and production of Plus beyond 2009. As you may
know, Plus receives no statutory funding and is entirely supported by
grants and donations from organisations and individuals committed to
the public understanding of mathematics. Unfortunately, our core
funding runs out in March 2009, and we are actively seeking further
funds to sustain the future of Plus. If you're interested in helping
us, then please visit http://plus.maths.org/support.html where you'll
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Thank you for your support!
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Issue 49 of Plus - http://plus.maths.org/issue49/index.html
The two major events over the last couple of months have been the
credit crunch and the US presidential election. We take a mathematical
view of both of these, muse over the surprising effectiveness of maths
when it comes to describing the world we live in, and scrutinise some
mathematical philosophy. Plus the usual mix of news, reviews and
podcasts.
In this issue...
* Understanding uncertainty: What was the probability of Obama winning
the election?
This may seem like an odd question - after all, he's won - but it
opens up some deep philosophical issues surrounding probability. David
Spiegelhalter investigates how probability can be defined.
http://plus.maths.org/issue49/risk/index.html
* Chaos, chance and money
With the credit crunch dominating the news, columnists have been
wailing about "chaos in the markets", and "turbulent" share prices.
But what does move the markets? Are they deterministic, or a result of
chance? Colva Roney-Dougal explores the maths, from chaos to group
theory.
http://plus.maths.org/issue49/features/colva/index.html
* A risky business: how to price derivatives
In the light of recent events, it may seem as if trying to understand
finance using mathematics is like trying to reason with a bunch of
headless chickens. However, there are mathematical models of financial
processes that, when they've not been ignored, have proved remarkably
effective. Angus Brown looks at one of these, a simple model for
option pricing, and explains how it takes us on the road to the famous
Black-Scholes equation of financial mathematics, which won its
discoverers the 1997 Nobel Prize in Economics.
http://plus.maths.org/issue49/features/brown/index.html
* Constructive mathematics
If you like mathematics because things are either true or false, then
you'll be worried to hear that in some quarters this basic concept is
hotly disputed. In this article Phil Wilson looks at constructivist
mathematics, which holds that some things are neither true, nor false,
nor anything in between.
http://plus.maths.org/issue49/features/wilson/index.html
* Unreasonable effectiveness
When it comes to describing natural phenomena, mathematics is
amazingly - even unreasonably - effective. In this article Mario Livio
looks at an example of strings and knots, taking us from the mysteries
of physical matter to the most esoteric outpost of pure mathematics,
and back again.
http://plus.maths.org/issue49/features/livio/index.html
* From restaurants to climate change
We live in a world full of information and it's a statistician's job
to make sense of it. In this article Dianne Cook explores ways of
analysing data and shows how they can be applied to anything from
investigating diners' tipping behaviour to understanding climate
change and genetics.
http://plus.maths.org/issue49/features/cook/index.html
* Career interview: Actor and mathematician
Victoria Gould has always known she would be an actor, and went
straight from studying arts at school to running her own theatre
company. But she eventually had to come clean about her guilty secret
- she loves maths - and has since managed to combine a career as a
research mathematician and teacher with a successful acting career.
She tells Plus why she needs to use boths sides of her brain.
http://plus.maths.org/issue49/interview/index.html
* The Plus sports page: The curse of the duck
The recent news of the great Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar
surpassing West Indian Brian Lara's record number of test runs has
given maths-loving cricket geeks another opportunity to pull out their
calculators and Excel spreadsheets. Marc West is openly one of these
nuts and did just that.
http://plus.maths.org/issue49/sport/index.html
* Teacher package: Prime numbers
So basic, yet so tricky: prime numbers are the atoms among natural
numbers and lie at the centre of some of the most difficult open
problems in maths. This package brings together all material we have
on primes, from prime number algorithms to new discoveries.
http://plus.maths.org/issue49/package/index.html
But wait, there's more!
* Guess the colour of your hat
http://plus.maths.org/issue49/puzzle/index.html
* Find out why Dickens didn't like statistics
http://plus.maths.org/issue49/outerspace/index.html
* And muse over common sense
http://plus.maths.org/issue49/editorial/index.html
But we're not done yet!
There are two new podcast episodes http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/
* Podcast 13, November 2008: Is maths to blame?
The maths of the credit crunch
http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/PlusPodcastNov08.mp3
* Podcast 14, December 2008: Small worlds on the brain
The science of complexity
http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/PlusPodcastDec08.mp3
Plus all the latest mathematical news and reviews.
Happy reading from the Plus team!
**********
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