Where all the mathematicians at?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

holla?

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

WRONG BOARD. YOU WANTED "I LOVE FUNCTIONS."

― Ian John50n (orion), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

OH SHIT
: (

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:29 (twenty-one years ago)

wait, wtf
I couldn't find that one ...?

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:30 (twenty-one years ago)

DO YOU LIKE JOEKS?

― Ian John50n (orion), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

THAT WAS ONE

KEKEKEKE
^____^

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/p2img1459.gif

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.umsl.edu/~fraundor/laws2.gif

― Ian John50n (orion), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/329/lectures/img717.png

― Ian John50n (orion), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.designhappy.com/trivia%202001/trivia%20images/Large%20Slides/Equation%20q.jpg

― Ian John50n (orion), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

GET ONE ALGORITHM

― Big Baby Bingo (Chris V), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

ha!

ihttp://hobbes.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Pics/Darmstadt/algorithm.gif

― Ian John50n (orion), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

mathematicians can be kind of snotty.

― Maria (Maria), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

that's easy
it's B

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.achewood.com/shop/rsrc/img/thm_app_eqw_qs.gif

― TOMBOT, Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/images/us/local/products/productsall/p118424c.jpg

― TOMBOT, Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

the farthest i ever got in maths was business math. which is basically how to add and subtract.

― Big Baby Bingo (Chris V), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

i was a math major in college - i like topology and shit. im no mathematician, mind you, but i know some.

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:46 (twenty-one years ago)

the furthest I got in maths was modelling with differential equations and modern algebra (rings, fields, groups, etc.)
: (

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

hey, if the degree says it, it's good enough for me.

one down!

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I RENOUNCED IT. Now it is all gone.

― Ally C (Ally C), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:48 (twenty-one years ago)

modern algebra is the fucking awesomest.

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:50 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, it's pretty awesome.

also, I'm probably going to renounce it if I can get into a grad program for urban planning.

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

toby to thread to make you all feel dumb (way to post this after the London contingent is almost all off to the pub etc.)

― TOMBOT, Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Toby, to thread! Do as the man says!

― Jesus Christ, Paraplegic (Mark C), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm in linear algebra and i swear after this semester I'm Leaving! (i have to take statistics for my major but whatever)

― Maria (Maria), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Mathematicians live among us. They are subtle.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

To prove you are a mathematician please explain what the following formula (allegedly) has to do with the nonexistence of a Nobel Prize in Mathematics?

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/mimg2568.gif

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Toby is the top man here. Sinkah and Pete did maths at Oxford. I did it at Cambridge, but dropped out very quickly so I don't know much.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Where are the MATHEMAGICIANS at??!

― Dale Panopticalis (cprek), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

sweet
I knew there had to be some awesome math people on here
I just didn't know who they were

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Check 1, Check 2. I'm ABD in Applied Math. Requests for help with homework hono(u)red subject to availability.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

The mathematician's proof that all odd numbers greater than one are prime: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, therefore by mathematical induction all odd numbers greater than 1 are prime.

The physicist's proof: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 11 is a prime, 13 is a prime, 9 is an experimental error.

The engineer's proof: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is a prime,...

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

M.S., Applied Statistics. Linear Algebra was the first sign that my math days were numbered, and I just barely scraped through Advanced Calculus/Real Analysis. After that I hung out in the Stat department :-)

― Jeff Wright (JeffW1858), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Ken L's joke above proves that the physicist is always right :)

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I wish I could remember the one about the mathematician, physicist and econonomist stranded on a desert island trying to open a can of beans without a can-opener, but I only remember the punchline.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Real Analysis was a lot easier the second time around when I went to class and tried.

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Is this the one you mean?
(it doesn't involve a mathematician, but rather an engineer)

An economist, an engineer, and a physicist are marooned on a deserted
island. One day they find a can of food washed up on the beach and
contrive to open it. The engineer said: "let's hammer the can open
between these rocks". The physicist said: "that's pretty crude. We can
just use the force of gravity by dropping a rock on the can from that
tall tree over there". The economist is somewhat disgusted at these
deliberations, and says: "I've got a much more elegant solution. All we
have to do is assume a can-opener."

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Google comes through for us:

Three scientists, a physicist, a mathematician and an economist, are stranded on an island. A can of beans washes ashore. The three scientists are excited because they have not eaten in days. Then they realize they have no way to open the can. The physicist exclaims, “Let’s build a fire. We can heat the can until it explodes.” The mathematician then chimes in. “Excellent idea! Based on the geometric structure of the can, we can calculate the optimal angle at which to place the can so the contents will be expelled into this bowl.” Finally, the economist says, “Those are both excellent ideas, but complicated. I have a much simpler solution: Let’s start with the assumption that we have a can opener …”

(xpost, I see there are multiple versions of it)

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Real Analysis
Really? It was harder for me the second time, because he breezed through what I thought the course would be about in like three lectures, and then it became Functional Analysis, among other things. Taught by famous (to mathematicians anyway) mathman P3t3r L4x. To him it was child's play.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Actual quote from above class:
"Good old L2. It's like mother's milk."

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

well the second time in my case is because I dropped it the first time around.

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

HAHAHAHA
oh mathematicians are funny sometimes.

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I sometimes like to tell the story of my friend Chris, who was a math major in college and also studied for nine months in Egypt. I went to lunch with him one day and decided, sneaky sneaky, to browse through his notebook while he was in the bathroom. I found that the first half of the notebook was entirely in Arabic and the second half was entirely in advanced-level calculus. Meaning I understood zilch.

― Sanjay McDougal (jaymc), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

(He is now a punk-rock math professor in Memphis.)

― Sanjay McDougal (jaymc), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:21 (twenty-one years ago)

HERRO

― TITS.JPG (ex machina), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:21 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost:

I think it actually helps to speak a hard foreign language, especially Hungarian. Warms up your brain for those knotty problems.

Favorite Portrayals of Math-men in the Arts:
Pie-in-the-sky-can't-draw-a-straight-line Mathematicians- The Laputans in Gullivers's Travels
Macho Mathematician: Dustin Hoffman in Straw Dogs
Disaffected Dropout Mathematician: the French Teenager in Bresson's The Devil, Probably
Tuxedoed, Sophisticated Mathematician: the guy who never loses at Nim in Last Year at Marienbad
Spouse Of or Also-Ran Mathematician: The narrator of The Mind-Body Problem

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:23 (twenty-one years ago)

HERRO I RIKEY MATHS VELLY MUCH!

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:23 (twenty-one years ago)

i am a mathematician in the future. trigonal haymem, are you a mathematician?

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I will be in about six months when I get my degree.
I mean, not by profession (I hope), but at least by education.

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:51 (twenty-one years ago)

If only more math jokes were actually, I dunno, funny.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:51 (twenty-one years ago)

if you can't find a funny math joke, you just aren't looking hard enough

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:53 (twenty-one years ago)

math jokes are always funny ... to math nerds

the rest of the world, however ... well ...

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:54 (twenty-one years ago)

post prime numbers here

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 23:10 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.trigonalmayhem.com/primebear.jpg

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 23:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Math is my best subject by far

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 30 November 2004 23:49 (twenty-one years ago)

It makes me feel awkward on ILX, where there are so many spectacular writers, that I can't write an essay in fewer than eight hours.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 30 November 2004 23:50 (twenty-one years ago)

it's ok, neither can i. i really like reading but i can't write for shit. the more math i do, the worse it gets, too.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 00:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to be really good, like, REALLY good at Maths (100% in my o-level,totally aced my mock A-levels in Maths and Applied Maths (90%+) but never bothered with the actual exams, full marks in a lot of first and second year uni stuff...). Then I got bored with it half way through uni, gave it up, and it all fell gradually out of my head. Ten years later, I can't even remember basic-ish trig functions or anything. I think if I started doing stuff again, I would remember it all again, but, like, why would I do that?

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 00:09 (twenty-one years ago)

because boys like it?

um, just kidding. they don't care.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Based on the anecdotal evidence, writing math can mess up your ability to write other stuff if you're not careful. You really have to nurture a different part of your brain and compartmentalize the mental mathematician out of there.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 01:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Would some kind person explain singular value decomposition to me? I'm not interested in a technical definition, but in an analogical one, i.e., SVDs for dummies. It's used in this application called latent semantic indexing: http://lsi.research.telcordia.com/, and more specifically, http://lsi.research.telcordia.com/lsi/papers/JASIS90.pdf

― youn, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 02:32 (twenty-one years ago)

i think i can do this, gimme ten seconds

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 02:33 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't think my description is enough "for dummies." try this and ask questions. i know how to singular value deompose pretty well, i think.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SingularValueDecomposition.html

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 02:45 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost Caitlin

Youn, the text mining software I support uses SVD as a technique to reduce the dimensions of a matrix so that the (following) analytical routines have an easier job of analyzing/summarizing the matrix. It's somewhat analagous to principal components and factor analysis, which are old standbys of multivariate statistics. I can probably pull up some references if you want, but they'd probably be pretty technical. I must admit I haven't waded through much of our documentation on SVD.

(Interesting to see someone using SVD in an info retrieval/search context; my employer thinks we're the only text mining vendor using it.)

― Jeff Wright (JeffW1858), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 02:57 (twenty-one years ago)

See Trigonal, you could have a nice math thread without SHITTING ALL OVER A PERFECTLY HARMLESS SIMPSONS THREAD. Ain't that nice?

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 03:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Here's how I understand it, I have no doubt somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.

Suppose you need to do something with a matrix and it has an eigenvalue decomposition. Typically you will associate the eigenvalues of largest magnitude with an amount of "energy" and keep say the top ten ("high energy mode") of the those along with their associated eigenvectors and throw out the rest ("low energy modes") , saving on storage space and compute time.

Now not every matrix has an eigenvalue decomposition. Which do? Normal matrices, which are those matrices that commute with their adjoints. (See Halmos (pr. Hal-mowsh) for readable proof. But every matrix A (possibly subject to some condition I can't remember) does have an SVD. The proof has something to do with successively finding v such that [Av,Av] is maximized, if I remember correctly. In this case you just keep the biggest singular values and vectors and throw out the rest, again saving on storage space and usually on compute time.

Now go back and read the mathworld link, if you haven't already.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 03:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Ian's third post up there has me suddenly recalling my old (intro cal) physics professor's weirdly baritone voice. He also breathed kinda heavily at times. It was actually odder than it sounds right now.

Oh man. II, III, and VI are especially taking me back.

― Drama Queen Wannabe (Dee the Lurker), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 05:15 (twenty-one years ago)

PRIME NUMBER SHITTING BEAR

― Jimmy Mod always makes friends with women before bedding them down (ModJ), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 05:50 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.xenafan.com/movies/bod/images/class10.jpg

― TITS.JPG (ex machina), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 06:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I did enough math courses in my academic years. I was a few credits shy of a minor, but most of those credits would have been tied up in my major.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 06:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Analogy for SVD = solving a substitution cypher, where every letter you solve is a letter you can't use later, and sometimes you run out of cypher letters before you run out of plaintext letters. Did you mean an analogy of how you do it, or why/when you do it?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 08:26 (twenty-one years ago)

my favourite (FSVO favourite) variation of the mathmo/phys/engineer joke is the one that ends: then it's the physicists turn. HE says "Let's say that the cow is a sphere..."

make up your own joke mechanicals to fit on the front of that.

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 09:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Similar to Alan's: astronomer/physicist/mathmo ends: "no, we know that in Scotland there exists at least one sheep, at least one side of which is black".

― RickyT (RickyT), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 10:56 (twenty-one years ago)

A version I heard involved an engineer, physicist & mathmo + hotel fire.

Upon discovering the fire the mathmo lights a match and drops it in a glass of water, then goes to bed happy in the knowledge that a solution exists.

― robster (robster), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 10:59 (twenty-one years ago)

there's one about reducing to the previous case involving emptying a kettle. it's ok.

― toby (tsg20), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:47 (twenty-one years ago)

T0BY IS HERE!!!

― Jesus Christ, Paraplegic (Mark C), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"Assume a spherical cow" has become a short-hand for making ridiculous assumptions to achieve a result, to the point where half the articles on it are defending the fact that you do have to do this sometimes to get any results at all.

Anyway, this meddling in the material has nothing to do with mathematics.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 14:08 (twenty-one years ago)

One analogy I've heard is that it's like fitting points to a line. Then would the smallest distances correspond to the highest values in the diagonal matrix in the middle? Why do you have to flip the first matrix?

I would be interested in an analogy that explains what you have to do and what the three matrices and their rows and columns represent.

I don't know what eigenvalues are. I don't know enough to understand the mathworld definition without endless backtracking.

― youn, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

this thread makes the baby jesus weep.

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i think first learn what eigenvalues are, you need them.

an eigenvalue is a scalar quantity that replaces the effect of the matrix. like, say you have a vector x and a matrix A. if lambda is an eigenvalue of A, Ax=(lambda)x.

to get eigenvalues, you make a matrix called (lambda)I-A, find it's determinant, and solve det((lambda)I)-A for lambda.

the singular values are the reciprocals of the non-zero eigenvalues, you need those to form the middle matrix of the SVD.

do you have some kind of computer algrebra system like mathematica? it should be able to do SVD for you, i think.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:30 (twenty-one years ago)

mathematica definitely can!

― TITS.JPG (ex machina), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

oooh, Caitlin, keep talking dirty to me

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

mathematica doesn't ~~do my homework~~ easily solve systems of equations of multiple orders of integration

― TITS.JPG (ex machina), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

three weeks pass...

it's jimmy's All-Nighter Before Ordinary Differential Equations Final!!!!

can anyone help me out with series solutions near ordinary and singular points?

― lemin (lemin), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 02:07 (twenty-one years ago)

You should have asked me for help ten years ago.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Grad course or undergrad? You're at NYU? Who's the prof?

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Undergrad. Moser. awful professor. unfortunately, i fear my initial question is rhetorical because i wouldn't know where to start asking something actually specific.

― lemin (lemin), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 02:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Jürgen M0ser, they brought him back to life?

Just kidding? Boyce and DiPrima is the textbook? Did he stick to the text? That's not too hard a book. Anyway, I've got to go, but MindInRewind is a nice guy so I leave you in good hands.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 02:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Boyce and DiPrima for sure. I don't know whether it's the same guy you're talking about, but Roger Moser doesn't teach us math. ODE has turned from a class where we learn math into a class where we try to interpret what he's saying through his accent. I learn from the book.

― lemin (lemin), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 02:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I used Boyce and DiPrima too! I don't have my math books here, but it sounds way too familiar.

But seriously, I can't possibly be any help to anyone taking these courses now. I literally did take ODE ten years ago.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 02:56 (twenty-one years ago)

It's interesting how some books last forever. U of T still uses Spivak for 1st year calculus/analysis, and has been for at least fifteen years.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 02:59 (twenty-one years ago)

i only took it like a year and a half ago but i swear i've never heard of series solutions near ordinary and singular points.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 03:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Spivak? One of these days I'm gonna read his little book on differential forms, I swear. I knew his partner in crime from way back, D4vid K3lly.

Sorry we weren't of more help, lemin. I think I have that book in my office at work. If you still have questions tomorrow, try me. I only took ODE five years ago and had to pass a test on it three years ago, so I probably remember a little more. Next time give a little lead time and maybe I can help more.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 07:30 (twenty-one years ago)

oh no worries - I'm surprised anyone actually answered at all in the first place. i was planning on learning this stuff on my own anyways and that's how it'll have to be. thanks regardless

― lemin (lemin), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 08:27 (twenty-one years ago)

seven months pass...

Am I silly to consider going back to school for a math degree, perhaps an advanced one, with an eye towards becoming a mathematician, on account of I saw this Nova special that featured a couple mathematicians who were doing this project on a unicorn tapestry?

― Leeeeeee (Leee), Friday, 29 July 2005 06:51 (twenty years ago)

I applied to university to do a degree in Maths. And then I never heard from them again. :-(

I assume that means I didn't get in.

― Masonic Boom (kate), Friday, 29 July 2005 06:57 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.