Anyone who knows me knows that one of my biggest goals is to work for Pixar Animation Studios; A goal I’m working towards every day. Here is a little peak inside the studios to see what their employees get to deal with every day. Starting Monday, I will be working double time on achieving this goal!
More Information: link
When several hungry but cash-challenged college students chip in for a pizza, cutting it into equal and fair slices become very important. So important that mathematicians Rick Mabry and Paul Deiermann looked into the problem that emerges when the pizza cutter does not slice exactly through the center of the pie. This is known as the complete pizza theorem.
Their quest started in 1994, when Deiermann showed Mabry a revised version of the pizza problem, again published in Mathematics Magazine (vol 67, p 304). Readers were invited to prove two specific cases of the pizza theorem. First, that if a pizza is cut three times (into six slices), the person who eats the slice containing the pizza’s centre eats more. Second, that if the pizza is cut five times (making 10 slices), the opposite is true and the person who eats the centre eats less.
Only the first statement was proven. Deiermann and Mabry worked on proving the second off and on until their breakthrough in 2006. Now that they have proven the theorem, they are working on other problem, such as how to divide a calzone.
George Hart is a sculptor, mathematician, and one of the best professors I had while at Stony Brook University. Never failing to amaze me, he has posted on his website step-by-step instructions for how to craft a Möbius strip from a single bagel.
“It is much more fun to put cream cheese on these bagels than on an ordinary bagel. In additional to the intellectual stimulation, you get more cream cheese, because there is slightly more surface area.”
This makes me miss seeing George every Tuesday and Thursday for algorithms!
More information: link
MSN offers fresh perspectives on the Crab Nebula, Milky Way and more in a slide show with this months top space photography. Needless to say, some of these shots are out of this world ;)
View the full slide show: link
How far would you go to help save an endangered animal? How about getting it tattooed on you?
That’s exactly what hundreds of volunteers signed up for last weekend at ExtInked, where people came from far and wide to have one of Britain’s most endangered species tattooed on their body, making them a life long ambassador for that species. Each volunteer filled out an application explaining why they deserved to be the canvas for their chosen flora or fauna. Of the many hundred that applied, only one hundred were chosen for the honor.
Tattoos tend to be a natural conversation starter and this seems like a more modern and “hip” way to spread the word.
More information: link
Have you ever given up working on a math problem because you couldn’t figure out the next step? Wolfram|Alpha can guide you step by step through the process of solving many mathematical problems, from solving a simple quadratic equation to taking the integral of a complex function.
This looks like it could be fun!
More information: link
“As humans we take many things for granted. One is surely the ability to walk, crawl, or even, after a little too much to drink, drag ourselves over to a lovely member of the opposite sex. Plants have no such luxury. For much of the long history of green life on land, plants had to be near each other, touching almost, to mate.”
National Geographic has a surprisingly non-erotic history and photo gallery all about plant reproduction and pollen. Although most of us simply think of pollen as the yellow stuff on our car or that cloud in the air that is making us sneeze, when magnified it can be quite interesting.
“In the 300,000 pollen-bearing plant species on Earth, there are 300,000 different forms of pollen. The great variety in colors, shapes, and textures of the grains has evolved in accordance with each plant’s biological particulars. Beetle-pollinated plants tend to have smooth, sticky pollen, the better to adhere to the lumbering beetles’ backs. Plants pollinated by fast-moving bees or flies may have spiny pollen that lodges easily between the insects’ hairs. Plants pollinated by bigger animals, such as bats, sometimes have bigger pollen, though not always — perhaps not even most of the time. In the details of pollen’s variety, more remains to be explained than is understood.”
Want to talk about cold? How cold does it have to be to freeze Niagra Falls!? Keep in mind that these pictures were taken in 1911 before there was a dam in place, so the water would have been much higher and much faster. Makes you excited for winter, eh?
“Jeremy Holmes’s There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is a delightful picture-book based on the beloved nursery rhyme. Holmes’s illustrations are grim and Gorey-esque, sepia-toned with lots of little comedy moments, whimsical annotations and elaborations (leathery bat-wings on a cow are unexpectedly fitting!). The book is an odd, tall shape (like a CD long-box), and the top third is the old lady’s face, with her eyes staring owlishly from behind round glasses. The grand finale of the book (“There was an old lady who swallowed a horse/She’s dead of course”) is celebrated with a cute mechanical effect: when you turn the last page, the lady’s eyes close and the accompanying illustration shows her arms folded across her chest, holding fly-swatter like a lily.”
“National Geographic’s International Photography Contest attracts thousands of entries from photographers of all skill levels around the world every year. While this year’s entry deadline has passed, there is still time to view and vote for your favorites in the Viewer’s Choice competition.”
This is a collection of 25 images from the three categories of People, Places and Nature: link
National Geographic’s International Photography Contest: link
National Geographic’s International Photography Contest 2009 Voting Machine: link
