I know we did a post last week promoting the site. However we'd like to do a little more - we're very excited to announce the very first released INTERVIEW. Our written interview is from a Math Intervention Teacher.
We hope you're interested in purchasing and reading, for only $1.99.
First Written Interview!
Please share your story with us as well!
http://www.notaprodigy.com/interviews---love-math.html
Hopefully we have many more to come!
Monday, September 29, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
A little bit of promotion
If you’ve followed www.notAprodigy.com, you may or may not have noticed that we’ve been doing a little bit of expansion over the past couple of months.
We’re going to start releasing some of our favorite links as resources towards topics and their use in the real world. If you have any great links please send them our way with a brief description of the topics and how the site has been useful to you or anyone you know!
In other terms, we have the following sub-topics and hope that you may find something interesting among our links.
- Share how you use math topics in your life/career.
We are collecting practical/hands-on use for the following 10 topics, spread out across Algebra, Trigonometry, Geometry, Calculus, Statistics, and miscellaneous math.
1) Quadratic equations
2) Linear inequalities
3) Shape volume
4) Trapezoids
5) Correlations/Causation
6) ANOVA
7) Derivatives
8) Integration
9) The number pi
10) Prime numbers
- Think you don't need that topic in the real world?
We are also trying to collect any suggestions for commonly misunderstood topics. If you are a student have you encountered a topic you can’t imagine you’d ever need to know in real life? If you are a teacher, are there topics your students consistently ask “why do I need this?”
We JUST started a new section linking some of the websites for these topics, starting with Algebra I. If you have any suggestions for websites that connect these, or other topics, to the “real world” please send the along!
- Do you use and love math?
We’ve already collected a couple of great interviews. Do you have a passion for your job and does your job/career involve using math or statistics in a regular OR creative way? If you are interested in sharing what you do with others, we are looking to obtain interviews for our company. Right now we are only interested in either written or in-person interviews. We are looking for people who can offer something interesting in their responses to engage the reader/listener.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Humor in math&statistics
Part of what makes me (and many others) enjoy their career is
taking part in the humor in and around the topics in our field.
I believe that having the ability to keep your work lighthearted in some
ways makes it more of a community and makes your career choice more fun.
Lawyers have their lawyer jokes, doctors have their doctor jokes, and yes
- mathematicians and statisticians have our (dorky) but silly jokes!
I’ve started making it a habit to post a joke daily (or so) on my
instant messenger status (work communication tool). Although most ignore
it, a few like to try and guess the answer. There’s a wide array of jokes
to choose, ranging from pretty elementary (middle-schoolers would even enjoy)
to those that wouldn’t make any sense unless you had studied pretty advanced
math. For the sake of trying to give a smile to other employees
(non-Statisticians) I try to stick to the basic ones.
Here’s a few from the last couple of weeks.
- What did the acorn say when it grew up?
- Geometry (gee, i’m a tree!)
- What do you call an empty parrot cage?
- Polygon (Polly - gone)
- What do mathematicians have for dessert on Halloween?
- Pumpkin pi
- What did 0 say to 8?
- Nice belt!
- What has 8 eyes and 8 legs?
- 8 pirates!
Similarly I also enjoy some great comics so I’ll just share a few
of my favorites!
I'm running out of good ones so please send some in to share with me :)
Links to more fun:
Monday, September 8, 2014
Insects use math?
Little did you know that not only humans (and computers) can use math! Here are a few interesting examples of math used by BUGS!
1) Bees.
Bees use math?! Think about it - what is the shape of the cells in which they make their honeycomb? In ancient times (36 B.C.) “The Honeybee Conjecture” was proposed to provide a solution to the question of why bees use honeycomb in hexagonal form. It seems that this shape is the most optimal for their honey storage. As the hexagons fit together without space in between, the only other two shapes that could have also fit as such would be squares or equilateral triangles. The smaller the perimeter of the shape, the better for the bees so they can use up less wax - and it turns out hexagons would be the one among those three shape options with smallest perimeter!
2) Ants.
Desert ants survive in open, windy land. Contrary to some ants, they cannot use scent or landmarks to remember how to get home when they leave to find food. Instead they have to use geometry and counting. They can remember how far they are from home by counting steps, and to remember which direction to return to by calculating their path angle against the sun. It’s an incredible amount of work and memory for such a tiny creature!
3) Cicadas.
Why do cicadas exist on a 17-year life cycle? What does the number 17 have as one of it’s properties? Yep, it’s a prime number. This means that other animals (predators!) with life cycles will rarely coincide with their 17-year cycle. For example, if a predator has a 3-year cycle, it will only line up with the cicadas every 3x17=51 years. They also picked a higher prime number so that they don’t emerge very often - this keeps their predator population down (they aren’t around to feed them too often), which keeps them away from extinction.
A lot of other animals use math in their lives, for survival. Maybe a topic to discuss another time :)
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Nate Silver - turning math/stats sexy
If you haven’t already heard of Nate Silver you’re surely missing out on some great analyses and debates. Nate Silver got public recognition due to his spot-on 2012 presidential predictions by selecting the winner of 50 out of 50 states (and 49 out of 50 in 2008). This has helped to increase the awareness about statistics and data analysis more in the public eye.
Previous to his presidential predictions he developed a system to forecast MLB player performance (which he developed in his spare time while working a job he didn’t enjoy). Between baseball and politics he has a true passion to improve the integrity of data analysis practices. In 2009 he also developed a model to predict World Cup outcome (SPI = Soccer Power Index). Nate Silver currently blogs under the fivethirtyeight.com website.
Just a brief summary of some of the fascinating discussions and articles you can find on his website right now. Keep in mind that a lot of his journalism and analyses are on controversial topics (probably gets more readers that way)! Not all of the articles on the fivethirtyeight website are from Nate but he is the founder and editor-in-chief.
International Tourism: The Countries Where You’re Surrounded By Tourists
Intelligent Machines: If A Computer Can Diagnose Cancer, Will Doctors Become Obsolete?
Peak Contentment: What’s The Best Age To Be?
Better Late Than Never: When Should You Show Up To A Party?
Also…..a search for the best burrito in America - Burrito!
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