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Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Cardan
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Southern butter mints---vegan edition

After the last post, we started to be able to see what the fuss was about.  The ones made with twice the butter were the best candy I have ever tasted.  Ever.  So then we started experimenting.  How long do you pull it?  Longer than you think.  And then pull a minute or two after that.  Suddenly every single batch was creaming, pretty much right after we would cut them. I tried adding less than double butter and I think they taste much better (more delicate, according to one taste tester). The latest experiment we did involved using Earth Balance instead of butter.  It cooked pretty much the same as usual, although I was distracted right at the moment I had to pull it off the stove so it cooked maybe a bit longer than usual.  Amanda and I each pulled a quarter, while Luke pulled the bigger half.  Luke's really wasn't turning very fast---perhaps because it was too hot when he took it off the marble.  Mine was turning faster than Amanda's so we traded for a while.  Aman
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More southern butter mints

The last recipe did manage to cream, but after about 2 days.  They were pretty crunchy, and I wonder if I cooked them too long.  But I think we certainly didn't pull them enough. We tried another batch of the same recipe tonight, but this time only made a half recipe.  I took the cool spatula thermometer out of its spatula (leaving just a stick) because it wasn't clear that the temperature measuring bit would be low enough in the liquid to measure.  It turns out that it would have been fine: after adding the butter it bubbles up considerably, but we had forgotten that. I resolved to take the mints off earlier (at 256 or 257) so that it wouldn't get so crunchy, but just at the end the temperature went up and up and up very fast---totally unlike my experience with cooking candy, so I suspect that the thermometer (or the thermometer holder, me) was doing something wrong.  We poured it on the slab and commenced pulling according to directions.  This time we added a few drop
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Southern Butter Mints part 1

Some friends of ours have a granddaughter getting married (and she's a friend of ours as well) and so I agreed to help out with the shower.  Apparently this is to be a "southern" shower, full of tradition and elegance, but not too far over the top. Among things that are needed for a shower are punch with great grandma's punch bowl, sandwiches with cream cheese and green pepper jelly, and southern pulled butter mints.  "Ah, nobody can make those anymore.  We used to know someone, but the tradition needs to be passed down."  Like a fool, I said that I'd be happy to give it a try.  I suffer greatly from "I got a PhD in math, how hard could X be?" where X is something like gardening, or quilting, or cleaning, etc.  It's always harder than I think it will be. "We'll call Mrs. X who makes these, maybe she'll pass down the method.  I hope you don't hate me!"  I was actually planning on doing research online, watching a fe
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Orchestra fun

I was a part of my first orchestra concert yesterday. I've been in a community orchestra for the past 4 months, made up mostly of people who played in high school or college and who want a reason to practice. There are a few of us who picked up the instrument as an adult. I definitely feel like the weak link, but on the other hand I improve every time I play, and the other members and my teacher assure me that my skills are sufficient. Also, playing next to competent musicians helps me to improve and they seem to be tolerant of my sour notes.  My one strength is that having listened to the music we pay for my whole life, I know how the piece is supposed to go, even if I can't get my body to comply. I learned several things about playing in a concert. First, it was long for me to play. It was about 45 minutes of almost constant playing, and just sitting down for that long is unusual for me, not to mention holding up a viola... I kept expecting our director to stop us and tell u
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Puzzling

We just finished a puzzle!  It is a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle titled, "Beautiful Santorini." I got the puzzle in the summer when I heard about a tour going to Greece and kept getting beautiful status updates. We started the puzzle way back after the hurricane in September.  The sky was finished almost immediately after we started---the subtle variations in clouds and colors made it surprisingly easy.  Then we started on the city.  It turns out that little bits of windows, doors, televisions, umbrellas, are actually harder to do than swaths of color.  It took about 2 months to make any significant progress on the rocks and grass around the town, and on the buildings of the town.  That's a long time to be without your coffee table... The best part of putting the puzzle together was finding little scenes that are unnoticeable when looking at the entire puzzle from a distance.  For example, there is a piece with a guy climbing over a wall, or pieces of the two mini-marts, or
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Snow crazy

We got some snow. And now Luke is outside shoveling snow. Off the grass. Into a wheelbarrow. To make a fort. He notes that this is not as crazy as the neighbor who was out riding his bike wearing a swim suit. I suppose I agree.
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