Beginning, muddle, and, uh... yeah.

One of the problems with blogging is that you actually need to know what you want to say. In trying to write blog entries, I have found that I can almost always come up with a beginning or a title. Then I usually find out that I didn't really have that much to say about the topic, and it goes to my long list of unfinished blog entries.

Even if I do have something important to say, I really have a hard time ending it. I can never come up with the correct bang! I almost always leave with some sort of whimper. I have more sympathy for the pastors who keep talking a good 15 minutes after they should have stopped---it's much easier to see from the oustide that you should stop talking.

This is the reason I started writing blogs, though. Perhaps I will eventually learn. Until then, you all have my permission to stop reading each entry as soon as it starts getting pointless and boring.

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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

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

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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