Sometimes the simplest things make a difference. There is an apparently new technology which allows labels to be printed on the inside back of things (shirts, for example) instead of having tags. This is important to me because now Eleanor knows which way her underwear go without having to ask me. Girls underwear has a definite front and back, but it doesn't have a label, and it isn't obvious to a 5 year old (or an older girl, for that matter) which way it goes. Now with the label on the back, she always knows which way it goes and can get dressed in the morning by herself (always assuming that she doesn't have a case of "the slows"). One wonders what took the clothing industry so long to come up with this.
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 Ca...
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