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ClintonMagus Inner circle Southwestern Southeast 3997 Posts |
For an advanced math class in college, my daughter is required to write a series of reviews of periodical articles about the relationship between mathematics and "everyday life". She is struggling to find articles that are interesting to her, so I thought I would come here and see whether any of you know of any such articles in any publication (not necessarily magic ones) that deal with the mathematics of magic, including card tricks, magic squares, etc., that are interesting and worthy of such a review.
We would also appreciate recommendations on periodical non-magic mathematical topics that would be less dry than the mathematics periodicals. The first thing that comes to mind are Martin Gardner's columns in Scientific American, but I haven't seen this column for many years. I would even be willing to locate back issues for something particularly interesting.
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Bob1Dog Inner circle Wife: It's me or this houseful of 1159 Posts |
Are books permitted if they relate? Magical Mathematics, written by Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham relates directly to what you're looking for. I have the book, but haven't read it (except for a few chapters, because it's delves into some pretty sophisticated math, at least beyond my poor ability to grasp. Each chapter could almost equate to a magazine article.
It'd be a shame if you couldn't use this as a resource. Just tryin' to help. Good luck.
What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?
My neighbor rang my doorbell at 2:30 a.m. this morning, can you believe that, 2:30 a.m.!? Lucky for him I was still up playing my drums. |
Slide Special user 533 Posts |
What about http://www.amazon.com/Magical-Mathematic......91151644
Persi Diaconis's book on Magical Mathematics? |
Slide Special user 533 Posts |
Opps Bob beat me to it.
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Bob1Dog Inner circle Wife: It's me or this houseful of 1159 Posts |
Sorry about that... but at least you gave him the link
What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?
My neighbor rang my doorbell at 2:30 a.m. this morning, can you believe that, 2:30 a.m.!? Lucky for him I was still up playing my drums. |
ClintonMagus Inner circle Southwestern Southeast 3997 Posts |
Thanks, but it has to be periodicals.
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landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
Clinton, this is not card magic related, but with the tsunami of standardized testing going on, there are a number of articles in periodicals which are examining the mathematical (non) validity of such tests. She might find that an interesting and useful application of math in everyday math.
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
ClintonMagus Inner circle Southwestern Southeast 3997 Posts |
Landmark, that might be good. Which periodicals?
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MobilityBundle Regular user Las Vegas/Boston 120 Posts |
A few ideas:
1. Re Diaconis's book: she can do what any good academic does -- ignore the book, and head straight for the bibliography. I just quickly skimmed through it, and there are plenty of citations to journals. 2. I realize I'm committing a bit of a sin by "un-asking" the question, but there might be a few compelling areas of mathematics that would interest her and bear on everyday life. Can you tell us anything about her or her interests? Even just shooting in the dark: a. Cryptography. Privacy is in the news a lot these days, so perhaps she can write a survey of some of the more popular cryptography methods out there. A popular one, the RSA algorithm, is widely used in e-commerce, but is relatively straightforward mathematically. Insofar as the RSA algorithm (and most other modern cryptosystems) rely on the fact that it's difficult to factor numbers, one could even write a survey on factorization methods, which can be quite mathematically intricate. If one were so motivated, one could even discuss quantum algorithms (like Shor's algorithm) that can factor numbers very quickly... if only one had a working quantum computer. That's a little more complicated, but appropriate for a junior/senior math major in college. Or, flipping it a little... b. One could discuss the mathematical paradigm of quantum computers, which are big in the news these days. There are a handful of relatively simple quantum algorithms that would make a nice survey: Shor's factorization algorithm and Grover's search algorithm come to mind. (Grover's algorithm is actually kind of magical, but I'll resist providing further details just yet.) c. Search engines, or specifically Google's PageRank algorithm. Gotta go back to work, but... there's more. |
landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
Clint, here is a link to a good overview of the subject pro and con. On the left you'll see links to footnotes which will lead you to other sources in the popular press and Internet.
http://standardizedtests.procon.org/
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
Magnus Eisengrim Inner circle Sulla placed heads on 1053 Posts |
Is she looking for popular periodicals or scholarly journals?
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.--Yeats |
ClintonMagus Inner circle Southwestern Southeast 3997 Posts |
Quote:
On 2013-09-20 16:33, Magnus Eisengrim wrote: Doesn't really matter. So far she has been using Mathematics Magazine. There also used to be a Journal of Recreational Mathematics. She has done one report on Boggle and one on Knots and Doodles, but if we could find a couple of popular, more mainstream ones, that would be good. She has a wide range of interests, but this has been more like "What do I see that sounds interesting?". She tends to not like the dry, theoretical stuff, saying it is too much like the rest of the class. The idea about looking in the Diaconis bibliography is a good one.
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