NQOTW

Angle Between Vectors: A Tricky Problem

A new question of the week We haven’t done much with vectors here, though there have been many problems of that sort lately. Let’s look at a recent question that touches on the basics, yet is by no means a simple problem.

Invariants for a State Machine

(A new question of the week) Although we focus in this blog on questions at early college level and below, we do get questions at higher levels. This one deals with finding an invariant for a finite state machine, with possible movements of a robot as the example.

Reading Pandemic Graphs

(A new question of the week) Having just discussed several mathematical topics that lie behind the various graphs we have seen in the news lately, I want to depart from our usual style and answer my own current questions. We’ll look at several graphs of COVID-19’s growth and think about what we can learn from …

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Making a Sphere from Flat Material

(A new question of the week) A recent question asking how to make a sphere out of flat material called for a look at an old question on the same topic, and some new ideas, including thoughts about approximation. And we actually get to see the physical result of our assistance, which is rare!

Supply, Demand, and Proportion

(A new question of the week) Since we looked at a question about economics last week, let’s examine another, which is very different, relating the supply and demand curves to the concept of variation or proportion. We are not economists, so we can’t go deeply into that subject, but it makes us think about some …

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