Can you use mathematics to prove that the earth is round? That’s a question we get from time to time, sometimes from people who want to prove the earth is flat, sometimes from people who want to convince their friends otherwise, and sometimes just from students. Let’s think about it. Can we prove it using …
(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 …
We’ve been looking at the math underlying some of the graphs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, starting with exponential growth, and then logistic growth. I want to look in more detail at a feature I mentioned in the first post, viewing a graph logarithmically. This is a powerful technique that goes far beyond a button …
Last time we looked at the meaning of exponential growth, a term commonly used in describing the initial spread of a virus such as the current SARS2 (which causes COVID-19). But exponential growth can’t continue forever, as it would soon exceed the total population. A slightly more complicated model for growth that takes into account …
The term “exponential” has gone viral, so to speak. Do we all know what it means? In the next few posts I’ll look at answers we’ve given to questions about exponential growth and related concepts, some of them about the spread of diseases or rumors. (Disclaimer: I will be writing about the basic math, not …
Having just looked at how to solve oblique triangles, let’s look at a couple “word problems” (applications) involving such triangles. We’ll be using the Law of Sines, and also exploring alternative methods of solution. A tilted tree Let’s start with this real application from 1999: Will the Tree Hit the House? There is a tree …
Last time we looked at solving triangles in the ASA, AAS, SSS, and SAS cases. We have one more case, which tends to be a little more complicated: the “ambiguous case”, SSA. SSA: Two sides and the angle opposite one of them We’ll start with this question from 1998: Triangles and Law of Sines I …
(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! Designing …
(An archive question of the week) Recently we looked at the question of how likely a two-child family with a boy is to have another boy (or, to the contrary, to also have a girl). Searching for those questions turned up another one of interest involving the gender of a pair of siblings: How do …
The last four posts dealt with formulas for finding areas using lengths of sides, starting with the triangle, where that is all you need, and then quadrilaterals, where something more must be added; and then using coordinates of vertices. Now we can use those tools to solve some of the more common real-life problems we …