That Fibonacci guy was really on to something here!!
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Largest Primes
List of First 10,000 Primes
http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/math/prime/mersenne.html#M43112609
The prime number discussed in the following video was the largest known as of January 25, 2013. Since then three more larger primes have been discovered, see updates below the video.
Watch from 1:30 to 12:45
UPDATE - The newest, largest Mersenne prime as of October 10, 2017 was discovered on January 7 of 2016. It can be found at this link: http://www.mersenne.org/primes/?press=M74207281
This find was announced also in the New York Times (which can be a little more fun to read than a math site). That article can be found here http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/science/new-biggest-prime-number-mersenne-primes.html?_r=0
Also, here's a video about that one:
************************************
NEWER UPDATE - The above (and one other) was surpassed on December, 21 2018:
The largest known prime number (as of December 21, 2019) is 282,589,933 − 1, a number with 24,862,048 digits. It was found by Patrick Laroche of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) in 2018
NPR Announcement: https://www.npr.org/2018/12/21/679207604/the-world-has-a-new-largest-known-prime-number
ET Phone Us!
The Arecibo message pictured above was beamed into space via frequency modulated radio waves at a ceremony to mark the remodeling of the Arecibo radio telescope on 16 November 1974. It was aimed at the globular star cluster M13 some 25,000 light years away. The message consisted of 1679 binary digits.
The cardinality of 1679 was chosen because it is a semiprime (the product of two prime numbers), to be arranged rectangularly as 73 rows by 23 columns. The alternative arrangement, 23 rows by 73 columns, produces jumbled nonsense.
For more information about this message see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message
Just a thought - any concerns about us having broadcast our location in this way? Any concerns that this was as decision made by a few scientists and not by the whole human community?
Question: What is the content of the following simpler message?
101101111101101
MENGER SPONGE - CALVIN AND CAMBRIDGE
The pictures of the Menger Sponge above were taken at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. The picture below is a view from a student common room at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University, UK. You can see a Menger Sponge through the window in a different area of the centre. Both these institutions of higher learning took part in the Mega Menger project - a world-wide event in which people all over the globe built Menger Sponges. If you want to learn more about the project and see a map of all the places in the world where these were built, click on this link.
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
In Search of Mayan Mathematics
OR
MAYBE THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS!
MAYBE THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS!
(Working link Fall 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fcaXmpZydI)
WHERE'S THE KABOOM?!
THERE'S SUPPOSED TO BE AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM!
THE ELUDIUM Q36 EXPLOSIVE SPACE MODULATOR!
THE EARTH CREATURE HAS STOLEN IT!
THERE'S SUPPOSED TO BE AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM!
THE ELUDIUM Q36 EXPLOSIVE SPACE MODULATOR!
THE EARTH CREATURE HAS STOLEN IT!
Monday, October 7, 2019
Rosetta Stone
Knowledge of how to read and write Egyptian Hieroglyphics had been forgotten since shortly before the time of the fall of the Roman Empire. It was the finding of the Rosetta Stone (a piece of what had been a "stele" engraved with a decree) that allowed Egyptian Hieroglyphics to be deciphered.
The stone was discovered in 1799 by a soldier in Napoleon's army. When Napoleon went on campaign in Egypt he brought scientists with him, and they recognized the importance of this find. The stone had an inscription written in three languages: Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Demotic Text (also called "ancient cursive Coptic"), and Ancient Greek. The Ancient Greek language was known (in fact until a couple of decades ago any truly educated person learned Ancient Greek and also Latin). The fact that these three languages were expressing the same decree and that one of them was well-understood became the key to unlocking knowledge and understanding that had been lost for more than a thousand years.
Here is the stone, which is now housed in the British Museum in London:
The stone was discovered in 1799 by a soldier in Napoleon's army. When Napoleon went on campaign in Egypt he brought scientists with him, and they recognized the importance of this find. The stone had an inscription written in three languages: Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Demotic Text (also called "ancient cursive Coptic"), and Ancient Greek. The Ancient Greek language was known (in fact until a couple of decades ago any truly educated person learned Ancient Greek and also Latin). The fact that these three languages were expressing the same decree and that one of them was well-understood became the key to unlocking knowledge and understanding that had been lost for more than a thousand years.
Here is the stone, which is now housed in the British Museum in London:
And here I am looking at the stone in 2003 when I had opportunity to travel to England. Of all the things in London that there were to see, this was definitely on my "Top Ten" list!
POST SCRIPT: Since that 2003 trip I have taken an additional trip to London in 2016, and I went back to see the Rosetta Stone again, because it's just that awesome. Here are some pictures a bit closer up:
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