"...Mr. Gardner was 42 and had never taken a math course beyond high school. He had struggled with calculus and considered himself poor at solving basic mathematical puzzles, let alone creating them. But when the publisher of Scientific American asked him if there might be enough material for a monthly column on "recreational mathematics," a term that sounded even more oxymoronic in 1956 than it does today, Mr. Gardner took a gamble."

" You are more likely to be friends with someone who has more friends than with someone who has fewer friends. There are 12 people who have a friend who has 12 friends, but there is only one person who has a friend who has only one friend. And, of course, there is no one who has a friend who doesn't have any friend. Yet there is actually only one person who has 12 friends. So "12" gets counted only once when you compute the average number of friends that people have, but it gets counted 12 times when you compute the average number of friends that their friends have. Hence the seeming paradox that your friends have more friends than you do."

"There is plenty of humor, a few movies, some great activities and explorations, and lots of math in Math Teachers at Play 17. Hope you enjoy reading these as much as I did. Thanks to everyone who submitted posts or answered my requests to include their work."

"What's the best way to pick up a mathematician?
It depends on the mathematician. As you would expect, mathematicians vary across the full spectrum of personalities. The stereotypical mathematician is shy, so I wouldn't come on too strong. Buy him or her a drink (or a nice pen and pad of paper). Repeat until they've thawed enough and then simply listen. People like to talk, even if at first they resist, mathematician or not. You could go another direction with the shy and just start off with a little playful dirty talk. Keep it classy but make it sexy and be sure to exude confidence. Sex talk cleverly done via analogy always gets me, especially if she can keep up the wit with a straight face.

• 360


• A Mathematics Study Log with Musings and Views


• BetterExplained


• Casting Out Nines


• Conceptis addict