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The Agile Mathematician Chen Jingrun

Jun 10, 2009 Post a comment

I am not familiar with his

work, but I found the story
of Chen Jingrun (1933-
1996) fascinating. He
graduated from Xiamen
University in 1953 and
ABO
became a researcher at
Colin
the Chinese Academy of Malay
Sciences. His work led to View m
Comm
progress in analytic lecture
number theory. His in this
Chen_Jingrun opinio
Chinese home page is at busine
way.
the Chinese Institute of Mathematics. A short biography "A great mathematician Chen
Se
Jingrun" is on http://city.chinaassistor.com/. His 1966 paper was on ""On the
representation of a large even integer as the sum of a prime and the product of at most Links

Bo
two primes". The cultural revolution put a halt to research, so Chen's 1966 Theorem was
Id
not made public until 1973. His work continues to be relevant to recent research in number
St

theory. Mathematician Jason Dyer reports on "Carnival of Mathematics #43" in the blog
Li

No
"The Number Warrior". He explains why 47 is a Chen prime and 43 isn't. He also
introduces Roth’s theorem, linking to a paper "Restriction theory of the Selberg sieve, with
MY G
applications" by Ben Green and Terence Tao, which is available as a free PDF file or
PostScript file from arXiv.org. There is a telling anecdote about Chen Jingrun at
"Extraordinary Chinese Sayings, 1840-1999 - Part 1", from the book Extraordinary Sayings
(非常道) by Yu Shicun (余世存). During the Cultural Revolution, the people criticizing Chen
Jingrun (陈景润) said: "Let the Goldbach conjecture go to hell! What is so big deal about
1+2? Isn't 1+2 equal to 3? You eat the food grown by peasants, you live in a house built by
workers, you are protected by the People's Liberation Army and your wages are paid by
the nation so that you can study 1+2. What is this? This is fake science!" So Chen jumped
on the table, went through the open window and leapt downwards. But when he jumped
NEIG
out of the third-floor window, he was nicked by an awning and therefore only suffered
some scratches on his leg when he landed on the ground. A rebel leader looked at Chen
and said: "It is no wonder that you are a famous mathematician. You even know how to
select the angle when you jump out of the window!"

Post a comment Tags: math, mathematics, china, theory, prime, maths, number, conjecture …

Explor
Century Old Topology Problem Solved in 2006 family
Jun 8, 2009 Post a comment

In case you missed the solution of the century

TAG
old Poincaré conjecture in 2006, I'll repost a link
to the New York Times article "Elusive Proof, borne
Elusive Prover: A New Mathematical Mystery". edu
interne
The story of the brilliant Russian mathematician
mat
Grigory Perelman (photograph) who identified
motorc
the solution in 2003 is as mysterious as
irela
Poincaré's problem. Wikipedia describes the phys
"Solution of the Poincaré conjecture", for non-
sara
mathematician, explaining the problem with seas
Grigori_Perelman doughnuts, balls, a cigar and even mozzarella softwa

cheese that is stretched to represent Ricci flow,

the method of solution. For further reading, there is a repository of original material here
ARC
"Notes and commentary on Perelman's Ricci flow papers".

Jun

Post a comment Tags: mathematics, geometry, topology
Ma

Ap

Ma

A New Game to Help Children Learn
Feb

Mathematics
200
Jun 6, 2009 Post a comment

200

I reviewed the prototype of a web based SUB

graphical game that aims to help children learn
Su
mathematics. It was developed by Mr Veljko po

Sekelj, a freelance Internet consultant (LinkedIn Power

profile). He invited me, via the "Math, Math Theme
Education, Math Culture" discussion group on Gardn

LinkedIn.com, to try out the game and I was Us

Prototype_Mathematics_Game
quite impressed. At first I couldn't understand its
intuitive interface, because I am an adult accustomed to pull down menus and tabbed
panes. The game aims to help children associate fractions with percentages. A cartoon Live
Santa Clause introduces a snow scene with a group of identical parcels that contain either
a fraction or a percentage. It is operated using the mouse, and the goal is to pair up
matches, for example 1/3 and 33%, which pop out of the boxes. There are no instructions,
but the game would be quite intuitive to children, though perhaps not to less inquisitive
adults. It needs to be made more international, with alternative themes, as the snow scene
The Trouble With
would not be familiar to children in the tropics. Use of red or green colouring to indicate
Physics: T...
by Lee Smolin
wrong and right selections might be a problem for someone who is colour blind. I was
delighted to get all the correct answers, but I was greeted by a cartoon character in tears
New Europe
of distress, with a sign telling me in German that I was “Zu Langsam!” orby“Too Slow!”.
Michael Palin The

game is at the prototype stage, so I hope that the feedback is made more constructive.
The game is online at http://www.lernmathe.com/, where you may try it Blogging
out for yourself or
by Jill Walker Rettberg
with your children. The author would be glad to hear your feedback. He is also seeking
funding for developing the game. His development project "Innovating the way how
children learn math" and "Contact Me" link, is at Kickstarter.com. Kickstarter.com is a new
way for people in the USA to seek funding for ideas and endeavours. Read the Kickstarter
FAQ to find out more about how it works.

Post a comment Tags: math, mathematics, flash, software, education, maths

Let Creativity Flourish at Work and University

May 21, 2009 Post a comment

I recently responded to a survey by creativity

trainer, Karen Sieczka, who blogs at GROWING
GREAT IDEAS. She created the survey on
creativity at work to collect research for an
update to her book Growing Great Ideas:
Unleashing Creativity at Work. The survey was
useful to me, as it gave me a few minutes to
think about creativity from the perspective of a
university lecturer. I share my answers to the
survey at The Hub. If you intend to do the
Growing_Great_Ideas survey, please complete it before reading my
answers. The Hub for Productive Thinking is a
new social network, that I found on Ning.com, for exchange of ideas on productive thinking
and other creativity models, tools and techniques.

Post a comment Tags: business, training, creativity, education, innovation

Thoughts About Creating A Mathematics Social

Network
May 14, 2009 1 comment

Are you thinking about creating a new social

network for discussing mathematics? That
would be a responsible undertaking, and you
would need to have sufficient time and energy
to make the commitment. If you are too busy,
there are existing social networks for
mathematics that you can join. I discuss some
of the considerations below.
BoundedArea
Websites like Vox.com and Ning.com
enable you to create and manage your own social network. Ease of use is the advantage
of Ning as a TechCrunch article describes. If you need more control and are willing to write
HTML and do some programming, a more ambitious alternative would be to host your own
website. Another approach would be to use a Content Management System (CMS) to
provide the framework.

Creating and maintaining a social network would be a significant project, so find

some friends who share your research or teaching interests. Before you begin, make sure
that you understand each other's goals, motives and responsibilities. If the social network
is just an academic experiment, then say so. Make this especially clear to any users who
sign on. You will have to overhaul or disconnect your website at some time in the future.
Plan for that in advance so that you don't upset your users when you turn off the lights. If
you are creating the website for a business or organisation, there will be other
considerations that are beyond the scope of this article.

Creating a mathematics discussion group within an existing social network is a less

demanding approach than starting a new social network. Choose what type of discussions
you hope for:

Students looking for help with their homework

Teachers discussing science or mathematics education

Research news

People asking questions which interest them

I host the "Mirimatics" mathematics discussion group on Friendster.com. I chose not to

make it a forum for solving mathematical problems. Rather, I write short posts about recent
mathematics news, with links to articles that give further explanation or background.
Unfortunately, it was not successful; nobody else contributed any articles or comments.
You will need to figure out the secret of marketing your forum, so that you avoid the same
fate.

The most successful topics originate from questions initiated by members. I noticed
this on my Sarawak Science group on Friendster. It is not necessary that you create a new
social network for this type of discussion, as there are plenty of "ask a scientist" or
Ask.com style websites.

Sometimes a blog is the best platform for discussing mathematics topics. It is the
personal character of the author that makes it interesting. A good example is the Redneck
Math blog, which combines mathematical theory with storytelling. Interactive content is
also important, for example a number guessing exercise on the Programaths website. The
blog Teaching Math Creatively is a fine expression of mathematics teaching, which makes
good use of photographs. Posting photographs of the classroom whiteboard is a good
technique, as it's easier to solve problem on a whiteboard than on a word processor. An
advantage of a blog is that anyone on the Internet can read it, whereas users must register
in order to see articles on a social network. The Vox.com service as reviewed at cnet news
provides an innovative blend of blogging and social networking features. This article, for
example is on both my blog and in the Mathematics group at Vox.com.

There are also good professional forums where you can discuss mathematics,
such as "Math, Math Education, Math Culture" on LinkedIn.com and
"Mathematics/Mathematik" on Xing.com.

The online service Ning.com allows you to create and manage your own social
network. A disadvantage of Ning is that the PHP source code is not available to the
administrators, so they have limited control over their social network. On a self hosted site,
the administrator has full control, and a choice of scripting languages. Python and Java are
powerful languages for encoding interactive demos and simulations, but they might not be
supported on all hosting services.

Web surfers are expecting more multimedia content today, and that takes a lot of
work to produce. Even a simple Powerpoint presentation requires a surprising amount of
creative effort. Sometimes you can burn the candle at both ends to meet a deadline, but
that is not sustainable for maintaining an online forum. As a social network grows, the
administrator will need to stay focused on managing the site, and encourage other
volunteers generate the content.

Due to limited time, I decided not to create a new social network, but to contribute
articles to an existing social network, http://mathematics24x7.ning.com/. I created a blog
there, where I can post topical articles that relate to the interests of the readers. Articles in
Friendster groups are in plain text, which is not very attractive for online education. I
enhanced one of my solutions from Friendster, by using a spreadsheet to draw a graph. I
posted the article as “Using a Spreadsheet to Check a Calculus Problem” on
mathematics24x7, and included a screenshot of the spreadsheet application.

Online mathematical articles may be enhanced by using multimedia features, such as:

Attaching a screenshot or plot from a mathematics software package.

Use LaTeX markup or MathML fonts to display mathematical formulae correctly.

Interactive graphics that permits the viewer to adjust parameters with the mouse,
and view the changes in the geometry.

A video or slide show demonstrating the steps of using a spreadsheet.

Audio narrative which is present in the class room but is usually absent on the web.

Those enhancements would involve a lot of production work: in programming, graphic

design and commentary. Conversely, students who want help with their homework seek
quick and terse solutions, on mathematics discussion groups, as found on Orkut.com and
Friendster.com.

In conclusion, if you want to discuss mathematics online, I suggest that you start a
blog, or create a discussion group on an existing social network. If you are motivated and
have enough free time, go ahead and start a new social network, but ask some friends to
help you, and agree on your goals before you go online.

This article sprang from discussions that I had with some online contacts on
Facebook. I thank Christian (website) and Monica (blog) for participating in that discussion.

1 comment Tags: mathematics, science, social networking, social-networking, education,

socialnetworking, friendster, ning …

Openness and Social Networking

May 6, 2009 Post a comment

I have just given a presentation about social

networking at UNIMAS and thank the staff there
for a warm reception. I explored openness in
social networking, business communications
and cloud computing. The Powerpoint
presentation
OpennessAndSocialNetworking.ppt is on
OpennessFrontSlide
Slideshare.net for anyone who is interested. A
PDF version of the slide show is on Scribd.com.
For a more detailed discussion, I refer you to UseCloudGetClue.pdf on Scribd.com, as I
noted in my September 2008 post on Vox.com. Through my presentation and discussion
paper, I have appealed for more openness and try to justify my arguments by exploration
of a variety of online services, and by drawing attention of the adverse consequences of a
lack of openness. I quote United Nations' Article 19, and summarise the unjust treatment of
bloggers, journalists, activists and others in countries that do not respect it.

Post a comment Tags: web20, technology, social networking, social-networking, open source,
socialnetworking, computing, freedom …

Software Development: The Six Ls

Apr 11, 2009 Post a comment

The essence of journalism

was expressed succinctly
by Rudyard Kipling's Five
Ws and one H. Can we
reduce the profession of
programming computers to
such a simple formula?
Here is my attempt at the
Six Ls of Software
Development:

Legitimate? Does the

Software_Development proposed software meet
the legitimate needs of the
users, or would it remove any liberties that we have? An early answer to this
question will help prevent the project being abandoned later.

Life Cycle? Is the project life cycle being managed in a methodical way? A Waterfall
or Agile method can be adapted to the needs of your development team.

Length of Time? How long will the project take to develop? Fred Brookes' 1975
book: "The Mythical Man-Month" is essential reading on this point.

Layers? A layered architecture will help you to design software that will be flexible,
secure and cost effective over decades of use and reuse.

Language? Choose a programming language according to the need for portability,
or efficiency, or ease of development.

Licence? Your choice of an Open Source or Closed Source software licence will
involve more passion and consequence than I can describe in this short space.

I omit "Lines of Code" as a concern in the 21st Century, as that measurement had more
value when programs were stored on punched-cards. There is nothing magical about the
letter L, or about the number of bullet points, so I do not claim that my list captures the
essence of professional computer programming. Your comments are welcome.

Post a comment Tags: development, technology, programming, software, project, system,

engineering …

Science and Sci-Fi Social Networks on Ning

Apr 7, 2009 Post a comment

Looking for an alternative science forum to

match your interests? Here is one online
community, that I discovered today, about
astronomy and space exploration:
"PlanetSpace" on Ning.com. If you are
interested in Science Fiction rather than science
fact, then check out "Space Age Magazine" on
Ning. Ning is an online service that you can use
to easily create your own social network. You
could build a community there to discuss any
DiscussionGroup topic of your choice. An article "Ning In Full" at
TechCrunch.com gives a good overview of the
service. Another review "Ning's Infinite Ambition" at FastCompany.com describes how you
can use viral marketing to increase interest in your ideas or business. The domain
Ning.com provides an umbrella for many small social networks. When you sign up, it is
easy to explore and join other user-created forums. Ning was co-founded by Marc
Andreessen, who also co-founded Netscape. I thank a contributor (Deborah) of the
Distance Learning and Distance Education group on Xing.com (that's Xing, not Ning) for
alerting me to the relevance of Ning as a platform for science discussions.

Post a comment Tags: scifi, science, space, social networking, education, forum, planet, ning …

Discussions about Insects on a Friendster

Science Group
Mar 8, 2009 1 comment

I photographed this dragonfly today; a delicate

looking animal, but deadly to its prey. I invite
you to participate in INSECT WEEK on the
Sarawak Science group at Friendster.com.
What news have you heard about insects and
their role in the environment? Have you seen
any unusual insects or bugs recently? A
Zoologist posted the informative topic "Why
DragonflyInSarawak
insect?"; thank you Phormia. Discussions
include: The Common Blue Damselfly, Why
insect?, The Devastating Effects of Pesticides on Marine Life, New Insect Order
Mantophasmatodea Discovered, and A Facebook Cause for Western Honey Bees. I am
not a biologist, but simply refer to insecteresting discoveries that I noticed on science
related web sites.

1 comment Tags: insect, biology, ecology, environment, entomology, pesticide, sarawak, zoology …

How (Not) To Advise on a Homework Question

Feb 23, 2009 Post a comment

If you respond to a homework question on a

 forum, provide a hint, but do not tell the answer.
People learn by doing, not by being told the
solution. As a Physicist, needing to sharpen my
maths skills, I attempted to advise on the
following question on the Friendster.com group
"ELITE MATH CIRCLE":

STUDENTS QUESTION: monkey business...

(integral Calculus)
A 5-lbs monkey is attached to the end of a 30-ft
hanging chain that weighs 0.2 lb/ft. It climbs the
Crab Eating Macaque
chain to the top. How much work does it do?

MY FIRST REPLY: Drawing a diagram of the before and after situations would help you
with this one. Can you imagine how to convert it into a simpler problem, involving a 30ft
rod that is hinged at the centre point? On your diagrams, mark the centre point (7.5ft) of
both 15ft sections. (This is just a hint which should help you solve the problem yourself).

Everyone makes mistakes, so it is helpful to take a break and review your answer later. Or,
have someone else review it; that is what online forums are good for. On review, I noticed
that I needed to correct my first answer, as follows:

MY SECOND REPLY: On reflection, I believe that I have given you the wrong solution. I
answered as a Physicist, trained to identify the simplest model before solving the problem.
From your title (integral Calculus), it is clear that your teacher requires you to use the
process of integration in solving this problem. Choose a variable for the monkey's position,
relative to the starting point. Since this is a 1-dimensional problem, you can use 'x', even
though the monkey is moving vertically. What is the formula for the mass of the portion of
chain that the monkey is carrying, as a function of x? What is the formula for the position of
the centre-of-gravity of that mass of chain as a function of x? Next, express the equation
which needs to be integrated. Then do the integration according to the rule that you have
been taught.

Education can be fun, and both tutors and students can learn from the exercise. From this
exercise, I learned: That it is important to read the question, as I overlooked the important
word 'integral' in the title. I also learned that Physicists should avoid online mathematics
forums, and leave them to the Mathematicians.

Post a comment Tags: teaching, mathematics, integration, physics, education, distance education,
elearning, tuition …

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