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ocfnash

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http://olivernash.org

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rongoodwin.co.uk 6mo ago

The Homepage of Ron Goodwin

ocfnash
4pts1
www.renaissancephilanthropy.org 9mo ago

Kevin Buzzard and Alex Kontorovich on the Future of Formal Mathematics

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2pts0
github.com 1y ago

OpenAI claiming gold medal standard at IMO 2025

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deepmind.google 1y ago

AI solves International Math Olympiad problems at silver medal level

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1370pts525
jesse-michael-han.github.io 5y ago

Building geometry solvers for the IMO Grand Challenge

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www.unisonweb.org 6y ago

The Unison language

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xenaproject.wordpress.com 6y ago

Rigorous Mathematics

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statweb.stanford.edu 6y ago

Stein's Paradox: better than average estimation [pdf]

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bit-player.org 6y ago

Fractalize That

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understandinguncertainty.org 6y ago

David Spiegelhalter's Cambridge Coincidences

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en.wikipedia.org 6y ago

Abraham–Minkowski Controversy

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www.theregister.co.uk 7y ago

Vulnerabilities in Medtronic's implanted heart defibrillators

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1pts0
www.simonsfoundation.org 7y ago

Gravitational Wave Detections Will Settle Hubble Constant Conundrum

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warisboring.com 7y ago

The Scientists Who Pee Plutonium

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www.math.ucla.edu 7y ago

QED – an interactive textbook

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johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com 8y ago

Random Points on a Sphere (Part 2)

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nicknash.me 8y ago

Penetrating the abstract CPU model: Intel store-buffer capacity is measurable

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github.com 8y ago

Tools for converting Python code to AWS Step Function JSON

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www.abelprize.no 8y ago

Abel Prize 2018 awarded to Robert P. Langlands [pdf]

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www.simonsfoundation.org 8y ago

New Universe Simulation Makes Predictions About Cosmological Structures

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retractionwatch.com 8y ago

Editors-in-chief of math journal resign over controversial paper

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mathoverflow.net 8y ago

Tweetable Mathematics

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olivernash.org 8y ago

Visualising International Math Olympiad Results

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olivernash.org 11y ago

Security Theatre at Allied Irish Banks (details)

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github.com 11y ago

Security Theatre at Allied Irish Banks

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ocfnash.wordpress.com 12y ago

Mining Strava's cycling data

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ocfnash.wordpress.com 12y ago

Free DNA-based iOS game for 23andMe customers.

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www.americanscientist.org 12y ago

The genetic code and the unreasonable ineffectiveness of mathematics.

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Thank you for sharing these memories.

I'd be very interested to hear any thoughts you might have about Jung Chang's book "Wild Swans".

I read this book a year or two ago and learned a lot from it, but I also learned that many people who grew up in China take issue with the author's account. I'd be grateful for any remarks you may be able to share.

The Dome (2005) 2 years ago

I think it is worth comparing this problem with the question of the behaviour of a particle placed at the apex of a cone. I claim it is clear that in this case, the problem is clearly not well-posed because the apex is a singular point: the slope at the apex is undefined. The singular nature of the slope (first derivative) is the issue.

This "dome" is essentially the same issue just with the singularity buried one level deeper: you need to take second derivatives to see it. Indeed a planar cross section containing the vertical axis through its center is a graph of the equation $y^2 = |x|^3$ (up to constants) and this is not twice differentiable at $x = y = 0$. Newtonian mechanics is governed by a second order differential equation, so we need a C^2 regularity assumption to get uniqueness.

So for me there is not really any more philosophically interesting than the question about a particle balancing at the apex of a cone.

Note that this argument does not depend on the fact that the blue rectangle also has equal area.

This argument thus teaches us even more, namely: the configuration of the four equal-area rectangles orange, yellow, green, pink has the special property that if you widen it to get a square, the extra piece you add also has equal area.

I salute your intention to find the silver lining but my experience reading patents is that they are hard to read. I believe this is because their job is not to convey information but rather to fulfill a legal requirement. I also believe that less restriction of these "inventions" would lead to a greater proliferation of truly useful explanations. No doubt there are exceptions but this has been my experience.

Weirdly, I was just sent this same blog post a few days ago. I guess it’s doing the rounds. I’ll repeat what I said to my friend who sent it.

Ramanujan was of course an extremely talented mathematician but IMHO, there is an unnecessary cult of mystery about him. In particular, there is no mystery as to where this formula comes from: it is obtained from applying a standard technique to a standard formula. Also, it is just one instance, I’ll call it the “k = 6” instance, of a family of such formulae and I’m near-certain the “k = 2” case was known before Ramanujan (on phone or would double check).

In any case, the standard formula is just the series expansion for: n! / sqrt{2πn} (n/e)^n and the standard technique is to raise both sides of a series expansion to some power, k say, multiply out one side, and then take k-th roots again.

In this case we just need to calculate: (1 + 1/12n + 1/288n^2 - 139/51840n^3 + O(1/n^4))^6 = 1 + 1/2n + 1/8n^2 + 1/240n^3 + O(1/n^4)

After taking the 6th root again we multiply inside by 8n^3 (from the LHS) and you get Ramanujan’s formula.

You lucky thing! My wife and I visited Réunion in 2019 and absolutely loved it.

One thing that struck us was just how much it felt like what it is: a piece of France in the tropics. We had just come from Mauritius which felt quite remote but arriving in Réunion suddenly felt like we were back in Europe.

I interpret this as a simple thinko, not unlike the expression "I could care less". As Al Yankovic says:

'Like "I could care less", That means you do care, At least a little'