A few years ago I found an alteration of the logo of the Edmonton Oilers (a Canadian hockey team in the NHL) in which “Oilers” was replaced with “Eulers.” I printed it and hung it outside my office door. Now I can’t find the original, but you can see a scanned copy on the left. I…
Month: November 2010
Google Translate now knows Latin
Yesterday Bruce Petrie (a graduate student studying the history of mathematics) and I were discussing Google Translate. While it is no substitute for a human translator, it is pretty good and getting better. In particular, it is perfect if you need a quick, approximate translation of a language that you do no know or don’t…
An amazing paragraph from Euler’s Introductio
Today I’d like to share an amazing paragraph from Euler’s 1748 textbook Introductio in analysin infinitorum (Introduction to analysis of the infinite). This two–volume book is what Carl Boyer calls “The foremost textbook of modern times,” edging out, for example, Descartes’s Géométrie, Gauss’ Disquisitiones, and Newton’s Principia. Boyer writes that “Euler accomplished for analysis what Euclid…
Odds and ends: the genius of Euler, Bulgarian solitaire, and mathematical surprises
Yesterday I attended the first-ever (as far as we know) joint meeting of the EPaDel (Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware) and New Jersey sections of the MAA. It was held at LaSalle University. I was very happy to see so many familiar faces and to make some new friends. I thought I’d share a few fun…
Top ten transcendental numbers
Everyone loves a top ten list, and what’s better than a top ten list about numbers? (I’m reminded of David Letterman’s top ten numbers between one and ten from September 22, 1989.) So, on the heels of my previous posts about algebraic and transcendental numbers (here and here), here’s my list of the… Top Ten…
David Richeson: Division by Zero 