The game of petals around the rose took Bill Gates 30 minutes to solve. All I can say is that I solved it way faster, in about three minutes. The game is part of a special kind of guessing games, called Look-and-say sequence. Can you solve the following sequence :
1 11 21 1211 111221 312211 13112221 ...
If you use the 'Search' option on your browser to look for articles on Neural Networks or "Connectionism" (which is another name for the same subject), you will find a great many sites explaining what they are and how they work. Unfortunately, they all seem to be written by mathematicians, all of whom speak Double Dutch. This is fine, providing you speak fluent higher mathematics, but when I wanted to find out how they worked, I looked from a programmer's point of view. What if I really wanted to find program source code, would I find any? Here, the idiots guide to neural networks comes to aid.
If the Earth were a sandwhich is a Google Maps appliction showing you were you would emerge if you dig a hole through the Earth. In my case, somewhere around New Zealand.
The Math Atlas is a collection of short articles designed to provide an introduction to the areas of modern mathematics and pointers to further information, as well as answers to some common (or not!) questions. The material is arranged in a hierarchy of disciplines, each with its own index page ("blue pages"), showing you a starting point for a fascinating trip into math.
On October 5, 2001, at the Technische Universität München, Donald Knuth presented a lecture entitled "All Questions Answered". The lecture drew an audience of around 350 people, and this PDF contains the transcript,and is truely worth a read.
Originally trained as a mathematician, Donald Knuth is renowned for his research in computer science, especially the analysis of algorithms. He is a prolific author, with 160 entries in MathSciNet. Knuth is also the creator of the TEX and METAFONT languages for computer typesetting, which have revolutionized the preparation and distribution of technical documents in many fields, including mathematics.
Dropped out of university too early ? Allways wanted a published scientific report with your name on it ? 'Controlling Digital-to-Analog Converters Using Amphibious Theory', 'Studying Forward-Error Correction and Model Checking with BUN' or 'A Case for Wider-Area Networks' are only some of the sounding titles of scientific reports the SCIgen robot can generate for you.
You're a science teacher, and hate the internet for it's ready to pick scientific papers ? You want to know in advance which students are going to deliver impressive reports, generated in a few seconds ? Fear no longer : here's the Inauthentic Paper Detector.
Note : I submitted one of my blog posts to this baby, and it rated my text as being classified as INAUTHENTIC with a 20.5% chance of being authentic text. I've allways known I was a lousy scientist :)
Ready for a trip into the bizarre ? Lifegem takes the ashes of your cremated dearest, and transforms it into a diamond.
Ever heard of octonions ? They're not a new kind of vegetable, but are part of a high dimensional algebra, which is disturbingly fascinating. While reading the introduction, I got the disturbing sense that the author was just making stuff up and seeing if he could get away with it.
But I guess that's the technical definition of "research in mathematics". Truly, it is: the researcher sits or paces, possibly muttering, and then writes. The basic idea is that you come up with an idea and see just how far you can stretch it before it breaks or passes the Hooke's Law limit.
It is important also to stay away from the Hooke's law limit on one's own mind. More coffee and other mind-altering substances have been consumed in the pursuit of mathematics than in all of sysadminnery, it seems...
This page has 5 IQ tests with a very good content. Be prepared, this is not for the weak of mind or the short of time.
Now I am trying the "Test for exceptional intelligence". The crack that authors of this stuff were smoking is so strong that it qualifies under weapons of mass destruction.
To celebrate their 125th anniversary Science is running a series of articles on the 125 Questions of Science. The top 25 each link to an article exploring the subject of the question in depth. Included are such questions as: Are we alone in the Universe? What are the limits of conventional computing? How did cooperative behavior evolve?