Mathematics
The link between mathematics and music has always been there - our ears hear in frequencies and even before those frequencies were known in physics terms, ancient philosopher-scientists had determined that the language of math linked areas as remote as planetary motion and harmony. "There is music in the spacing of the spheres," wrote Pythagoras. The Pythagoreans didn't have irrational numbers, negative numbers or even a zero but they didn't need those for their kind of symbolism.
The beauty of music led lots of people to understand math. Every guitar player learns the circle of fifths…
In a pinch and need to go back in time or flee to Alpha Centauri in a hurry? Find a mathematician, quick!
If only Einstein's theory of special relativity were extended to work beyond the speed of light, things would be easy. But of course Einstein's theory holds that nothing could move faster than the speed of light. Special Relativity was published in 1905 and explained how motion and speed is always relative to the observer's frame of reference. The theory connects measurements of the same physical incident viewed from these different points in a way that depends on the…
Leaves store carbon. In the spring, leaves soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, converting the gas into organic carbon compounds, and then in the autumn, trees shed those leaves, which decompose in the soil as they are eaten by microbes. Over time, decaying leaves release carbon back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
That natural decay of organic carbon contributes more than 90 percent of the yearly carbon dioxide released into Earth's atmosphere and oceans. Understanding how leaves decay can help scientists predict this global flux of carbon dioxide and thus develop better…
Biologists of the coming decade are going to need to know a whole lot of physics, math and statistics. Everyone is going to need to do more math, really. The days when it was just a language science used here and there is long gone.
A new project is getting a head start in that cultural merger and wants to wed maths and bioscience in the classroom. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is calling on its research community to submit examples of mathematics in their research which can then be developed into classroom resources. The new project aims to inspire young…
amorca |
A team of Portuguese researchers have developed amathematical tool that can classify any region in the world according to itspattern of development into one of 5 types - each with specific characteristicsand predictable behaviours - that call for different interventions and policymeasures. The discovery, just out inNature’s Scientific Reports, representsa major step towards a new type of city planning - objective and, mostimportantly, independent of the personalvisions, interests and ever changing politics .
Jorge M. Pacheco, one of the scientists involved in the…
amorca |
A version of this article with less scientific details (so easier to read) can be found here.
A team of Portuguese researchers have developed a mathematical tool that can classify any region in the world according to its pattern of development into one of 5 types, each with specific characteristics and predictable behaviours that call for different interventions and policy measures. The discovery, just out in Nature’s Scientific Reports, represents a major step towards a new type to city planning - objective and most importantly, independent of personal visions, interests and…
Physicists doing economics has gotten a bad rap - a practically worldwide recession will do that - but it's no reason to give up, especially if you are of the world view that redistributing wealth is better than a free market.
Models designed to represent taxation and wealth redistribution could be adjusted to create a target level of wealth distribution, according to mathematical physicists from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy.
Maria Letizia Bertotti and Giovanni Modanese propose a mechanism of individual interaction of economic agents involved in wealth redistribution on a…
If you want to understand the larger spatial patterns and timing of drought in the arid and semiarid areas of the American West, you will need to look at tree ring and oxygen isotope data.
Estimates of past precipitation are made from proxies like tree rings, which can record amounts of precipitation and temperature. But tree rings are better at recording what happens during the spring and summer, when the tree is growing, than in the winter when the tree is not. To people outside science, the fact that they do not provide the same information on past precipitation is a concern, but…
Mathematics is a fundamental code of Universe.It definitely connects the nature. But the present system of mathematics may be modified.The reason is---- Man created a language called mathematics which must be in synchronization with physical world(we can say physics). He made a system to represent physical things like two chairs or two dogs etc. to resolve the complication of logical thinking.
Mathematics explained all the things but fundamentally at zero it could not explain the synchronization of mathematical system with physical system.The system should be in such a way that it…
Hank |
I make fun of numerology but I kind of like it. I can like it and still make fun of it because I don't take it too seriously.
Want to claim there is a mathematical secret, far beyond human intelligence, buried in religious texts? Sure, I will listen, if it's on TV and well produced. It's fun to speculate that prayers and rituals have a pattern that contains some sacred rhythm and people 3,000 years ago were super smart about it and we are not. It can get a little funky if you take it too seriously, though. Words no longer have meaning if they are instead numerical combinations.…