Friday the 13th: Your luck is about to change Nov 14, 2009
" Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest. 5. The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen. Pythagorean legacy Meanwhile the belief that numbers are connected to life and physical things called... (MSNBC -- Environment)
• Just in time for Thanksgiving... Nov 13, 2009
Some of our finest journalists (Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser) and animal rights activists (Peter Singer, Temple Grandin) -- not to mention Gandhi, Jesus, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke and Immanuel Kant (and so many others) -- have hurled themselves against the question of eating meat and the moral issues inherent in killing animals for food. Foer, 32, in this, his first work of nonfiction, intrepidly joins their ranks, inspired by fatherhood, the memory of his grandmother... (Juneau Empire)
Eureka! A touring play makes math dramatic for middle- and high-schoolers Nov 12, 2009
focuses on a seventh-grader named Sara, who is struggling with math on the night before a test, when she receives some unexpected help from Albert Einstein, Blaise Pascal, Lady Ada Lovelace, and Pythagoras. In the course of 60 funny and imaginative minutes, Wainwright-Branigan manages to work in explanations of number theory, order of operations, probability, prime numbers, the Fibonacci sequence, the origins of the calculator and computer, Pascal s triangle, and the golden ratio. (Boston Globe)
Mathematical Basis of Computer Art Sep 18, 2009
Modern Influence of Pythagoras. The Constructivist and Formalist aesthetics of the early years of the 20th Century gave rise to a renewal of interest in the theories of Pythagoras. (Suite101.com)
Pythagoras' Theorem Aug 28, 2009
Pythagoras of Samos (580BC 500AD) was a Greek philosopher and mathematician, best known for the Pythagoras theorem, which bears his name ... Pythagoras Theorem Has Many Proofs ... The Pythagoras theorem's converse is true, as Euclid proved in the final proposition of the first book of the Elements. (Suite101.com)
In novel, cyberspies roam Boston Jul 20, 2009
For instance, he writes about the Pythagoreans, a fictitious secret society devoted to the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras. The group appears to have cracked the RSA algorithm - the real-life encryption method invented by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman - that is used to secure credit card numbers and authenticate Web servers. (Boston Globe)
Xenophanes and His Philosophies Jul 5, 2009
He lived sometime in the 6th century between c.570-475BC. What is known is that since Heraclitus mentions him as a contemporary and critic of Pythagoras, and it can be roughly dated that he lived around the same time ... Criticism of Pythagoras. (Suite101.com)
Michael Farber moves closer to solving windmill mystery Jun 21, 2009
Earlier this week, Farber warned his team to brush up on their Pythagoras theorem if they wanted to keep up with the students. If you dare to risk your math skills, he warned. (Cape Codder, MA)
A new crop of books in 'An Orchard Invisible,' 'Wicked Plants' and 'Summer World' May 17, 2009
In one paragraph Silvertown will tell you about how plant poisons affect different populations of people, and in the next you're learning that Pythagoras didn't eat beans. A discussion of seed dispersal begins with a note about paper airplane design. (Boston Globe)
We're at the center of the universe - unless we're not Apr 19, 2009
Pythagoras didn't invent the theorem that bears his name, for example, and Einstein didn't want special relativity called "relativity.". Even if you already know the science Potter surveys, his speed and style will keep you reading. (Boston Globe)
'Aladdin's Lamp,' by John Freely Mar 23, 2009
If Pythagoras advanced geometry but also founded a religious cult based on numerology and mysticism, can we really justify our self-congratulatory categorization of the Greeks as rational and the Persians as religious. If modern science is composed of activities like observation, speculation and experiment, which of these did the West contribute, and which the East. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Science)
Friday the thirteenth explained Mar 14, 2009
According to Paul Hoffman, former science writer for "Discover" magazine, the fear of the number 13 can be traced back to the sixth century B.C. and the Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who not only made famous his theorem of the hypotenuse, but also made a religion out of numbers--numerology. Followers of numerology believe the number 12 to represent completeness --12 hours in a day, 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 Apostles of Jesus, 12... (Devils Lake Daily Journal, ND)
Five facts about Friday the 13th Mar 13, 2009
"You can trace it all the way from the followers of Pythagoras, whose maxim to describe the universe was 'all is number,'" says Mario Livio, an astrophysicist and author of "The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved" (Simon & Schuster, 2005). Thinkers who studied under the famous Greek mathematician combined numbers in different ways to explain everything around them, Livio said. (MSNBC -- Technology)
Friday the 13th Strikes Again -- Two Months in a Row Mar 13, 2009
"You can't have any [years] with none and you can't have any with four because of our funny calendar," said Underwood Dudley, a professor emeritus of mathematics at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and author of Numerology: Or, What Pythagoras Wrought. The calendar works just as its predecessor the Julian calendar did, with a leap year every four years. (National Geographic)
What The Romans Learned From Greek Mathematics Mar 5, 2009
And who is not familiar with Pythagoras theorem. When Rome usurped political power around the Mediterranean, the Romans came into close contact with Greek culture, its literature and science. (Science Daily)
Matt Reed: Not all learning is done by the book Feb 12, 2009
But school sports and other after-school activities trained me to pursue achievement and service in a way that Homer and Pythagoras couldn't. So I went to college. (Florida Today)
Is mathematics the language of the universe? Feb 8, 2009
We no longer have the same theory of the universe that Aristotle had or Pythagoras had; we don't sing the same music as the ancient Greeks. So when things in mathematics are found to not be true, we have a name for that: we call it a mistake. (Boston Globe)
