tingilinde

fun with die

A most unexpected result - until you think about it

another path to -1/12

This one surprised me!  A tip of the hat to Greg

when a brilliant mind loses connection with much of reality

On mathematician Alexander Grothendieck

a hat tip to the four people who pointed this one out

a round-about way to pi

Greg pointed out this lovely video

nazi tank counting

math at the olympics

A great piece in the NY Times

snip

...

Kate Douglass, a statistics graduate student and the second-fastest swimmer in the world this year in two Olympic swimming events, has always been good with numbers. But before she enrolled at the University of Virginia, she never considered that swimming itself was a math problem that she could try to solve.

That changed when she realized the concepts she was studying in the classroom could be used in her sport. These days, Douglass often gets into the pool while wearing a belt that holds an accelerometer, the same device found in smartphones and fitness watches. As she swims, the sensor measures her movement in three spatial directions 512 times per second.

“That’s helped me to figure out areas of my stroke where I can be more efficient,” said Douglass, 22. So far, so good: On Saturday, she began a busy Olympics schedule by winning a silver medal in the 4x100 freestyle relay.

The swimmers at the Paris Olympics all have the same challenge: to swim as fast as they can by moving through the water in a way that maximizes the force propelling them toward the finish line, while minimizing the force that slows them down. Elite swimmers use familiar tricks to reduce the resistance known as drag, like shaving before big meets and wearing swimsuits made from the same material as Formula 1 racing cars.

...

 

The referenced peer-reviewed paper is open access at the Mathematical Intelligencer.  Kate Douglas is a co-author.  It's highly readable even by people who are math-phobic.

 

 

 

studying swimming

One of those sports that can really benefit from analysis 

 

animation vs geometry

the answer to the tshirt puzzle from a few days ago

a very identifying t-shirt

 

(hint: a tool of the trade)