[All code from this post available as a GitHub gist here] For Christmas this year, I got myself a fun mathematical gift: a set of 10 non-transitive dice, namely Grime Dice! You can get your own set here. Behold their dicey splendor: These dice possess the fascinating property that their winning relationships (in the sense of "winning" = "rolls … Continue reading Non-transitive Grime Dice, via Mathematica →

For Christmas this year, I got myself a fun mathematical gift: a set of 10 non-transitive dice, namely Grime Dice! You can get your own set here. Behold their dicey splendor: These dice possess the fascinating property that their winning relationships (in the sense of “winning” = “rolls a higher number > 50% of the time”) are non-transitive. i.e. if die A wins against die B, and die B wins against die C, it actually does *not* hold, in general, that die A wins against die C.  In fact, die C might win [...]

I had the great pleasure to speak at CodeMash this week, and, on my way back, ended up spending a couple of hours at the Atlanta airport waiting for my connecting flight back to the warmer climate of San Francisco – a perfect opportunity for some light-hearted coding fun. A couple of days earlier, I came across this really nice tweet, rendering the results of an L-system: {start:'FFPF',rules:{F:'PF++F[FF-F+PF+FPP][F]FFPF',P:''},'α':60} pic.twitter.com/JZGDV4ghFy— LSystemBot (@LSystemBot) January 10, 2015 [...]

By now, most everyone is aware of Pi Day, celebrating the famous mathematical constant on 3/14. On this day each year, students and math enthusiasts eat pie and engage in light-hearted -related activities. Then there is e Day, a day for commemorating the equally-important-if-somewhat-less-famous constant on 2/7. The activities are similar, though it's less clear-cut what food … Continue reading Today is Phi Day -- at least, it ought to be →

By now, most everyone is aware of Pi Day, celebrating the famous mathematical constant \(\pi \approx 3.14159\) on 3⁄14. On this day each year, students and math enthusiasts eat pie and engage in light-hearted \(\pi\)-related activities. Then there is e Day, a day for commemorating the equally-important-if-somewhat-less-famous constant \(e \approx 2.71828\) on 2⁄7. The activities are similar, though it’s less clear-cut what food one should eat (a high school teacher of mine insisted that the proper e Day [...]