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Starting the Parabolic Path Those who know me well, know that I have two main areas of interest. Since you are reading this blog, you probably know or have surmised that mathematics is one of those areas. If you do not yet know, the other area is the exploration of my Christian faith and to…
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We are in the middle of a series on conic sections. We started with Finding Refreshment in the Desert, in which I introduced us to what a conic section is and demonstrated that the general second degree equation in two variables represents a conic section. After that, in Circular Tangentiality we obtained the general equation of…
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Brief Recapitulation We are in the middle of a series of posts on conic sections. In the previous post, we derived the equation of a circle centered at the origin and having a radius of r. We also derived the equation of the tangent at a point on the circle. To jog your memory, given…
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Defining a Circle Three weeks back, I started a series on conic sections. I did not post the last two weeks due to being ill. We continue today with a study of the first conic section – the circle. Just as a reminder about conic sections, take a look at the figure below. As is…
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Arithmetic Blasphemy In one of the first posts in this blog, My Unbounded Mathematical Trauma, I had shared about my trauma when students says something like, “One divided by zero equals infinity.” Unfortunately, this is something that I have heard repeated by mathematics teachers too. And I shudder when I hear such blasphemy! I say ‘blasphemy’…
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The Seedbed of Mathematical Fecundity Playing around with numbers is something that many, if not most, people who are fascinated with mathematics engage in. Most of the playing around does not lead to anything ‘productive’ in the sense that the results could find some practical application in real life. However, this does not stop people…
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Starting the Critique I don’t want you to get the wrong idea either while or after reading this post. At the risk of sounding like I’m blowing my own trumpet, let me just state that I have a really good test taking temperament. I have an excellent memory and am able to think on my…
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For today’s post, I wish to briefly two books that delve into mathematical themes. So here goes. Book Review: A Certain Ambiguity by Gaurav Suri and Hartosh Singh Bal Gaurav Suri and Hartosh Singh Bal. A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel. (New Delhi: Penguin, 2007). Available on Amazon. Quite out of the blue, a colleague of…
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Some years ago, I came across a puzzle that asked if I could use exactly six ‘4’s and the four common operations (+, -, ×, and ÷) to give the result 24. Of course, the trivial solution is 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 24. But after a little…
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Abjuring Serialization Last week we finished a series on complex numbers. During this series, we took two pit stops to learn about trigonometry and calculus. Quite obviously, I have not exhausted any of these three topics. However, planning these long series is exhausting! So, for a few posts, I will refrain from serialization. Instead, I…
Acutely Obtuse 