Benjamin Baker illustrating the structural principles of suspended span cantilever bridges - dated between 1882~1904
(via historicaltimes)
Math and Science Week!
aseantoo submitted to medievalpoc:
Bhāskarāchārya
Bhāskarāchārya / Bhāskara II (1114–1185) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer.
Among his many achievements are the following:
1. He was the first person to explain that when you divide by zero, the result is infinity.
2. He was also the first person to note that a positive number has two square roots - a positive and a negative one.
3. He described the principles of differential calculus 500 years before Leibniz and Newton. (He definitively came up with Rolle’s theorem half a millennium before Rolle himself.)
4. He calculated the length of the rotation of the earth around the sun to 365.2588 days - he was just off by 3 minutes.
Intriguingly, his treatise on arithmetic and geometry, Līlāvatī, is named after his daughter. He addresses her as an eager student:
Oh Līlāvatī, intelligent girl, if you understand addition and subtraction, tell me the sum of the amounts 2, 5, 32, 193, 18, 10, and 100, as well as [the remainder of] those when subtracted from 10000.” and “Fawn-eyed child Līlāvatī, tell me, how much is the number [resulting from] 135 multiplied by 12, if you understand multiplication by separate parts and by separate digits. And tell [me], beautiful one, how much is that product divided by the same multiplier?
These invocations have led some to surmise that Līlāvatī, too, was a mathematician.
Image from here: http://mathdept.ucr.edu/pdf/iwm1.pdf
Story of her introduction to math here: http://4go10tales.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/lilavati.html
well my math teacher never talked to me that way
I listened to the very well done episode of This American Life, Little War on the Prairie (recommended!), and was reminded to watch Dakota 38 - I saw a trailer for it, ages ago, and filed it away.
I put all the comics from being home in one place, three long image files, as usual. Click to read:
One.
Two.
I am sad to leave again, like a lot of us are when we go from where we came from. I hope that my family times give you a chuckle, and that your family is well. I hope to heaven that your family doesn’t talk about butts as much as mine does.
don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time
Yesterday my family and I had the pleasure of experiencing Danny Gillis’ new fishing boat tour! It was the nicest little ride around Port Hood Island and down by Mabou, and we even caught a few fish ourselves. You can find info for it here. I get a lot of letters asking what people should do when visiting Nova Scotia, so here you go, put that one on the list, to be sure.
I’ve been taking some pictures as we are home here, Cape Breton is a nice place.
