While we’re on the topic of economics, here’s an interesting graphic I found at The Big Picture blog – What we see here is that, although China and Japan do have substantial holdings of U.S. government debt, they are far from being majority stakeholders.
Archive for the ‘Applications’ Category
National Debt
Posted in Applications, Financial Mathematics on January 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The Problem with the Euro
Posted in Applications, Financial Mathematics on January 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
For those who are economically minded, Paul Krugman has a great article in the upcoming Times Sunday Magazine (Jan. 16) on the creation of the euro and the benefits and difficulties involved in this process. At its heart, his comparison of Ireland and Nevada highlights the issues very clearly, Climate, scenery and history aside, the [...]
Benoit Mandelbrot (1924-2010)
Posted in Applications, Math History on October 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Benoit Mandelbrot A Greek among Romans Benoit Mandelbrot passed away last week in Cambridge, Mass. at the age of 85. Nassim Nicholas Taleb dedicated his book The Black Swan to Mandelbrot, calling him “a Greek among Romans.” Mandelbrot is probably the most important mathematician of the last 50 years. His ideas on using mathematics [...]
The Black Swan
Posted in Applications, Financial Mathematics on September 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve finally gotten around to reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb‘s The Black Swan. I’m about halfway through and I’m enjoying it very much. It’s part math, part economics, part philosophy, and part quirky anecdotes. I’m not sure what the rest of the book will be like and in the spirit of the book itself I am [...]
The Mathematics of Peak Oil
Posted in 19th Century Mathematicians, Applications, Math History on June 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I gave a one-hour talk on the The Mathematics of Peak Oil on May 18th. The power point slides from the talk are here.
ORMATYC Conference 2010
Posted in Applications, Math Education on June 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve had time to post here. I had a chance to go to the annual Oregon Community College Math Conference again this year. The first presentation I saw this year was by Kirk Trigsted, the Director of the Polya Math Center at the University of Idaho. The Polya Center [...]
The Quants
Posted in Applications, Financial Mathematics on March 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Last February, I wrote about the current financial crisis and the role that mathematical trading strategies played in the meltdown. I recently finished reading The Quants by Wall Street Journal reporter Scott Patterson. In The Quants Patterson tells the story of computer trading strategies at the big NY investment banks and various hedge funds. He [...]
NY Times on Complex Numbers
Posted in Algebra, Applications, Complex Analysis, Polynomial Roots on March 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I posted about the Complex Numbers last summer, and also wrote about using Newton’s Method to find complex roots. The New York Times math blog by Professor Steven Strogatz of Cornell University has an excellent post on complex numbers and Newton’s Method with some great graphics as well. It ends with a wealth of sources [...]
Things I’ve been working on…
Posted in 19th Century Mathematicians, Algebra, Applications, Math History on March 3, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
A presentation on M. King Hubbert‘s adaptation of Pierre Verhulst‘s logistic function to model oil production. The proof that a paraboloid of revolution reflects parallel waves to a single point. How to calculate distance between two locations on a sphere given latitude and longitude.
Calendrics
Posted in Applications, Ethnomathematics on January 29, 2010 | 5 Comments »
At this time of year, my thoughts often turn to…. …the sinusoid? The sinusoid is a fancy name for a mathematical relationship that is periodic – like the tides or length of day. Sinusoids are also useful in modeling alternating electrical current, light waves, and sound waves. Below is graph of function y=sin(x) I became [...]
