Everything is Mathicable

This part cracked me up.

The U.N. declared 2013 the year of Mathematics of Planet Earth.  This initiative has now been extended into an ongoing project.  Check out their website for exciting news about upcoming lectures, new PhD. Earth Mathematics programs and exciting new happenings.

Science and Islam (2009) is a three-part BBC documentary about the history of science in medieval Islamic civilization presented by Jim Al-Khalili. The series is accompanied by the book Science and Islam: A History written by Ehsan Masood.

If you're not already familiar with this super important part of math history, it's definitely worth watching. If you are, you probably won't hear anything new, as it's super brief (about ten minutes).

Life lessons.

Ravi Vakil (via cjohnson)

Construction of a square from circles.

Created by starting with a standard square, then adding two more squares scaled down by a factor of square 2 over 2, then continuing this process, ad infinitum. 

My degree was like 99% learning to fail miserably and still get up the next morning.

I just read a proof of the AM-GM inequality based on the laws of thermodynamics. Wow.

[source: Quanta's Twitter feed]

Trigonometric functions - Wikipedia sin z cos z tan z cot z sec z csc z

In mathematics, the Weierstrass function is an example of a pathological real-valued function on the real line. The function has the property that it is continuous everywhere but differentiable nowhere.Above is the plot of the Weierstrass Function over the interval [−2, 2]. Like fractals, the function exhibits self-similarity: every zoom (red circle) is similar to the global plot.

Not exactly the degree of simplification that I was hoping for, Mathematica.

First of all, I do not have a degree in math, but I am pursuing one. Secondly, I do not think you should give up on a math degree. Math skills are not something you are born with; they are something you learn. Even I am not that good at math. But my abilities with the subject are not the reason I’m pursuing a degree in it. I’m pursuing a degree in it because I have an interest in it. That should be the reason why you become a math major. You can relearn the skills and little bits of mathematical knowledge you’ve lost over the years. Anything that can be learned can be relearned. So, if you love mathematics go major in it. I promise that it will be worth it.

Analysis professor (via mathprofessorquotes)