[math-fun] NYT on Martin Gardner
Today's NYTimes has a short appreciation of Martin Gardner. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/20tier.html [If you haven't signed up for Exclusive(!) Online Access, try googling "For Decades, Puzzling People With Mathematics" to get the article.] I found it a bit thin, but it does recall the puzzle about how he was able to inspire so many kids to go into math. Maybe the key is having math as a hobby. Rich
Martin Gardner was definitely one of the figures who influenced me. It's a tragedy that today's generation doesn't have a Martin Gardner to inspire them in math. (On the other hand, higher-income kids could have access to Mathematica, Maple, etc.) It's also pretty pathetic to pick up a recent copy of Scientific American and see what has become of that formerly great magazine... No mathematical content whatsoever. Bob Baillie ------------ rcs@xmission.com wrote:
Today's NYTimes has a short appreciation of Martin Gardner.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/20tier.html
[If you haven't signed up for Exclusive(!) Online Access, try googling "For Decades, Puzzling People With Mathematics" to get the article.]
I found it a bit thin, but it does recall the puzzle about how he was able to inspire so many kids to go into math. Maybe the key is having math as a hobby.
Rich
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Martin Gardner definitely influenced me. One of the best presents that I ever got was in 1957, when I was 10, a friend of the family gave me a copy of the (brand new) book, "Mathematical Puzzles and diversions". I remember constructing all sorts of flexagons, etc. The sheer joy of all these puzzles went a long way to making me choose mathematics as a career. Victor On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 8:00 AM, Robert Baillie <rjbaillie@frii.com> wrote:
Martin Gardner was definitely one of the figures who influenced me.
It's a tragedy that today's generation doesn't have a Martin Gardner to inspire them in math. (On the other hand, higher-income kids could have access to Mathematica, Maple, etc.)
It's also pretty pathetic to pick up a recent copy of Scientific American and see what has become of that formerly great magazine... No mathematical content whatsoever.
Bob Baillie
------------
rcs@xmission.com wrote:
Today's NYTimes has a short appreciation of Martin Gardner.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/20tier.html
[If you haven't signed up for Exclusive(!) Online Access, try googling "For Decades, Puzzling People With Mathematics" to get the article.]
I found it a bit thin, but it does recall the puzzle about how he was able to inspire so many kids to go into math. Maybe the key is having math as a hobby.
Rich
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
From: Robert Baillie <rjbaillie@frii.com> To: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wed, October 21, 2009 5:00:06 AM Subject: Re: [math-fun] NYT on Martin Gardner Martin Gardner was definitely one of the figures who influenced me. It's a tragedy that today's generation doesn't have a Martin Gardner to inspire them in math. (On the other hand, higher-income kids could have access to Mathematica, Maple, etc.) It's also pretty pathetic to pick up a recent copy of Scientific American and see what has become of that formerly great magazine... No mathematical content whatsoever. Bob Baillie ------------ It's Martin Gardner's books that do the inspiring, and they are still around. Are today's kids less interested in math than those of our generation? How would we ever know; what's the data? Is there a yearly record of how many books of this sort have been sold, or loaned by public libraries? It doesn't require a high income to acquire computer algebra software. I paid $165 total for my student edition of Maple (identical to the professional edition). This is less than the cost of a television. Anyone who refers to Scientific American as "a formerly great magazine" is showing their age. The transition from a great magazine to a piece of trash happened 40-50 years ago. Their current mission is to provide support for one of the factions in the political split that has polarized the science of climatology. Cast aside your emotional attachment to what has become a part of history. Today's internet is far superior to the best that Scientific American ever was. -- Gene
On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 8:55 AM, Eugene Salamin <gene_salamin@yahoo.com> wrote:
Anyone who refers to Scientific American as "a formerly great magazine" is showing their age. The transition from a great magazine to a piece of trash happened 40-50 years ago. Their current mission is to provide support for one of the factions in the political split that has polarized the science of climatology. Cast aside your emotional attachment to what has become a part of history. Today's internet is far superior to the best that Scientific American ever was.
While that may be true, I learned to program with A.K. Dewdney's "Computer Recreations" articles in the mid 80's on cellular automata, fractals, and such, and eagerly awaited the next issue for that column alone. For a more mature audience, I can highly recommend "American Scientist" as a worthwhile replacement. (For example, here's a recent article on the thermodynamics involved in the origin of life: http://tinyurl.com/ygs9aae). -- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://math.ucr.edu/~mike http://reperiendi.wordpress.com
From: Robert Baillie <rjbaillie@frii.com> To: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wed, October 21, 2009 5:00:06 AM Subject: Re: [math-fun] NYT on Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner was definitely one of the figures who influenced me.
I'll vouch that it was hugely exciting to get a letter from him. And still is.
It's a tragedy that today's generation doesn't have a Martin Gardner to inspire them in math. (On the other hand, higher-income kids could have access to Mathematica, Maple, etc.)
It's also pretty pathetic to pick up a recent copy of Scientific American and see what has become of that formerly great magazine... No mathematical content whatsoever.
Bob Baillie
We shouldn't forget that even through the Gardner, Dewdney, and Hofstadter eras, the magazine had a *strict* ban on mathematical formulae in articles. (I assume Gardner's column was excepted.) So when they did an article on Ramanujan, they had to make each formula a captioned illustration!
------------
It's Martin Gardner's books that do the inspiring, and they are still around. Are today's kids less interested in math than those of our generation? How would we ever know; what's the data? Is there a yearly record of how many books of this sort have been sold, or loaned by public libraries?
It doesn't require a high income to acquire computer algebra software. I paid $165 total for my student edition of Maple (identical to the professional edition). This is less than the cost of a television.
Anyone who refers to Scientific American as "a formerly great magazine" is showing their age. The transition from a great magazine to a piece of trash happened 40-50 years ago. Their current mission is to provide support for one of the factions in the political split that has polarized the science of climatology. Cast aside your emotional attachment to what has become a part of history. Today's internet is far superior to the best that Scientific American ever was.
-- Gene
Gene's right about the Web. I know four kids who are bootstrapping math off the Web at an incredible rate, writing high level Mathematica code, producing amazing graphics, etc. They read lots of books, too. --rwg
From: Robert Baillie <rjbaillie@frii.com> To: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wed, October 21, 2009 5:00:06 AM Subject: Re: [math-fun] NYT on Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner was definitely one of the figures who influenced me.
I'll vouch that it was hugely exciting to get a letter from him. And still is.
It's a tragedy that today's generation doesn't have a Martin Gardner to inspire them in math. (On the other hand, higher-income kids could have access to Mathematica, Maple, etc.)
It's also pretty pathetic to pick up a recent copy of Scientific American and see what has become of that formerly great magazine... No mathematical content whatsoever.
Bob Baillie
We shouldn't forget that even through the Gardner, Dewdney, and Hofstadter eras, the magazine had a *strict* ban on mathematical formulae in articles. (I assume Gardner's column was excepted.) So when they did an article on Ramanujan, they had to make each formula a captioned illustration!
------------
It's Martin Gardner's books that do the inspiring, and they are still around. Are today's kids less interested in math than those of our generation? How would we ever know; what's the data? Is there a yearly record of how many books of this sort have been sold, or loaned by public libraries?
It doesn't require a high income to acquire computer algebra software. I paid $165 total for my student edition of Maple (identical to the professional edition). This is less than the cost of a television.
Anyone who refers to Scientific American as "a formerly great magazine" is showing their age. The transition from a great magazine to a piece of trash happened 40-50 years ago. Their current mission is to provide support for one of the factions in the political split that has polarized the science of climatology. Cast aside your emotional attachment to what has become a part of history. Today's internet is far superior to the best that Scientific American ever was.
-- Gene
Gene's right about the Web. I know four kids who are bootstrapping math off the Web at an incredible rate, writing high level Mathematica code, producing amazing graphics, etc. They read lots of books, too. --rwg
From: Robert Baillie <rjbaillie@frii.com> To: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wed, October 21, 2009 5:00:06 AM Subject: Re: [math-fun] NYT on Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner was definitely one of the figures who influenced me.
I'll vouch that it was hugely exciting to get a letter from him. And still is.
It's a tragedy that today's generation doesn't have a Martin Gardner to inspire them in math. (On the other hand, higher-income kids could have access to Mathematica, Maple, etc.)
It's also pretty pathetic to pick up a recent copy of Scientific American and see what has become of that formerly great magazine... No mathematical content whatsoever.
Bob Baillie
We shouldn't forget that even through the Gardner, Dewdney, and Hofstadter eras, the magazine had a *strict* ban on mathematical formulae in articles. (I assume Gardner's column was excepted.) So when they did an article on Ramanujan, they had to make each formula a captioned illustration!
------------
It's Martin Gardner's books that do the inspiring, and they are still around. Are today's kids less interested in math than those of our generation? How would we ever know; what's the data? Is there a yearly record of how many books of this sort have been sold, or loaned by public libraries?
It doesn't require a high income to acquire computer algebra software. I paid $165 total for my student edition of Maple (identical to the professional edition). This is less than the cost of a television.
Anyone who refers to Scientific American as "a formerly great magazine" is showing their age. The transition from a great magazine to a piece of trash happened 40-50 years ago. Their current mission is to provide support for one of the factions in the political split that has polarized the science of climatology. Cast aside your emotional attachment to what has become a part of history. Today's internet is far superior to the best that Scientific American ever was.
-- Gene
Gene's right about the Web. I know four kids who are bootstrapping math off the Web at an incredible rate, writing high level Mathematica code, producing amazing graphics, etc. They read lots of books, too. --rwg
From: Robert Baillie <rjbaillie@frii.com> To: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wed, October 21, 2009 5:00:06 AM Subject: Re: [math-fun] NYT on Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner was definitely one of the figures who influenced me.
I'll vouch that it was hugely exciting to get a letter from him. And still is.
It's a tragedy that today's generation doesn't have a Martin Gardner to inspire them in math. (On the other hand, higher-income kids could have access to Mathematica, Maple, etc.)
It's also pretty pathetic to pick up a recent copy of Scientific American and see what has become of that formerly great magazine... No mathematical content whatsoever.
Bob Baillie
We shouldn't forget that even through the Gardner, Dewdney, and Hofstadter eras, the magazine had a *strict* ban on mathematical formulae in articles. (I assume Gardner's column was excepted.) So when they did an article on Ramanujan, they had to make each formula a captioned illustration!
------------
It's Martin Gardner's books that do the inspiring, and they are still around. Are today's kids less interested in math than those of our generation? How would we ever know; what's the data? Is there a yearly record of how many books of this sort have been sold, or loaned by public libraries?
It doesn't require a high income to acquire computer algebra software. I paid $165 total for my student edition of Maple (identical to the professional edition). This is less than the cost of a television.
Anyone who refers to Scientific American as "a formerly great magazine" is showing their age. The transition from a great magazine to a piece of trash happened 40-50 years ago. Their current mission is to provide support for one of the factions in the political split that has polarized the science of climatology. Cast aside your emotional attachment to what has become a part of history. Today's internet is far superior to the best that Scientific American ever was.
-- Gene
Gene's right about the Web. I know four kids who are bootstrapping math off the Web at an incredible rate, writing high level Mathematica code, producing amazing graphics, etc. They read lots of books, too. --rwg
participants (6)
-
Eugene Salamin -
Mike Stay -
rcs＠xmission.com -
Robert Baillie -
rwg＠sdf.lonestar.org -
victor miller