harry potter maths (1 Viewer)

[tywebb]

there come times when maths becomes magic

we could call this magic maths (or harry potter maths)

examples are:

• cubic formula
• third derivative test for verifying inflections
• proof of fermat's last theorem
• classification of finite simple groups
• proof of undecideability theorems
• the invention of calculus
• e^iθ=cosθ+isinθ

there are more, but this is a nice start.

what else would you like to call harry potter maths?

 

[H.S. Carslaw]

How about chaos theory?

How about Peter Coutis from Hills Grammar School being allowed to write the new BOS syllabus when Bill Pender was excluded? Hence Bill Pender's comment that "the logistic function will cause chaos in the classroom":
http://community.boredofstudies.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=16657

Even members of the Board Curriculum Committee are not allowed to know who wrote the syllabus!

Back in my day, the exam committee members names were published on the leaving certificate papers. These days it's hush-hush.

How about scaling for the HSC? That's pretty harry potter style stuff. Here's youtube's version of HSC scaling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prBNcVn4lw8

 

[JonnoisBored]

fail.

 

[sicmacao]

there come times when maths becomes magic

we could call this magic maths (or harry potter maths)

examples are:

• cubic formula
• third derivative test for verifying inflections
• proof of fermat's last theorem
• classification of finite simple groups
• proof of undecideability theorems
• the invention of calculus
• e<SUP>iθ</SUP>=cosθ+isinθ

there are more, but this is a nice start.

what else would you like to call harry potter maths?

• Complex integral to evaluate certain real integrals.
• Power series for differentiable functions
• Concurrency of altitudes, medians, perpendicular bisectors of triangle and the Euler line
• Cayley Hamilton Theorem
• Uncountability of real numbers

 

[tywebb]

for teachers:

here's a mars bar question for your students (i.e., 1st one to solve it gets a mars bar):

find the inflection for y=(x+1)/(x²+3) for x&ge;0.

hint: use harry potter maths.

Spoiler

(4cos40&deg;-1 , 4cos40&deg;/(16cos²40&deg;+3))

 

[tywebb]

yeah!

&pi;²/6. that's a great harry potter thing.

it can be done using 4 unit methods too (extending the 2002 ext. 2 hsc question 8a):

 

[tywebb]

have you seen eulers proof?

stop relating harry potter to math

yeah. i've seen it. euler is a magical figure in the history of maths. a bit like harry potter, i'd say. sorry. especially his formula e^i&theta;=cos&theta;+isin&theta;.

but i think fourier series method is the easiest way to do it.

that critique of the draft syllabus is amazing. maybe bill pender should be head of the drafting comittee or whatever it is.

margaret bigelow is.

 

[H.S. Carslaw]

but i think fourier series method is the easiest way to do it.

Yep. I wrote a book on it:

Introduction to the Theory of Fourier's Series and Integrals by H.S. Carslaw.

 

[tywebb]

fourier series methods are quite magical. so i reckon we should also include fourier series as harry potter maths.

 

[kaz1]

lol i thought harry potter maths meant this http://www.beyondhogwarts.com/harry-potter/articles/an-introduction-to-arithmancy.html

 

[me121]

i still don't see the link to magic? there is nothing magical about it, imo.

 

[katie tully]

i still don't see the link to magic? there is nothing magical about it, imo.

it's because you don't understand it!!!!!!!!!!!!










edit: neither do i, i cant even .. do stuff. thats why it's magic. to be able to comprehend this stuff would be amazing.

 

[tywebb]

i still don't see the link to magic? there is nothing magical about it, imo.

i will illustrate with another example.

Uncountability of real numbers

and the integers are countable.

in 1963 cohen proved the undecideability of cantor's continuum hypothesis.

suppose <img src=http://users.tpg.com.au/nanahcub/cont.gif width=80>. the continuum hypothesis is that there is either a 1-1 correspondence between Z and X or there is a 1-1 correspondence between X and R.

the undecideability of the continuum hypothesis is quite magical and cohen's proof is like so harry potter. he did it in 2 parts:

http://www.pnas.org/content/50/6/1143.full.pdf

http://www.pnas.org/content/51/1/105.full.pdf

this stuff is so cool he won a fields medal for it.

what would be voldemort maths do you think? i reckon the riemann hypothesis. it's pretty evil maths. and pretty scary too.

major kudos to the first dude who proves it. almost as much kudos as the first dude who uploaded the wall-e cam on the net a few days ago.

btw in case you're interested, that xian-jin li guy who thought he proved the riemann hypothesis recently has just given in. voldemort maths strikes again. alain connes found a major flaw in his proposed proof and li put the message:

This paper has been withdrawn by the author due to a mistake on page 29.

on http://arxiv.org/abs/0807.0090

for posterity, i've uploaded the pdf again as an attachment:

 

[kurt.physics]

Harry potter Maths

• International Mathematics Olympiad Problems and their Solutions
• Putnam mathematics Problems and their Solutions

 

[alcalder]

Actually, going to the very basics, the fact that you can add the digits in the number and if they add to 3, 6 or 9 the number is divisible by 3. If the sum is even the original number it is divisible by 6 and if the sum is 9, the number is divisible by 9.

PI! How many decimal places and still going? And yet, such a useful number and ratio.

Very Arithmancy (love Hermione Granger and Professr Vector!).

 

[sicmacao]

Continued fraction expansion for sqrt(2) and Pi is very fascinating.

 

[buchanan]

I'd prefer to use this version:

This reduces the quartic down to two quadratics via the resolvent cubic which you solve using the cubic formula:

Then just solve the two quadratics with the <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/QuadraticFormula.html">quadratic formula</a>.

I made a thread on it at http://community.boredofstudies.org/showthread.php?t=99063

 

[darkliight]

Harry potter maths: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupper's_self-referential_formula