Double comic after a long break!

Double comic. There are two.

Getting some eats.

At long last a comic!

It's like a graphic novel.

It's a comic on 5/23, appropriately irregular. I think this would make a great movie.

mathematics, astronomy, religion

I found something on the Library of Congress website: a collection of images from the Vatican Library of mathematical manuscripts from between the ninth and fifteenth centuries.

Saturday Comic:


The background is an ultra deep field photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and credit is due to ESA and NASA.

Pascal's quote is from the Pensées, numbers 205-206.

Reputation

Rooster image from here.
All kinds of quotations about mathematics and by mathematicians can be found here.


According to St. Augustine:

The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

This makes much more sense when you realize that in this context, a "mathematician" is what we would call an "astrologer".

An interesting essay and a comic.

I found something interesting on Reddit today, which is somewhat connected to the content of yesterday's posting. Here is an essay by a teacher and mathematician arguing that math education is too focused on notation and formulas instead of teaching kids about the art of discovering elegant numerical patterns and relationships. He suggests that mathematics should be art and play.

Also, here is the math subreddit.

Theorem Loafing

Time for the Wednesday comic.

Next comic early.

More adventures with Calvin.

Comic time.

It's Wednesday and that means time for a comic.

Now for a comic.

The reason I like John Napier is that he was one of those people who was like a superhero. Between inventing logarithms, writing theology, and cultivating a terrifying reputation, he had plenty of time left over for general awesomeness.

A new blog.

I created this to blog about the history of math and science, which is a subject I really enjoy. I teach math in a high school, and it is not always possible to talk much about this sort of thing, because it is not actually in the curriculum. Science has historical developments which are covered in science class, but the development of math is not.

One of my favorite parts of the subject is the personalities of the people who made historical developments. I like to tell my classes that anyone smart enough to make a lasting contribution to mathematics is likely to also be a bit colorful. One of my favorites is John Napier, hence the name of the blog.

If you have noticed that the description mentions comics, let's just say that public domain images from old artwork are very handy.