We’re only in the third week of the Fall 2019 Mathematics A-to-Z, but this is when I should be nailing down topics for the next several letters. So again, I ask you kind readers for suggestions. I’ve done five A-to-Z sequences before, from 2015 through 2018, and am listing the essays I’ve already written for the middle part of the alphabet. I’m open to revisiting topics, if I think I can improve on what I already wrote. But I reserve the right to use whatever topic feels most interesting to me.
To suggest anything for the letters I through N please leave the comment here. Also do please let me know if you have a mathematics blog, a Twitter or Mathstodon account, a YouTube channel, or anything else that you’d like to share.
I.
- Into (Summer 2015)
- Isomorphism (Leap Day 2016)
- Image (End 2016)
- Integration (Summer 2017)
- Infinite Monkey Theorem (Fall 2018)
J.
- Jump (discontinuity) (Summer 2015)
- Jacobean (Leap Day 2016)
- Jordan Curve (End 2016)
- Jordan Canonical Form (Summer 2017)
- Jokes (Fall 2018)
K.
- Knot (Summer 2015)
- Kullbach-Leibler Divergence (Leap Day 2016)
- Kernel (End 2016)
- Klein Bottle (Summer 2017)
- Kelvin (the scientist) (Fall 2018)
L.
- Locus (Summer 2015)
- Lagrangian (Leap Day 2016)
- Local (End 2016)
- L-function (Summer 2017)
- Limit (Fall 2018)
M.
- Measure (Summer 2015)
- Matrix (Leap Day 2016)
- Monster Group (End 2016)
- Morse theory (Summer 2017)
- Manifold (Fall 2018)
N.
- N-tuple (Summer 2015)
- Normal subgroup (Leap Day 2016)
- Normal numbers (End 2016)
- N-sphere/N-ball (Summer 2017)
- Nearest neighbor model (Fall 2018)
I thank you again you for any thoughts you have. Please ask if there are any questions. I hope to be open to topics in any field of mathematics, including ones I don’t really know. The fun and terror of writing about a thing I’m only learning about is part of what I get from this kind of project.
This is when I realize I know very little math. I’d be lost with any of those.
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Oh, it only looks like anything because I don’t mention all the essays I know I couldn’t write.
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Well, now I feel better! This was written about me, by someone who read my entire blog, or close to it (https://michaeleriksson.wordpress.com/2019/01/14/a-few-thoughts-on-educationrealist/)
“nother negative is a considerable mathematical naivete for a math teacher,* that is likely the cause of some weird ideas that are more likely to hinder than help his students, e.g. that higher order polynomials (or functions, depending on perspective) are arrived at by “multiplication” of lines** (i.e. first-degree relations like y = 5x + 3). Yes, this is a possible perspective, but it is just a small piece of the overall puzzle, and it strikes me as highly counter-intuitive and pedagogically unsound as an approach. ”
I get mostly positive feedback from people with much more math knowledge than me, but every so often I get this take, too. Not sure which is right!
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That’s quite the close reading! I’m honestly glad to never come under that kind of scrutiny myself; I’d never hold up under it.
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You’re a hoot to read.
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Aw, goodness. Thank you kindly.
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The Koenigsberg Bridge Problem (unless instead you use the name Seven Bridges of Koenigsberg, in which case leave it for S).
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Thank you; I’ll put it on the list and should be able to get to it under one letter or the other.
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Linear programming (or write about the simplex method when you get to S).
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Oh, and for M: Martingales
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Another good topic, thank you.
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Thank you; that’s a good suggestion and I should be able to get at least one of them in.
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