36/2012 An amazing bookshop

My last post 35/2012 spoke about how I found a book on the history of mathematics, at Oxford. I found the book I needed, and I also discovered the greatest bookshop of my life.

This incredible bookshop, with a very unimpressive frontage is a place to visit. The shop inside, is stuffed with books, and books and books. There is an endless maze of stairs and corrridors, leading you to stacks and stacks of books. This would be the ideal place to play hide-and-seek, if you are not desperately looking for books.

As usual I wanted to pick up many books. As usual, I was broke. I had to borrow money from my host, Prof. Bernard Carre. I will never forget this visit and the experience of visiting Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford.

35/2012 Woman mathematicians

Woman mathematicians ? YES they exist. How many of them can you name ? I had this same question, a few years ago, and was desperately seeking an answer. Till, one day, when I visited Oxford Univ., with a famous Professor and a friend of mine. I was in fact a guest in his house at Southampton. I managed to a trace a book which gave me the answers.

Life is much more easy now, with the w-w-web. The answer will now come to your mailbox, by itself. Just join the tweets of City University of New York (CUNY). Start here

Now, to answer the main question I posed in the beginning, here is one good answer

Maybe there are many more of them. I let you find them for me, and inform me.

.....added a few minutes later .......

My quest to locate lady mathematicians led me to Prof. Bhama Srinivasan. I have two things in common with her....she is Indian, and she is apparently a Tamilian (like me).

34/2012 An extension to Godel's theorems

Kurt Godel is supposed to have formulated two famous theorems (strictly speaking, a theorem and its corollary) concerning the completeness of mathematics. Or using mathematics to prove itself.

Take a look here, for details ::

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems

An extension to the above (created by me), would be :: "Can I say if I am insane ?" (maybe I am already insane).

partha

33/2012 Insanity and mathematics....

You will really like this presentation. I know one more person who will soon be listed in this presentation. His name starts with a P and he speaks Tamil. http://www.lomont.org/Math/Talks/Mathematics%20and%20Insanity.pdf

32/2012 Why is a new moon not the same as a solar eclipse?

I discovered the answer to an intriguing question I have always had. I asked many people, but no one seemed to know the answer (or rather gave me a convincing answer). Here is the question ::

"Because a new moon occurs when the moon is positioned between the earth and sun, doesn't this also mean that somewhere on the Earth, a solar eclipse (or partial eclipse) is happening?

What, then, is the difference between a solar eclipse and a new moon?"

Want to know the answer ? Go to :::http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/433/why-is-a-new-moon-not-the-same-as-a-solar-eclipse?newsletter=1&nlcode=57597|1d90

To understand the orbit of the moon, take a look here :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon

If you have not understood the ecliptic, you will not understand anything of all this. So, take a look here, first :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_of_the_ecliptic. You will find a useful animation explaining the ecliptic and the orbits of the earth and planets.

We can never stop learning.

partha

31/2012 A new threat to the world

A new computer Trojan program is doing the rounds now. DNSChanger is a trojan that will change the infected system's Domain Name Server (DNS) settings, in order to divert traffic to unsolicited, and potentially illegal sites. The culprit -- a shabby piece of software called Win32. The cancer can spread to all DNS servers on the Internet which use Win32. This trojan that is named 'PayPal-2.5.200-MSWin32-x86-2005.exe'. Doomsday has only been postponed. It is not yet eliminated.

The real culprits are the thousands of incompetent and irresponsible users who stick to using Win32 in spite of the warnings by well-intentioned and well-informed scholars. You like Win32 go ahead, enjoy it. But you have no business to spread shit on people who want to live in peace. This cancer is spreading because of idiots like you.

If you still dont stop using Win32, you will be doomed, and so will a whole lot of people around you. Wake up and stop the calamity.

partha

PS Let people know about this threat. Spread the word. You can forward this blog post to all around you. And of course you can come out of the curse of Win32 by abandoning it immediately.

30/2012 Saying that well....

Discovered a very nice, useful, and informative resource :: http://www.phrases.org.uk/