Thailand Pictures

Here is a final set of pictures from Thailand. Keep those answers for the puzzle coming in. Happy solving!

Bangkok, city of Buddhas

Here is a second set of pictures from Thailand. These pictures are from Bangkok. Office hours announcements below the fold.

The theme for June - Java

We have put up the first Summer Puzzle. As we mentioned before, the Summer Puzzle columns are going to consist of just puzzles (plus a few pictures). The first Summer Puzzle is linked here. It will run just here on this blog and will not run in the Times of India.

The theme for the month of June is Java hence the pictures from Java. I know that it is still May. We are putting up the puzzle a little in advance so that you will have more time to solve it. So your mission with the first Summer Puzzle, if you choose to accept it, is simple : just solve the puzzle below.  Email your answers to : askthedelphicoracle@gmail.com with the subject "Summer Puzzle".

(1)   Mallika is in Java but can't take her mind off football. She is trying to decide between three football teams to throw her support behind – the University of Oklahoma Sooners, the University of Texas Longhorns and the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. All she has to help her is a fair coin, that is, with this coin, there is an equal probability that the coin will show up either heads or tails. Devise a way for her to choose one of the three teams with equal probability.

(2)   It is the next day and Mallika realizes that she has misplaced her fair coin. She is now trying to decide between five IPL teams - the Chennai Super Kings, the Kolkata Knight Riders, the Mumbai Indians, the Rajasthan Royals and the Delhi Daredevils. All she has to help her is a coin with unknown bias, that is, with this coin, there is a non-zero probability that the coin will show up either heads or tails but we don’t know what the probability of heads is. Devise a way for her to choose one of the five teams with equal probability.

Origami, office hours, et cetera

So I did a practice run of the "Why are there cows on the street in India?" talk, and we have a video recording of the talk available. After the talk, I sent Prof. Tom Kosnik a letter about the video with some explanatory comments. The letter is linked here. Prof. Kosnik is, of course, familiar with the Case Method of lecturing. I just added enough detail about the Case Method, et cetera, to my letter so that it would be generally useful if I forwarded the letter on. Readers, one thing : please take a look at my previous post on this topic (linked here) and let me know if there is anything that needs clarification. The post is supposed to be self-contained and self-explanatory, and if it is not, I would be interested to know how I can improve it. Also, I will be holding office hours Monday morning (May 21) between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. PST.

And in the meantime, to keep those little grey cells working, here is an interesting talk by Robert Lang who merges mathematics and engineering principles in ... oh, you just have to watch.

 

Pizza and Panini

Indiatimes' main page is carrying an edited version of the latest installment of our mathematics column entitled "Pizza and Panini". It is written in the style of the New Yorker. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it. (For those who came in late, Chandrayaan-12 is the rocket on which Anand and Ravi are traveling.) Please send in your answers to the puzzle in the column to the following email address : askthedelphicoracle@gmail.com. Happy solving!

PIZZA AND PANINI

This article is in collaboration with Prof. Krishnan Shankar, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oklahoma.

The Oracle Asks

The Sanskrit grammarian Panini is at his friend Socrates’ place in Athens.

-+- 

Boy. Here is the tea.

Socrates. Thank you.

Panini. The boy, he understands Greek Mathematics, does he not?



Socrates. Yes, indeed; he was born in the house.



Panini. Can you talk to him about mathematics?

Soc. Certainly. Attend now to the questions which I ask him, and observe whether he learns of me or only remembers.

 

Office hours : tomorrow morning, 9-10 am PST

This is just a note to say that I will be holding office hours tomorrow morning (between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. PST). Please feel to catch me on Skype with any questions you may have about Columns 1 and 2. I don't expect there will be any questions, but just in case you do have questions, please feel free to call. My Skype id is : anandaimeaim.

In the meantime, here is a talk by Benoit Mandelbrot himself.

How to do a talk

I am shooting for a talk like the TED talk below called "How to use a paper towel". What the speaker says can be summed up in two or three sentences. The point of the talk, though, is to entertain. In this, it succeeds.

Take it away, maestro!