« For Many, Including Myself, Mathematics Is Comforting. In An Era Of Fake News, Worldwide Illness,

« For many, including myself, mathematics is comforting. In an era of fake news, worldwide illness, and economic uncertainty, mathematics provides proof of another reality which is harmonious, universal, and eternal. Or so it would seem.

In fact mathematics, like all literature, is none of these things. Mathematics is, of course, a human artefact. It is a language which consists of a vocabulary, a grammar, and a community which employs these enthusiastically. Arguably, mathematics is the most refined language ever produced.

[…] The practical […] usefulness of the work of mathematicians does not concern them. Even a brief exposure to number theory, for example, is sufficient to convince most outside the mathematical community (or even outside the community of number theorists) that the things mathematicians are concerned about are essentially trivial. The strange and often captivating relationships among numbers are simply alien to practical experience. The non-mathematician can only ask ‘Why bother?’.

And the answer to this question must be the same as it is to the issue of literature in general. There is no reason for mathematics other than itself. Mathematics is a form of highly refined, esoteric poetry. Its form and subject matter is not to everyone’s taste. But neither is the Iliad, or The Wasteland, or Finnegans Wake. It takes considerable linguistic skill and aesthetic fortitude to comprehend the content of mathematical poetry. Success in such an endeavour is, as usual, its own reward. »

— From a review of Reuben Hersh’s What is Mathematics, Really?

More Posts from Percys-blue-cooki and Others

3 years ago
CHRISTMAS IN JULY, DAY 6: HALLOWEEN:
CHRISTMAS IN JULY, DAY 6: HALLOWEEN:
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CHRISTMAS IN JULY, DAY 6: HALLOWEEN:
CHRISTMAS IN JULY, DAY 6: HALLOWEEN:
CHRISTMAS IN JULY, DAY 6: HALLOWEEN:
CHRISTMAS IN JULY, DAY 6: HALLOWEEN:
CHRISTMAS IN JULY, DAY 6: HALLOWEEN:
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CHRISTMAS IN JULY, DAY 6: HALLOWEEN:

↳ SHADOW AND BONE CHARACTERS as GREEK GODS

3 years ago

this is perfect

@storyseekers Event 15: Character That I Relate To — Percy Jackson From Percy Jackson And The Olympians
@storyseekers Event 15: Character That I Relate To — Percy Jackson From Percy Jackson And The Olympians
@storyseekers Event 15: Character That I Relate To — Percy Jackson From Percy Jackson And The Olympians
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@storyseekers Event 15: Character That I Relate To — Percy Jackson From Percy Jackson And The Olympians
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it’s hard to enjoy practical jokes when your whole life feels like one.

3 years ago

the great octopus of oz

Have This.

have this.

3 years ago

welcome to this weeks episode of 

‘Is this Canon, or is this from a fanfiction I cant remember?”

a memorable mention being ‘is this an original post or did I see it somewhere else?’

3 years ago

reblogging to save lives

adhd “get shit done” hacks i’ve found so far

1. the Event

have something scheduled for the day, be it a class, club meeting, shift at work, going to a friend’s, whatever. you must get shit done before the Event. i’ve also done it where the event is my roommates coming home, and I tell them to ask me what i did so i feel like I have to do shit. get creative.

2. exist in a space in which you can easily hyper-focus

pretty obvious, go to a cafe, library, friend’s house, whatever works for you, and do your thing. also! cleaning your house can really help with motivation and focusing, so that too. 

3. “multitask”

this one took me a while to figure out. make your brain think you are “multitasking” so getting stuff done is less difficult. ie put the laundry in, meanwhile do the dishes, wipe the counters, vacuum. or put it one of those microwave meals in the oven instead, then you have a reward waiting for you after an hour of studying. for some reason, getting tasks done as a pastime until something else is done makes it way easier to do them

3 years ago
So The First Pic Is A Deptiction Of The Plot Below, Relating To The Fibonacci Sequence.
So The First Pic Is A Deptiction Of The Plot Below, Relating To The Fibonacci Sequence.
So The First Pic Is A Deptiction Of The Plot Below, Relating To The Fibonacci Sequence.
So The First Pic Is A Deptiction Of The Plot Below, Relating To The Fibonacci Sequence.

So the first pic is a deptiction of the plot below, relating to the Fibonacci sequence.

What is this fuckery?

It might describe 'feedback loops" and self-interference patterns of a regression in dynamical information geometry; a set of information transforms.

The neat aspect is that if you expand the "outside frame" (the overall shell with the varying diameters), then neat 'coincidences' happen: the expanded 'virtual lines' often end or cross exactly at points at the "shell"...

I will play with finding loop sequences, as it's really thrilling.

Furtherly, it might also make sense to describe momentum and position of elementary particles depicting them as "progression of a dynamical information geometry". Plus the conceptions regarding relativistic aspects is in parallel 'production', and interestingly, although I didn't intend to put both aspects of my current work (this one and the relativity conception) together, they are each other's interesting addition. Someahat they "weave each other"... These thought processes are somewhat like the two perfectly symmetric, yet antithetic 'loops' of the first picture here. And it is like, so neat! The chaos literally sorts itself.

So The First Pic Is A Deptiction Of The Plot Below, Relating To The Fibonacci Sequence.
3 years ago

https://bluemoonlagoon94.tumblr.com/post/678007640683610112/could-there-be-an-common-theme-of-our-reality-that

What are your thoughts on this?

Interestingly Richard Fenyman remarked the occurence of the Fibonacci sequence and the 'golden angle' (primary part of the fine structure constant) in his work on quantum mechanics. And according to my information progression stuff, yes it wouldn't surprise me that this elementary principle of 'self-replication" might be one of the fundamental underlying patterns.

This is a plain idea I head: dividing the Fibonacci numbers: Larger Fib. number/smaller Fib. number (like 3/2 or 8/5) results in a damped wave alterating around large PHI (1.618...) and smaller number/larger number (like 2/3 or 5/8) results in a damped wave around small phi (0.618...) in the pic I just combined them in a strange axes system - and it's fun to imagine what would happen if you cause torsion and skews upon that visualized model:

Https://bluemoonlagoon94.tumblr.com/post/678007640683610112/could-there-be-an-common-theme-of-our-reality-that

Interestingly, the Fibonacci numbers also exist in a certain interference-diffraction pattern/fourier transform, Fraunhofer diffraction to be more concrete.

Made a post about that some days ago(or was it weeks already?): (Although the stretched x-axis is not really required)

Https://bluemoonlagoon94.tumblr.com/post/678007640683610112/could-there-be-an-common-theme-of-our-reality-that

In concrete, these describe position probabilities of superposed/entangled elementary particles. It is the pattern recognized in the double slit experiement.

Secondly, as the standard distribution also has connections to the concept of Pascal's triangle, in which the pattern of the fibonacci numbers are also omni-present, this would hint even more on the fundamentality of this logical sequence. But what is it concretely interpreted? In a different approach of interpretation, the Fibonacci sequence can be ragarded as a simple replication sequence, of continuing certain progression patterns, somewhat, yes it sounds silly: "Past+Present=Future, and Present=Past+more previous past", although it is far too simplified if taken literally. In a very rough pattern, this might be correct. But the exact details are generated by that same process just interacting with uncountable similar parallel versions of it (these are what i regarded as butterfly clones in my thesis)- chaos theorists might call them "feedback loops", and you can imagine it as a ball of uncountable worms knotting each other...

3 years ago

imagine trying to side w a guy who is some country's national ass 🤡

Imagine being someone who thinks Tony Stark was right in Civil War 🤡

2 years ago

STEM writing advice

Ok so this could probably work for a lot of writing, but the only writing I've done in years is scientific papers, so I don't wanna lay untrue claims. Anyways, here we go!!!

Don't just put in a quote. Unpack it. By that, I mean explain the contents of the quote and then how it relates to your topic. For example, let's say you're writing about the sky and use the following quote: "the sky gets its color due to the reflection of light". Your followup sentence should explain this, looking something like: the blue color therefore is a result of this reflection in the atmosphere. It both helps explain the quote and its relevance. This is very important for supporting evidence for a claim.

Titles are hard!!!! I recommend writing your intro and discussion before deciding on one. This way you can pull a summary phrase from one to use for a title!

Download or save all your sources!!!! Trust me trying to find them panicking at 2am is no fun.

When compiling resources, make an annotated bibliography

WRITE ON YOUR SOURCES GOD DAMN IT!!!!! I don't know why this belief that you shouldn't write in books or on papers or anything is so prevalent. But fuck it. Trust me you want to write on them! It will save you so much time when you're looking for that once super specific, amazing, perfect quote you read.

Before you proofread, do not touch your paper for at least a day. Don't even think about it. You're too attached. After 24 hours of absence you'll be able to go "wow that really sucks what was I thinking?"

If you hit a block, just word vomit. Just write down anything and everything.

Or start with your evidence or quotes and build from there.

Use something like [zz] for missing information. That's what I use and it allows me to search the document for that to find where I'm missing something whether it's a citation, an explanation, a data point, whatever.

You don't have to write the sections in order. Write your methods first and your intro last. It doesn't matter at all.

It helps having someone else proofread your paper, but if no one can, Google translate or any read aloud service is amazing

Stuck on an idea? Talk about it to someone or something. I use my ferret. I'll just sit there and be like ok this is what my data is and this is the analysis from it, but how do I explain its relevance?? Like sure it shows this but what about this? And then eventually I figure it out. Bartenders are also great for this

If you don't like working at a library, make yourself a spot at home that's just for writing with no distractions. Yes, even that plant will get you away from your paper, trust me.

Get you a nice, soft pillow to bang your head against.

Learn to do calculations in excel and run analysis in a statistical software like R which is free to use!

If you want to access an article without paying, email the authors! A lot of time they'll send you the paper!

Keep track of ALL vocab. Any niche terms might have to be defined, so keeping a list with definitions/explanations is very helpful.

Make a folder with subfolders. Keeping things organized will save you so much time I promise. Put drafts in one folder, papers in another, lists in another, etc.

Save! Always save! Even better: set up autosave to occur every like 10 minutes.

Early mornings and/or late nights are gonna be your thing now I promise.

If your eyes start feeling strained or your head starts hurting, take a break! Trust me, once you start writing in what I like to call the "goo stage" (where you're starting to get foggy and tired, rubbing your eyes, stretching your back, etc) your work quality is gonna go way down. Get up, stretch, drink some water, take a walk, whatever.

Get a stress ball or something. Especially for running data analysis. Things get very frustrating.

Set up a news alert for your topic. It can help you find real world applications for your discussion as well as maybe find you a super recent publication!

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shut up and eat your burger

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