February 2011
7 posts
North Carolina
I was in Raleigh for the weekend, visiting NC State University. I loved it there! Spring already, lots of excited mathematicians. I like the idea of being in such a big department, and whatever the exact numbers were, it felt pretty gender-balanced.
I’m looking forward to visiting other places, too, but this weekend definitely upped my excitement about grad school. I want to write more...
Vectors
Annie, Geddes, and I have decided to take an introductory physics class on MIT opencourseware this winter, and we’re still in the kind of background info about math and measurement and stuff. Which means I spent an hour talking to Geddes about vectors today. What fun!
I’d like, first of all, to offer you this opportunity to look up “dot product” and “cross...
Come to think of it
There are a bunch of other braid properties I’ve been implicitly assuming. Definitely that a strand can’t be knotted around itself, and maybe also something about how the strands can’t “double back” up toward the person’s scalp. But I’m not sure if the latter means anything.
Anyway, now you know what theoretical* math is like: make up an object and then get excited about what it is or how...
Man, I work a lot less these days.
It’s pretty sweet! And pretty necessary, because I’m going to Real Grownup Grad School next year and want to take my breaks while I can.
Mathematically, I’m really into braids right now; doodling them in class and braiding a friend’s hair during the department’s weekly lunch talks. I’m discovering that lots of braids that look good on paper don’t look good in hair because of the way the...
