Monthly Archives: November 2007
Pulling the goalie
Don Elgee, a retired teacher of mathematics and computer science from Ottawa, sends the following inquiry: In hockey, when a team is down by a goal with about one minute to go, the goalie is pulled in favor of another … Continue reading
Posted in computing, games, mathematics
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Last name first
Saturday’s New York Times had a story by Sam Roberts about a newly released Census Bureau study of the frequency of surnames in the U.S. The Times story was mainly about the names at the top of the list, and … Continue reading
Posted in biology, mathematics, modern life
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Until NEXPTIME
I have a few questions for the complexity theorists among us. Have you ever tried to explain to your grandmother why NP is named NP? Does she get it when you say that problems labeled NP-complete are the hardest problems … Continue reading
Posted in computing
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A New Yorker theorem
Barry Cipra, my friend and former neighbor, and a frequent bit-player commentator, is the Talk of the Town this week. A story in The New Yorker by Lizzie Widdicombe highlights Barry’s work on the mathematics of the following calendrical problem. … Continue reading
Posted in mathematics
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Boidland
Above: A throbbing, wheeling mob of several thousand restless starlings, near a strip mall in Clayton, North Carolina, 27 October 2007. Below: Snow geese on maneuvers near Ashburn, Missouri, 12 November 2004. In the 1930s, Edmund Selous argued that flocking … Continue reading