I’m in. My plan is to re-write my 2007 NaNoWriMo-winning novel from the ground up, now that I am so much closer to actually knowing what I’m doing. My goal is 1k words per weekday, and 4k words per weekend-day (with Nov 25 & 26–off from work–counting as weekend days). If that goes completely to [...]
The biggest pitfall in studying ancient mathematics is subconsciously superimposing anachronistic views on the ancient way of thought. For example, the Sumerians had two different concepts that would both today be called ‘addition’, and for different concepts that we would lump as multiplication. Here’s an example of a mathematical problem and solution, given in “conform” translation: The [...]
I found a reference to the preceding problem in the book A Remarkable Collection of Babylonian Mathematical Texts, in appendix 6 on page 405. This problem statement is referred to as tablet DPA 37. It states: There is a curious error in DPA 37. The area mentioned in the answer exceeds the correctly computed area of the square by [...]
The short piece I wrote at VP is now making the rounds. I ended up making quite a few changes based on some excellent feedback: new title, new POV, new focus, and entirely new first act. I’ve never been good at revision, so I take this as a sign that I might have actually learned [...]
I was intrigued by this description of Sumerian mathematics in the Sargonic (Akkadian) era. Here’s a typical problem: 3600 + 5×60 nindan minus 1 ‘seed-cubit’ is the side of a square. Find the area. And the answer, as every schoolchild knows, is: 2 šar-gal, 2 šar-u, 4 bur-u, 9 bur 5 1/8 iku, 5 1/2 sar 1 [...]
Okay, good for making the place look not-so-empty, but annoying overall. How about some occasional actual content here? The other direction will still work though: blog posts will continue to generate tweet notifications. Coming soon: some juicy math research. 4 titles on order via interlibrary (Link+) loan. -m
Impressive, but distracting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sumerian_Calendar_ISO_B0.svg
Heavy outlining action ongoing. Eye on #NaNoWriMo #wip
Hey iTunes, Orchestral Suite #2 in B minor is nice, but not what I need right now, mkay?
Why does firefox do this to the fonts on some pages? Any idea? http://twitpic.com/30aic1