20.3.07

You know, this could be mathier

I was just freaking Suzie out recently with the admission that while I studied predominantly arts subjects in junior college, I actually enjoyed the mathematics that we were compelled, more or less, to take as a fourth 'A' Level subject. I mean, it was a subject that involved zero reading, plenty of rote work and no essay-writing --- the perfect break after hours spent labouring over a biography of Robert Lowell or parsing the difference between certain rock formations.

Having said that, I will admit that I clicked on this BBC News link with some trepidation: "248-dimension maths puzzle solved". And after reading it twice, I still have no idea what it's about.

Clearly, my geek cred needs a little help (even with a plus-10 boost).

-----|||||-----

Technorati Tags:

Labels:

1 Comments:

At 3/21/2007 1:34 am , Blogger L'oiseau rebelle said...

Having taken too many algebra classes in college, I roughly understand what the article is talking about. By "roughly", I mean that I understand the complexity of the problem (it is indeed hard to work in high dimensions, although there are ways to "visualize" these dimensions - for my research project I lived in the 32nd dimension), but I won't be able to understand the paper in question.

College math is radically different from the stuff we learned during A-Levels. Some of my proofs were two or three page mini-essays. There were hardly any formulae in my research paper.

Ah... the good old days of college...

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

 
-->