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This is a blog where a professor from Northeastern University's Math department posts mathematical comments on the television show "Numb3rs". To comment, write to bridger@neu.edu.
Unique visitors since 6/14/2005:
January 31, 2006
For those of you who want to know more about Ramanujan but who don't have time now to read "The Man Who Knew Infinity", here is a pretty good short bio online:
The site itself has many other biographies, plus lots of links to related mathematics. If you like math, it's a good one to bookmark.
January 31, 2006
Sorry about the repetition of a few paragraphs in yesterday's Ramanujan blog. I think they are now fixed, so give it another shot if your were put off by it.
There were some other mathematical references in last Friday's show, but none of them seemed so interesting. I'll discuss them if I get a chance. You can also learn more about Ramanujan on the web and in a short essay by James R. Newman in the four-volume "The World of Mathematics."
Your blogmeister
January 30, 2006
Amita's family name is Ramanujan; we learn in this episode that her family speaks Tamil (one of the major languages and cultures of India). She comes from Chennai, a major coastal city of India of about 7 million, and formerly (before 1996) known as Madras.
Somewhat to the south along the bay of Bengal and a bit inland along the Cauvery river is the town of Kumbakonam... continued »
January 27, 2006
In the last blog about face recognition algorithms I discussed the best possible case: A library or database of high-resolution full-face images, and a photo of similarly high quality to be matched with them.
Here is another, somewhat less satisfactory scenario, which is more typical. Once again we have a good database of images -- say of workers in some plant... continued »
January 22, 2006
As you may have noticed, last Friday's episode was a repeat of a show from last October. If you look at the blog archives from then you will find some commentary on "tree pruning" and "vector fields." I didn't have time to watch the repeat since I was away this weekend. I'll try to review it and see if there is anything more I can say. I still plan to comment a bit more about face recognition.
You blogmeister
January 19, 2006
Face recognition is an important topic in computer science these days, and there is a lot of active research. Last week's episode ("Double Down") has a computer finding a match between a driver's license photo and a student ID picture from a database. This is one situation where image-matching software is pretty successful, since both types of ID photos are taken under controlled circumstances and with pretty good resolution... continued »
January 15, 2006
For a summary of the basic rules of Blackjack, and some terminology, see my previous blog.
The dealer in blackjack doesn't have a lot of decisions to make, since she has to "buy" or "hit" (take another card) when holding a total of 16 or less, and stand (take no more cards) with 17 or more. The player, on the other hand, has two kinds of decisions to make.
1. How much should I play for? In other words, what should my initial bet be before any cards are dealt... continued »
January 14, 2006
I'm visiting family today -- I'll discuss the math on "Double Down" tomorrow... continued »
January 13, 2006
Tonight's show is about the card game called "Blackjack" or "21". You probably are familiar with it, but just in case you aren't here is a brief explanation of the rules.
Every game of Blackjack has a dealer who represents the "house" or ownership of the casino, and from 1 to 7 players. It is also played with 1 to 6 decks of cards, shuffled, in a pile or dispenser called the shoe... continued »
January 7, 2006
The most important work that Charlie does in last night's episode is to construct what he calls "shooting trees" and then to analyze them... continued »
January 4, 2006
A blog reader recently asked about fractals. The is a very interesting subject, one that has been widely studied only since modern computers have enabled us to picture them so dramatically.
A fractal is a shape or curve that is self-similar. This means that it exhibits patterns that are similar at all levels of magnification... continued »
January 1, 2006
First of all, Happy New Year to all!
I'd like to make a clarification of the relation between cellular automata and computing... continued »