Tag: math

Topic 10: Fire in flight (Natural Sciences)

A fire on an airplane can be deadly. It can be caused by bad wiring (Swissair Flight 111), under-inflated tires (Nigeria Airways Flight 2120) or combustible cargo (ValuJet Flight 592, UPS Airlines Flight 6). Fire

Dear Curious Eagles,

Liberal arts is at the heart of the education you are receiving at Boston College, and nothing epitomizes liberal arts better than interdisciplinary studies like a major in International Studies or the Perspectives Program.

There is, though, no single class that satisfies all

Japanese and American people are truly remarkable people, although they amaze in entirely different ways.

The Japanese excel in order and discipline.

My favorite example to illustrate this is the shugaku ryokou, which is like a field trip for an entire grade over a couple nights at some exotic location like the historical city of Kyoto or Tokyo

This post is about the art of responsible gambling.

The phrase "responsible gambling" may sound like an oxymoron, but it is not in fact a contradiction in terms.  And there is "art" involved in responsible gambling because tact and subtlety are necessary in delicately balancing chance, cost and entertainment involved with gambling.

The first rule of responsible

I had one of the most deeply reflective moments about life in college in, of all places, math class, from a professor who shared a story about a failure of Johannes Kepler before he discovered that the planets orbit the sun in an elliptical curve.

Back in Kepler's days, scientists were aware of only six planets.  Kepler

"Nothing is lower than the human race---except the French."  --Mark Twain

A couple months ago, a Chinese person shared how she's struggling with the Japanese counting system because it had different units for different things.  Counting two pencils is "ni-hon," for example, but two books is "ni-satsu."  Boats are counted "ni-sou" yet larger ships are "ni-seki."

A couple months ago, I defended lawyers. To show that I can make myself even more lovable, today I defend my educational background, which I thought spoke for itself.  For this show of narcissism that's paralleled, y'all can thank my office neighbor, who, upon hearing the details of my academic history,  questioned whether I slipped through the

I love myself.

This blog is all about me, which is why I love it and I need people to read it, comment on it and love it.

If I'm partaking in a conversation, I need to be the center of attention.  I need people to laugh at my stories and show interest in what I say

Last week, I bought a TI-89 calculator.  It's like the calculator you used to get by calculus in high school, only this one is better.

I've wanted one for a long time.  My freshman year at Boston College, I got a TI-89 because I was well on my way to majoring in math.  This union lasted

My family's home in New Jersey has received quite a technology upgrade over the last three months, culminating with the iMac replacing the five and a half year old eMac as my mom's main computer.

The initial process began in October when I moved to NYC.  I needed a wireless hub and the one I got

I think I'll make a great math teacher, not because I can teach well, but because the math education in this country is so fucked up I can't possibly do worse.

For those of you already teaching pre-college math, here are ten good places to start:

A couple years ago when I was in law school, a friend of mine who was overwhelmed with credit card debt asked me to figure out how much in monthly payments she should make in order to fully pay off the debt in a certain number of years.  Although the math was rather easy to