In 1929, Frigyes Karinthy wrote a short story suggesting that everyone is connected to everyone else by six or seven degrees of separation. In 1967, the Harvard social psychologist Stanley Milgram, inspired by the story, set out to test the idea. He sent packages with folders of instructions to 160 random people living in Omaha, […]
Tag Archives: mathematics
It’s a Small World after all
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Tagged Big Science, Chrissie Giles, Duncan Watts, Ed Gerstner, Kevin Bacon, László Barabási, mathematics, Paul Erd?s, Resonance FM, Samuel Hansen, science, six degrees of separation, small world networks, social networks, Stanley Milgram, Steve Strogatz
The History of Mathematics
In this episode, we take a rollercoaster ride through the history of maths. From the four Greek ‘mathematics’ — geometry, astronomy, arithmetic and music. To fierce opposition to arabic numerals from European accountants. To the distaster that was Newton. All this and much more, with mathematics troubadour, Edmund Harriss.
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Tagged abacus, al-jabr, algebra, arabic numerals, arithmetic, Big Science, calculus, Ed Gerstner, Edmund Harriss, Fibonacci, geometry, history, Leibniz, mathematics, music, Newton, Pythagorus, Resonance FM, science
Truth, Gödel and Science Fundamentalism
Science is all about truth, right? So anything that is true can be determined by science, right? Probably not. In this week’s episode, we discuss Gödel’s incompleteness theorems with mathematician Edmund Harriss, and explore what it means for science, truth and the Infinite Monkey Cage.
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Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, Ed Gerstner, Edmund Harriss, Gödel, mathematics, non-periodic tilings, Penrose tiles, Resonance FM, science, Tanguy Chouard, truth, Turing
