There’s no denying that 360 video is cool, but the files required are large and can really bog down if you’re watching them online. Now, Facebook has developed a way to compress the videos by as much as 80 percent without any loss in quality.
That might sound incredible, but it’s just the smart application of a little math. In a video published on Facebook, software engineer David Pio explains that the new technique thinks about the video as a cube or pyramid rather than a sphere. The scientists who made headlines this week by announcing evidence for a new planet in our solar system are basing the claim entirely on a mathematical model. Nobody’s seen the thing, but the math says it’s there. This isn’t the first time scientists have found a new planet before reallyfinding it, but this technique also has produced outright blunders. This time, though, astronomers say there’s reason to take the new potential planet seriously.
A Rutgers University's mathematician says he has found a reason why the Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots did so well this regular season. And it doesn't have anything to do with their star quarterbacks.
A "flaw" in the 2015 National Football League schedule gave teams in the Panthers and Patriots divisions the rare opportunity to beat up on the same eight teams from the NFL's two weakest divisions, the AFC South and NFC East, said Steven Miller, vice chair of Rutgers' mathematics department. In other words: The NFL schedule usually does a good job of spreading around the lightweights, he said. In 2015, it didn't, Miller said. This one's my favourite:
Three logicians walk into a bar. The bartender asks, “Do all of you want a drink?”… The first logician says, “I don’t know.” The second logician says, “I don’t know.” The third logician says, “Yes!” I needed help with #5 and #19. There is a lot of beauty in mathematical equations. They represent some of the most profound rules that govern the Universe and everything in it.
Understanding the most profound equations takes years of training, and many of them are so complex that they are hard to convey in normal language. However, that does not mean we cannot all appreciate their beauty. BBC Earth asked mathematicians and physicists to tell us which equations they think are the most beautiful. Their choices range from explanations of antimatter to predicting how sub-atomic particles behave. You can't help but love this guy (even if he is a Packer) Pedram T (above) - went WAY out of his way to drive me home Friday afternoon! Heated seats are much better than what you get on the bus!
Marko P - fixed the electric pencil sharpener! We all owe him a big "Thank-you"! Nella L and Toji N - installed software on my Macbook Air that will allow me (well, actually, will allow my C.S. students) to create new puzzles. And we all love the puzzles, right? A new prime number has been discovered — and it's the biggest one known by almost five million digits.
A prime number is a whole number greater than one that can only be divided by itself and one. The best known primes are the small ones such as 2, 3, 5, and 7. New, very large ones are difficult to find and of great interest to mathematicians. The newest prime number, also known as M74207281, has 22,338,618 digits and is the number you get when you multiply 74,207,281 twos together and then subtract one, says the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, which announced the discovery. You can download a zip file of the entire number here. That makes it a special kind of number called a Mersenne prime. All Mersenne primes can be produced by multiplying together a certain number of twos and subtracting one. Only 49 Mersenne primes have ever been discovered, including the new one. |
P. WadgeI am your teacher. Obey me. Archives
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