UCT is hiring in Mathematics/Applied Mathematics
Please spread the following advertisement to anybody who may be interested in a standard academic position or teaching only position in the Maths and Applied Maths department at UCT:
PassRateChallenge – A Thundafund initiative
Take a look at the PassRateChallenge video here and see how spreading materials to those who need them most can help mathematics students around the country.
The Thundafund page is here.
Women in Mathematics for Social Change & Sustainable Livelihoods
Please see here the poster for the women in Mathematics for social change and sustainable livelihoods conference in Naivasha, Kenya in July 2015.
AMUCWA-AWMA Kenya announcement
3rd International Workshop on Nonlinear and Modern Mathematical Physics 9-11 April 2015, Cape Town, South Africa
Check out the following conference happening near Cape Town in April:
3rd International Workshop on Nonlinear and Modern Mathematical Physics 9-11 April 2015, Cape Town, South Africa
Mathemafrica needs You!!
We would love to develop the content here, but for that we need your input!
Whether you are a first year university student starting to study varsity level maths, or you’re a PhD student working on your thesis, a lecturer who has many years of research behind you, somebody working in mathematics education, a high school student who has suddenly come across a particular idea which blew your mind, or perhaps confused you to no end, we would like to hear from you.
We would like people who feel inspired to write about what mathematics means to them, and the parts of mathematics which inspire them.
Importantly we would like diversity both in terms of the level of mathematics discussed here as well as the language used. So whether you’re an English speaker, a Shona speaker, a Xhosa speaker, an Arabic speaker or any other language speaker/writer, please feel free to write in whichever language you are most comfortable.…
Presentation of the Mathemafrica framework to an Italian audience
Today I am presenting some of the ideas behind the Mathemafrica project to an Italian meeting, discussing the outcomes of the AIMS-imaginary meeting last month. The presentation can be found here:
Mathemafrica – Italian discussion
A personal introduction
I write this before Mathemafrica publicly launches. I want to give a little background about myself, what I am doing now, and what I see as the potential for Mathemafrica.
I am originally from England, Oxford to be precise. From a very early age I was fascinated with the way the world worked, being that pestering, questioning child who won’t take ‘just because’ for an answer. I was very lucky to discover early on that not only were there fascinating questions to be asked, but answers when you knew the right places to look. I was lucky to have resources at my fingertips and museums just down the road where there were mysteries to be solved on every trip. My curiosity was not sated by reading books and so I went on to study physics at University. After four years and still hungry for more I thought that a PhD might finally put a stop to my questioning, but of course that only added to the arsenal of tools at my disposal for answering them.…
A foray into a new number system – an introduction to imaginary numbers
This is the introduction which I give to my first year mathematics class when they see imaginary numbers for the first time. I thought I’d type it up here as it’s received good reactions the two times that I’ve introduced it in this format. Note that this probably isn’t the canonical way to introduce complex numbers, but then most of my lectures don’t necessarily take the normal route…
Complex Numbers, a philosophical detour
Before we get on to talking about imaginary numbers and complex numbers, let’s try and break down our preconceptions about numbers in general.
We look at the world around us and see many things which we categorise. We see a computer, a piece of paper, we see other people, we see our hands. These are labels that we use to categorise the world, but these objects seem very physical and very real. We rarely question their existence, though if one wants to take the Cartesian view, we should also question the reality we are in.…