Carol, Thank you for deepening our understanding of sociocultural influences especially re religion and language. Now, what kind of lovely insults would pastacephalic and proctocephallic impart (other than what I deduce from the first 6 or so letters of each term)? Joann Jelly Instructor in Psychology, Calif. Community College Graduate of University of San Francisco (not in mathematics)
________________________________ From: Carol DeVolder [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wed 1/11/2012 8:33 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Teaching Mathematics Through Pasta For the pastafarians among us, this seems an ideal way to bring religion into the classroom. When I was taking Latin terminology, I used to think of all the ways to insult people in Latin. Pastacephalic and proctocephalic are two that I remember. On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 7:39 AM, Michael Palij <[email protected]> wrote: There is an interesting article in the NY Times that focuses on a few mathematicians with too much time on their hands and the mathematical insights they have had about the shapes of pasta. The article can be accessed here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/science/pasta-inspires-scientists-to-use-their-noodle.html?src=recg One aspect of this is coming up with the equation that describes the shape of pasta and then using a program like Mathematica to visualize the resulting shape. For an example involving the pasta gemelli, see: http://shuisman.com/?p=369 For more experienced pasta eaters, here are a variety of pastas: http://shuisman.com/?p=1314 And for those whose appetites have been whetted, here is a book devoted to the topic titled "Pasta by Design"; see: http://www.thamesandhudson.com/9780500515808.html Now, I think that this represents a good example of how to show the basic mathematical nature of objects in physical reality even though most people would not be aware of the mathematics involved (one of the persons mentioned in the NY Times article claims to have used test items on his exams where the student had to match the correct equation to a specific pasta -- talk about understanding what the equation is about!). Too bad that the "shape" of human thought does not allow itself to such description. I'd love to have an exam question of the form: "match the 'thought' to the appropriate equation". ;-) -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=177920.a45340211ac7929163a0216244443341&n=T&l=tips&o=15205 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-15205-177920.a45340211ac7929163a0216244443...@fsulist.frostburg.edu -- Carol DeVolder, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology St. Ambrose University 518 West Locust Street Davenport, Iowa 52803 563-333-6482 This e-mail might be confidential, so please don't share it. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13010.76185584223b2f7b9f3a91a2f9913135&n=T&l=tips&o=15234 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-15234-13010.76185584223b2f7b9f3a91a2f9913...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=15247 or send a blank email to leave-15247-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
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