The CATs of mathematics
Posted by: Gary Ernest Davis on: November 2, 2013
Mathematics has numerous cats. For instance, there’s:
- Catalan numbers, which appear all over the place in counting situations.
- The Catalan constant
- Category theory
- The Catenary curve
- The Catenoid surface
- A Catalan surface
- Catastrophe theory
But here’s a Cat that will never appear in the Encyclopedia of Mathematics:
- The totally pissed Cat:
 Yeah, I’m looking at YOU!
Followed by,
- The Now I’m Safe Cat:
 I hope this isn’t going to be a regular occurrence …
Why Jared and Brittany will never be good at math.2
Posted by: Gary Ernest Davis on: September 19, 2013
Jared was pleased how easy algebra was. He thought it might be hard, but he was finding it much easier than he had imagined.
“Hey, Brittany, look at this,” he said. “How simple is this?”
Brittany looked at Jared’s work on the problem of calculating how far the point 
“Why’s it called the ‘Cartesian plane‘,” asked Brittany. “Like, who was ‘Cartesian‘ and what’s it got to do with flying?”
Jared didn’t know. “But let me show you how easy this is,” he said. “Look, there’s this formula of some Pythagoras dude that says the distance is 
“I don’t get it,” said Brittany.
“Neither did I,” said Jared,” till I realized how easy it is. Look: 
“Jared! You’re a freaking genius,” said Brittany. “How did you figure this out?”
“I worked on a couple of examples and it sort of just came to me,” said Jared.
“”Ace!” said Brittany. “You’ll be top of the class, Jared!”
