31
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 107 posts.
32
33
Correlation is usually not causation. But why not?
Correlations are oft interpreted as evidence for causation; this is oft falsified; do causal graphs explain why this is so common, because the number of possible indirect paths greatly exceeds the direct paths necessary for useful manipulation?
34
35
Visualizing Garbage Collection Algorithms
Developers take garbage collection for granted, but it's hard to see how it works. Watch 5 different GC algorithm visualizations.
36
Gridlock vs. Bottlenecks: A visual explanation
"Emails show [Chris Cristie]'s aides did plan bridge gridlock," says Salon . To a transportation engineer, the aides are innocent: bridges can't have gridlock. While we often say "gridlock" to mean "bad traffic," it has a technical meaning.
37
38
39
How to walk through walls using the 4th dimension [video]
An explanation of how walking through walls would actually look like if you could move in 4D.
40
Helmhurts: Placing a WiFi router with the Helmholtz equation
A few posts back I was concerned with optimising the WiFi reception in my flat, and I chose a simple method for calculating the distribution of electromagnetic intensity. I casually mentioned that I really should be doing things more rigorously by solving the Helmholtz equation, but then didn't. Well, spurred on by a…
41
42
43
Which Is Closer: Local Beer or Local Whiskey?
For which fraction of the US is the nearest brewery further away than the nearest distillery? Analysis and visualization done with Wolfram Language.
44
The Derivative of a Number
Are you kidding? Edward Barbeau is now a professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Toronto. Over the years he has been working to increase the interest in mathematics in general, and e…
45
46
47
The most common errors in undergraduate mathematics
This page describes the errors that I have seen most frequently in undergraduate mathematics, the likely causes of those errors, and their remedies.
48
MathBox 2
Notes will appear here. Please view in Chrome or Firefox. Chrome is glitchy, Firefox is stuttery. Work in progress. :/
49
50
51
Computational Knowledge and the Future of Pure Mathematics
Proposing technology for pure mathematics: curating concepts, constructs, theorems, & literature; precise symbolic language; automated computations...
52
53
Fast and easy Levenshtein distance using a trie (2011)
<img src="http://stevehanov.ca/blog/images/acer.jpg"/> If you have a web site with a search function, you will rapidly realize that most mortals are terrible typists. Many searches contain mispelled words, and users will expect these searches to magically work. This magic is often done using levenshtein distance. In…
54
A Gentle Introduction to Backpropagation
A gentle introduction to backpropagation, a method of programming neural networks
55
56
Neglected machine learning ideas
This post is inspired by the “metacademy” suggestions for “leveling up your machine learning.” They make some halfway decent suggestions for beginners. The problem is, thes…
57
58
Why cans of soup are shaped the way they are
What is special about cylinders, and why do they have specific aspect ratios?
59
60
Random Solutions are Often Good Enough
Sometimes taking the easy way out isn’t nearly as bad as it might seem! posted Thursday February 13th, 2014 Tagged: Math