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College Math
In high school, he taught himself multi variable calculus out of a book by Thomas. He says college math was " discouraging to him" because there were no proofs in geometry. But his fascination with einstein and metric space kept him coming back for more.
Steven Strogatz, an applied mathematician at Cornell, is a prominent figure in the field of nonlinear dynamics and chaos, and a widely beloved popularizer of math.
Episode sponsor: https://brilliant.org/3b1b
Brilliant is a great site/app for being more active in learning math.
--- Books by Strogatz which we discussed ---
Chaos and Nonlinear dynamics
https://amzn.to/3lFQjrU
Infinite powers
https://amzn.to/3AnvXIg
Unpublished appendix about Newton's letters to Leibniz:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5436e695e4b07f1e91b30155/t/5dd434fb9d105d031ded69de/1574188283323/Appendix+2+-+Newton+on+infinite+series+and+the+Epistola+Posterior+v4.pdf
--- Other things which came up ---
Strogatz's senior thesis:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5436e695e4b07f1e91b30155/t/5dca1c993141bb5946c54b45/1573526688118/The-mathematics-of-supercoiled-DNA.pdf
His first published paper:
https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/78/3/1461.full.pdf
Crick’s paper about linking numbers and nucleosomes with the memorable comment that inspired his experiment with the ribbon:
https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/73/8/2639.full.pdf
The 4-dog chase problem and its solution.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jun/03/can-you-solve-it-dogs-in-pursuit
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jun/03/did-you-solve-it-dogs-in-pursuit
For a full solution with calculus, see Strogatz's book "The Calculus of Friendship"
https://amzn.to/3CyVe48
Survey for kids on their desired occupation:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lego-group-kicks-off-global-program-to-inspire-the-next-generation-of-space-explorers-as-nasa-celebrates-50-years-of-moon-landing-300885423.html
A radical approach to real analysis
https://amzn.to/2VwtgF3
Twitter thread on what, morally, a normal subgroup is.
https://mobile.twitter.com/sbagley/status/1296211024534622208
Leibniz formula via patterns from primes
https://youtu.be/NaL_Cb42WyY
--- Table of contents ---
0:00 - Intro
1:15 - Ad
1:59 - The perfect problem for a high school student
12:43 - Starting the Princeton undergrad
22:52 - The most beautiful proof
26:58 - What makes someone love a problem?
36:05 - Putting lessons online
41:57 - In and out of pre-med
47:05 - The geometry of DNA
58:53 - Using teaching as a means to learn
1:09:47 - Do students like history?
1:18:39 - The truth of Newton and Leibniz
1:23:29 - Archimedes, a true great
1:28:32 - Pitfalls of pure math exposition
1:39:03 - "Morality" in math
1:43:20 - An under-motivated culture
1:51:48 - What's next?
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