Teen Girls Use Math to Prove Once & For All That Jack Could Have Fit on That Door With Rose
Don't @ me.
It's been twenty years this month since Titanic was released in theaters, which means fans have spent two full decades arguing over whether or not Jack had to die, because from where we were all sitting, that door Rose floats on, saving her life, looked to have a whole lot of room left over.
Read MoreTeen Makes Grad Dress out of Math Homework to Raise Money for Malala Fund
Mathematical!
In a bid to raise money and awareness for global education, 18-year-old Erinne Paisley designed a fashionable (and mathematical) dress for her graduation.
Read MoreMeet 10-Year-Old Math Genius Esther Okade, Already Killing It At University
Esther Okade might be ten years younger than normal university students, but she's easily ten years cooler. Even Tony Stark didn't graduate MIT until he was in his late teens.
Read MoreWomen In STEM, the White House Wants to Hear Your Stories!
And we do too, by the by.
Of the many reasons why STEM fields aren't traditionally dominated by women, perceived lack of relevant role models might be the easiest to fix. After all, it's not like incredible female scientists haven't already made significant achievements in their fields ; more often, they're just not given the credit they deserve.
Read MorePixar Explains How Animators Use Math to Make Movie Magic
Okay, but then why don't you guys know that 4 is too many?
Sure, high school Carolyn, you don't need math for anything in the "real world." But what if you don't want to live in the real world? What if you want a rad career at Pixar? What then, you dilly-dally!? In this fascinating video from Numberphile, Pixar animators explain the math behind their movies and prove they really know their stuff.
Read MoreMaryam Mirzakhani Becomes First Woman to Earn Fields Medal for Mathematics in Its 78 Year History
Mathematical!
The Fields Medal, or the International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, has been awarded to 2 to 4 mathematicians under the age of 40 every four years since 1936. This year, for the first time, it will be awarded to a female mathematician: Iranian born Maryam Mirzakhani.
Read MoreIn Which Vi Hart Explains Why Some Infinities Are Bigger Than Others [VIDEO]
Mathemagical!
I have a vague grade school memory of countering someone's declaration that they were cooler than me "times infinity" with my being cooler than them "times infinity plus one." Turns out, my claim has at least some potential for validity, because infinities come in different sizes. I'll let the brilliant Vi Hart explain.
Read MoreToday Is The Last Day Of The World Science Festival, Catch The Final Livestreams Right Here
Get a little science on your Sunday.
Today is the last day of the World Science Festival in Brooklyn! If you've missed out so far, don't worry - you can catch livestreams of the final events right here at 1pm, 4pm, and 5pm EDT.
Read MoreMathematical Model Predicts Computers Will Never Become Self-Aware, Saves Us From Judgment Day
Unless the computers they used for their calculations are trying to throw us off track...
A scientific model of how consciousness works in the human brain might mean that it's mathematically impossible for computers to ever become self aware. So, we're never going to all get slaughtered/enslaved by robots! Well, not robots that think for themselves, anyway.
Read MoreRhesus Monkeys Can Do Math, Time to Trade in Your TI-84 and Get Yourself a Math Monkey
Alright. Your calculator is still probably better at math, but it's not as cute.
As the saying goes, if you put 100 monkeys with typewriters in a room long enough, you'll get Hamlet. That's not true, but apparently if you put some rhesus monkeys in a room with numbers and reward them for choosing the right one long enough, you can get them to do math.
Read MoreSTEM Hiring Managers Often Favor Male Candidates, Says Yet Another Study
6 Carefully Calculated Ways To Celebrate Pi Day
Sock It To 'Em Ada
Three-point-one-four cheers for Pi Day! Yes, it’s March 14, the day when nerds revel in the intersection of math puns and dessert consumption. While eating pie is the best and most correct way to commemorate the day, I’m here to recommend some more colorful activities, intended to please your brain rather than your belly. Not that I’m scrapping tradition entirely. A thematically appropriate pie pairing is suggested for each activity.
ViHart Tries to Bake Cookies, Only Bakes Math
om nom nom
MATH, I said MATH. And anyway, you cook... never mind. Mathy-lady ViHart got together with mathy friends Andrea Hawksley, and Gwen and Ruth Fisher, and tried to make shortbread cookies without demonstrating any higher geometry concepts. They failed, but it was a delicious failure.
Read MoreGuys, There’s a Paper That Describes the Relationship Between Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Darcy Using Math
Peanut Butter and Chocolate
"A mathematical model is proposed for interpreting the love story between Elizabeth and Darcy portrayed by Jane Austen in the popular novel Pride and Prejudice. The analysis shows that the story is characterized by a sudden explosion of sentimental involvements, revealed by the existence of a saddle-node bifurcation in the model. The paper is interesting not only because it deals for the first time with catastrophic bifurcations in romantic relation-ships, but also because it enriches the list of examples in which love stories are described through ordinary differential equations…. A series of small discoveries can give rise to a sudden turning-point in the development of a love story. In mathematical terms these turning-points are nothing but so-called catastrophes, which, in the case of Pride and Prejudice, are technically revealed by the existence of a saddle-node bifurcation.” — Discover has a lingo-laced excerpt from the paper "A mathematical model of 'pride and prejudice'" ("as a consequence of the letter the upper saddle-node bifurcation curve is crossed from below and this crossing implies a discontinuous jump from x’ to x”’..."), plus a graph. A graph.
It's so beautiful.
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This Guy Probably Just Won A Million Dollars For Doing Math; Suddenly Wish I Was Better At Math
This prize is sweeter than 3.1415926535897.
Okay, so it's not the most foolproof of "get-rich-quick" schemes, but one man from Kazakhstan may have just become a millionaire - through math. Spending the last thirty years working on a math proof that has stumped mathematicians for decades, Mukhtarbay Otelbayev thinks he's solved it - and he wants the prize.
Read MoreMath Bites Tackles Binary Numbers [VIDEO]
Imagine What You'll Know Tomorrow
According To This Mathematical Model, Facebook Will Lose 80% Of Its Followers In The Next Few Years
Nowhere does the paper mention what effect that moms joining Facebook has on the population.
Facebook's reckoning is any day now, we expect. Oh, sure, they claim to have reached over 1.1 billion people since May of last year, but we're all getting tired of it, right? Two engineers from Princeton University think the site has peaked and will probably see a rapid decrease in users, and they've got the math to back up their claim.
Read MoreDanica McKellar’s New Nerdist Channel Show, “Math Bites,” Is Kind of Adorable (Though It Needs A Better Name)
Well, now we just want pie.
While we can't quite figure out whether it's geared towards kids or not, we definitely love that Danica McKellar is doing a show for the Nerdist that's all about her love of math. This first episode is all about Pi and features a cover of the first hundred or so digits set to "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies." That's all you can ask for, really.
Read MoreDanica McKellar Tries To Make You Hate Math Less In Her New Webseries [VIDEO]
Oh Really?
Having an older brother who teaches math in a way that wouldn't bore you our of your mind, I can appreciate Danica McKellar's (yes, Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years) work here. Anyway, it's a new series on The Nerdist YouTube channel called "Math Bites," with new episodes every Thursday. Give it a watch, especially when she kicks it up a notch around 3:14 (HA HA HA). You may even see a few other familiar faces. Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
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