Recently it was noted, by Arstechnica and others, that ChatGPT doesn’t seem to be great at math questions – recent tests have found one can get wrong answers much more often than a calculator, and even apologize if you insist that it is wrong (suggesting it doesn’t know math after 2021… lol). but what about other similar assistants?
Continue reading “ChatGPT is bad at math? Turns out, so is Microsoft’s assistant.”Belchou’s Aces – an oldie but a fun mathematical card trick!
In Mathematics Magic and Mystery by Martin Gardner, he describes a trick that was published in an earlier publication in 1939. This one is easy to set up and surprising, as you can have a friend run the whole trick with a few simple instructions, no sleight of hand! Here’s how it works:
Continue reading “Belchou’s Aces – an oldie but a fun mathematical card trick!”The Tic-Tac-Toe Magic Square trick
In Mathematics Magic and Mystery by Martin Gardner, the author presents an interesting card trick to create a magic square (where all rows and columns add to the same number), using an interesting interactive game with a participant. After playing a game of tic-tac-toe, your friends will be surprised to see they set up the cards in a 3×3 grid summing the number on the cards to 15!
Continue reading “The Tic-Tac-Toe Magic Square trick”Are Electric vehicles the way to go? A mathematical look at the economics of EVs
There have been a lot of items in the news about electric cars recently – many states have rebate for new vehicles, and federal tax incentives will be a complicated and interesting opportunity next year. The car company website would certainly say you will save a lot purchasing their vehicles, but there is a surprisingly easy way to estimate for yourself whether an EV is cost effective.
Continue reading “Are Electric vehicles the way to go? A mathematical look at the economics of EVs”Microsoft Math Solver review
Years ago if you wanted a program to explain steps in mathematics, algebra or other complex math as a tutor would, you would have to buy a specialized software package built for some specific operating system (I forget the name… it may still be around?) Of course there was always open source software like Maxima to do powerful symbolic (or numeric, or graphing) math, but to know what to do one almost needs a manual, and while extremely powerful it was not helpful for beginners. I recently found a similarly useful free math solver on Microsoft’s site, https://mathsolver.microsoft.com:
Continue reading “Microsoft Math Solver review”