Dialogue with Kyle and Debriefing – D31

This afternoon we didn’t had programming class, but instead, talked with Kyle about our curriculum and our process at the MPC. I really like that he is genuinely interested in what is happening at the MPC and with our learning process, and I appreciate that. He also showed us the Pomodoro Method, which is to work for 25 minutes and then rest for 5. Also, that he stands up for working and then rests for 5 minutes and read some book’s pages, randomly. I think I’ll try the Pomodoro Method.

Then, we had a dialogue about chapter 2 of Taming the Infinite, and talked mostly about music, which was a lot of fun and instructing. Alejo also helped a lot with his insights and expertise on music. We discussed how sound waves work and how Pythagoreans saw the world through music.

To end our day, we had some debriefing, which was pretty chill and funny. We talked about things to do like an a cappella group, making the MPC journal, and I proposed to come with costumes for Halloween. The funniest thing of this part of the day was Bert’s joke suggesting that Pablito should come in a Sister Miriam Joseph costume!

Here’s how I picture him! (Sorry Pablito)

Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land – D27

To finish our day, Bert shared us this 1959 Donald Duck cartoon. It related a lot to Euclid and of course, math in general. It’s a very nice video that explains how math is in everything we do and shows some of the history of this discovery getting back to the Greeks, with Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans. It also explains the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden number, φ. After watching this cartoon, we had a dialogue about it. One of the most important things I got from the video is the capacity of explaining very difficult and complex concepts in very simple and straightforward cartoons.  

Watch the video by clicking --> HERE <--

First approach with Andrew Humphries – D11

Thanks to Skype we had our first approach with Bert’s son, Andrew, who studied at St. John’s and has taken the Euclid’s road of geometry and logic building. The purpose of the conversation was for him to tell and recommend us about his experience with Euclid. He also recommended us to learn Euclid by doing presentations, in which we would make the propositions by ourselves and then present them to the group. Also, he volunteered to help us with our geometry and teaching skills. He seems a very well prepared and smart person.

By the way, Andrew is working in New Delhi, India. I don’t know exactly on what he is working, but I have a clue that is something related with math.

What is a point? Again! – Dialogue about Euclid’s definitions– D11

Euclid, Euclid, Euclid. Why are you giving us such a hard time? We wanted to start doing some geometry, but before we did that Ingrid suggested that we took an overview on the definitions so they would be clear to all of us before we started. Do you guess the result of that? Another hour or so talking about what was a point! I do have to admit that it was more clarifying although we didn’t had a general agreement. There were two sides, one that stood that a point could exist by itself (Alejo and I), and the other that a point could only exist by a reference to something meaning that a point is only a concept of location (Bert and the rest of MPC’ers). At the end, we didn’t agree, but it was a good mental exercise. We managed to review some other 5 or 6 definitions, but neither did we finished them nor got to the propositions part. 

What is a point? – Dialogue about Euclid’s definitions– D9

This was our first true approach to Euclid. As with everything, you must start with the beginning, and in Euclid’s Elements that is the definitions from Book I. There are 23 and for about an hour and a half we couldn’t discuss more than 7. Yes people, only seven. We spent like 45 minutes discussing the first one, what is a point? Euclid says: “A point is that which has no part”. Any guess? We had a lot of guesses but none of them persuaded everyone. It was mentally exhausting, although I must admit it was a little fun to actually think from scratch. That was because one of the “rules” is to forget everything you may think you “know” and trying to understand Euclid under his own terms. Quite a challenge, ha? You may also be questioning why are we reading Euclid when we have many modern math books that are more “updated”. Well, Euclid’s Elements are the foundations of geometry and from his work derives many of the so-called modern math. The purpose is to explore and discover the foundations that are taken for granted in the math we usually learn in school and college, and go through the process Euclid did to make the propositions of his works. It is to go through the logic process to discover nature’s properties.

Getting into math, Euclid – D7

After what I like to call a horrible day, today was pretty chill. We had a lot of individual work, which was great to free my mind, and after lunch we had a dialogue on Euclid’s preface (editor’s preface to be precise). It was not interesting at all. I think it was because I was so sleepy and talking about a math book’s preface made by the editor was not that encouraging either. I took something really positive though. It was a reflection about how people are willing to protect something really valuable for mankind, such as Euclid’s geometry books. Can you imagine how many people participated in keeping that book safe? So you can later say: “Well, screw that book, I don’t like math anyways”?

Numbers, Numbers Everywhere – Dialogue with Kyle Passarelli D6

What is math? What are numbers? Could math exist without numbers and numbers without math? Is mathematics inherent to the world? I’ve been thinking of these questions since our dialogue on Wednesday and it’s very interesting how humans are capable of adapting the things I believe are inherent in the world into our world. What I mean is that math is always and will always be in the world, whether we see it or not, whether we can apply it or not. Math is there. On the other hand, we have numbers, which we must not confuse with math. Numbers are concepts, symbols, imaginary things created by humans in order to understand mathematics. In other words, numbers are created to adapt math into our life. Numbers are the language of math. So yes, math could exist without numbers, but not the other way. 

We also watched this awesome Fibonacci video and a video about Andrew Wiles and Fermat's Last Theorem!