Category Archives: — By the Mathematician

Q: What is Bayes’ rule and how do I use it to improve my life?

Mathematician: Bayes’ theorem in one of the most practically useful equations coming from the field of probability. If you take its implications to heart it will make you better at figuring out the truth in a variety of situations. What … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Mathematician, Equations, Math, Probability | 8 Comments

Q: Is there an equation that determines whether a question gets answered on ask a mathematician/physicist?

Mathematician: Yes, but neither the Physicist nor I know it, and its shortest representation in standard mathematical notation is much too long to ever be written down. More precisely, there are an infinite number of such equations. These equations “exist” … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Mathematician, Philosophical | 8 Comments

Q: What’s the point of purely theoretical research?

Physicist: The classic answer to this question, due (possibly) to Franklin, is “what use is a new-born baby?”. The problem is that the best research/exploration is about looking for stuff, while not quite knowing what to expect or what to … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Mathematician, -- By the Physicist, Experiments, Philosophical, Skepticism | 4 Comments

Burning Man 2011

Before it was a website, Ask A Mathematician / Ask A Physicist was two guys sitting in the desert at Burning Man, presuming to answer (almost) any question that happened to occur to whomever happened to appear at our stand. … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Mathematician, -- By the Physicist | 11 Comments

Q: What are integral transforms and how do they work?

Mathematician: If you have a function f(x) and a function k(x,s) then you can (as long as the product of f(x) times k(x,s) is integrable on the set X) always form another function of a new variable s as follows: … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Mathematician, Engineering, Equations, Math | 9 Comments

Q: Is 0.9999… repeating really equal to 1?

Mathematician: Usually, in math, there are lots of ways of writing the same thing. For instance: = = = =   As it so happens, 0.9999… repeating is just another way of writing one. A slick way to see this … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Mathematician, Equations, Math | 117 Comments