HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jbaez@riesz.mit.edu (John C. Baez)
Subject: Valley of the tough-talking dolls
Organization: UCR Department of Mathematics, Cambridge, LA
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 92 02:52:32 GMT

Yes, you're right, yet another Barbie post.  I'm going to excerpt some
from an article with the above title that appeared in today's Riverside
Press-Enterprise.  It's by Dan Bernstein, who has a regular opinion
and gossip column.  

---

Blond UCR math instructor Pam Clute joins the legions who wince at that
blond, curvy Barbie doll who whines, "Math class is tough."  Clute says
it nourishes the stereotype: Only nerdy women crunch numbers.

Worse, those who don't like what Barbie has to say may trade for a Babs
that doesn't talk at all.  Year of the Woman?  Year of the Babe?
U-pick.  [Yes, they write that way out here in LA.]  Actually,
mathophobic Barbie is only one in a series of talking dolls due for
release this holiday season.  Others:  [Here I select some that folks
outside of the LA area will understand-]

Hilary Clinton doll: "Baking cookies is tough."

George Bush doll: "Not being sleazy's gonna be kinda tough at this
juncture."

UCR Tenured Faculty doll: "Teaching three classes a year is tough."
[This is slander.  We teach 5 a year.  I'm not saying it's tough.]

Former UC President David Gardner doll: "Tough?  What's so tough?"
[This fellow collected piles of severance pay while UC went broke.]

Dan Quayle doll: "Everything is so tuff."

---

Now you can test your political correctness by seeing if you can tell
what's un-PC about the above.  No, not the Hilary Clinton joke - the
fact that it refers to Pam Clute as "blond" math instructor.  (The
question as to whether it should be "blonde" is a wholly different
matter.)  Since when do they talk about the hair colors of
mathematicians?  "Gauss, the gray-eyed, rougishly handsome mathematical
physicist, showed that a sum of independent identically distributed
random variables converges to the distribution that bears his name."
Well, of course part of the point here is that Pam Clute is being opposed to
Barbie.  But I imagine that another part of the point, which those of
you who aren't around can't realize, is that Clute is not merely blond,
she is extremely, or shall we say, paradigmatically blond.  She is also
always extraordinarily stylishly dressed.  And yet, yes, she teaches
math.  So I guess it's not only for nerdy women.  

But the real question is, does Barbie really "whine" it, or is this a
bit of poetic license?
From: sklar@picasso.ocis.temple.edu (Dave Sklar)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Well-known people who majored in math (other than mathematicians)
Date: 10 Oct 92 02:31:24 GMT
Organization: Temple University
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

Steve Buyske (buyskes@lafcol.lafayette.edu) wrote:
: 
: Lewis Carroll,  author of Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking 
: 	Glass, and other works.

	Charles Lutwidge Dodgson {LC} wrote some books on logic and was a
mathematician, albeit not a very famous one.
From: scott@acavax.lynchburg.edu
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Finding a PC decompression program
Date: 14 Oct 92 12:51:55 -0500
Organization: Lynchburg College

I don't know if this is the appropriate forum in which to field this question,
but here goes : 
	
	Does anyone out there know how I can get a PC program which will 
decompress binaries created with UNIX TAR? I will greatly appreciate any help
in finding such a program (preferably free and available by anonymous ftp).

Please respond by e-mail to:
SCOTT@ACAVAX.LYNCHBURG.EDU

Thanks in advance,

Kevin Scott :-)
From: grenader@buphy.bu.edu (Dmitry Grenader)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Muller's method
Date: 16 Oct 92 12:28:43 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Boston University Physics Department


  I am using Muller's iteration formula and don't know how
to go about choosing initial arguments.  Namely, I have x(i),
x(i-1) and x(i-2) in the formula, - so can somebody tell me what
I should set those (i-1) and (i-2) terms to ?

  Thank you in advance.  Please respond to grenader@buphy.bu.edu

--
From: edgar@function.mps.ohio-state.edu (Gerald Edgar)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Well-known people who majored in math (other than mathematicians)
Date: 15 Oct 1992 11:31:23 -0400
Organization: The Ohio State University, Dept. of Math.
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: function.mps.ohio-state.edu

In article <92288.113616RVESTERM@vma.cc.nd.edu> <RVESTERM@vma.cc.nd.edu> writes:
>could someone at columbia go to the library and look up what art
>garfunkel's doctoral thesis was on? i'd be very interested.
>

CLIO, Columbia's library listings accessible from the internet, does
not list it.  Perhpas CLIO only goes back to a certain date...


-- 
  Gerald A. Edgar                Internet:  edgar@mps.ohio-state.edu
  Department of Mathematics      Bitnet:    EDGAR@OHSTPY
  The Ohio State University      telephone: 614-292-0395 (Office)
  Columbus, OH 43210             -292-4975 (Math. Dept.) -292-1479 (Dept. Fax)
From: mueller@schaefer.math.wisc.edu (Carl Douglas Mueller)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Another GRE question for you folks
Date: 12 Oct 92 17:39:40 GMT
Reply-To: mueller@schaefer.UUCP (Carl Douglas Mueller)
Distribution: na
Organization: Univ. of Wisconsin Dept. of Mathematics

In article <1bcao2INN8c8@fido.asd.sgi.com> mtj@babar.asd.sgi.com (Michael Jones) writes:
>In article <...>, nin15b66@merrimack.edu writes:
>> This one came from a sample GRE test.
>> 
>> It is one where you have to choose A if the one on the left is greater,
>> B if the one on the right is greater, C if they are equal or D if it can't be
>> determined.
>> 
>> 	Column A			Column B
>>   4 + 2*the square root of 2         2 + 4*the square root of 2
>> 
>> The answer they gave is B.
>> 
>
>The answers are:
>
> A iff they want the negative root.
> B iff they want the positive root.
> C *never*
> D iff they want mathematicians.
>
 
If it was written with the radical (square root sign), then B is correct.
Radical 2 MEANS the positive square root of 2.  This is probably what 
they were testing.

Carl Mueller (mueller@math.wisc.edu)
From: cxu@milton.u.washington.edu (Chongguang Xu)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Combinatorics Problem (probably easy)
Date: 15 Oct 92 23:28:15 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Oct15.232815.26763
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle


I have a conjecture about a combinatorics question which I have been 
unable to prove.  I'm hoping someone on the net knows the answer or
can give me a reference.

Given a set S of k elements, let A be the largest family of subsets of S
such that for every two elements a and b of A, b is not a substet of a.  
My conjecture is that the cardinality of A is C(k, [k/2]), where C(p,q)
is the binomial coefficient, and [c] is the floor of c.  I can prove that 
the cardinality of A is at least that big, but I can't prove it can't 
be bigger.


Thanks in advance,

Chongguang Xu
From: jwales@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (jimmy donal wales)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Philosophical Foundations of Probability?
Date: 14 Oct 92 20:52:08 GMT
Article-I.D.: usenet.Bw4pyw.J22
Organization: Indiana University

MICHAEL K ROGERS writes:
>jimmy donal wales (jwales@silver.ucs.indiana.edu) wrote:
>: I'm looking for pointers to books or review articles on modern
>: views of the philosophical foundations of probability theory.
>: 
>: --Jimbo
>
>The closest thing I know of are two books by Ian Hacking,
>"The Emergence of Probability" and "The Taming of Chance."

O.k., I've got those, that is a good beginning.

Anything else?  Anyone?

Is there a journal which would be likely to contain good
philosophical foundations of math/probability/statistics 
stuff?

I'm trying to decide if I'm a Bayesian, see.  *grin*

--Jimbo
Newsgroups: sci.math
From: stephen@mont.cs.missouri.edu (Stephen Montgomery-Smith)
Subject: Re: Calculating pi: help!
Organization: University of Missouri
Date: 14 Oct 92 18:45:07 GMT

In <7557@charon.cwi.nl> dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) writes:

>int a=10000,b,c=2800,d,e,f[2801],g;main(){for(;b-c;)f[b++]=a/5;for(;d=0,g=c*2;c
>-=14,printf("%.4d",e+d/a),e=d%a)for(b=c;d+=f[b]*a,f[b]=d%--g,d/=g--,--b;d*=b);}


I would be very interested to know how this program works.

Stephen

Xref: sparky sci.math:13320 sci.math.num-analysis:3029 sci.math.stat:2146 sci.math.symbolic:2743
From: edgar@function.mps.ohio-state.edu (Gerald Edgar)
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.math.num-analysis,sci.math.stat,sci.math.symbolic
Subject: Re: Richard Fateman's e-mail address
Date: 16 Oct 1992 15:55:46 -0400
Organization: The Ohio State University, Dept. of Math.
NNTP-Posting-Host: function.mps.ohio-state.edu
Keywords: finger command, unix


Try : fateman@berkeley.edu
-- 
  Gerald A. Edgar                Internet:  edgar@mps.ohio-state.edu
  Department of Mathematics      Bitnet:    EDGAR@OHSTPY
  The Ohio State University      telephone: 614-292-0395 (Office)
  Columbus, OH 43210             -292-4975 (Math. Dept.) -292-1479 (Dept. Fax)
Newsgroups: sci.math
From: iam@CS.Stanford.EDU (Ian A. Mason)
Subject: Re: Question on real numbers
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 21:51:01 GMT

note that the set 

x = a + rb;  a, b \in Q; r \in R, r const.

is countable, so you miss a few reals
Newsgroups: sci.math
From: lady@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Lee Lady)
Subject: Re: Opinions Sought (Why major in math?)
Followup-To: sci.math
Summary: We don't teach students to use math as a means of expression. 
Organization: University of Hawaii (Mathematics Dept)
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 07:53:27 GMT

In article <BvnH6q.FMn@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
>
>I personally consider the most important item in mathematics to be the
>ability to use symbols.  Someone who uses symbols to formulate word problems
                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>is doing what cannot be looked up in the library,   .... 

I agree.  As I tell my Calc II students, once they pass the final exam 
they may never again need to evaluate any integral except the very
simplest kind.  What will be really valuable to them, if they use
calculus at all, is the ability to set up integrals.

But do I teach them to do that?  No.  I don't know what it's like at
Purdue but here I'd say probably less than 5% of the students who
pass calculus who are capable of doing a word problem.  As to
applications of integration, the only one left in the calculus sequence
here is volumes of revolution that only requires that students
memorize two formulas.  And 90% of our calculus students are not even
capable of doing that.

--
It is a poor sort of skepticism which merely delights in challenging
those claims which conflict with one's own belief system.  
                                                          --Bogus quote 
lady@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu         lady@uhunix.bitnet
From: wsadjw@rw7.urc.tue.nl (Jan Willem Nienhuys)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: 'Perfect' numbers
Date: 16 Oct 92 13:12:41 GMT
Reply-To: wsadjw@urc.tue.nl
Organization: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

In article <1992Oct13.184251.29478@nmt.edu> aevans@nmt.edu (Alex Evans) writes:
#
#	if 2^n-1 is prime then (2^n-1)2^(n-1) is perfect
#	the proof is trivial.

Conversely, if an even M is perfect, then it is of that form.
Slightly more complicated, but within reach of every beginner
in number theory.
JWN
From: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Electronic math notation
Date: 9 Oct 92 15:31:10 GMT
Reply-To: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Organization: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology
In-reply-to: se_karne@rcvie.co.at (Georg Karner)

In article <1992Oct9.094353.23555@rcvie.co.at>, se_karne@rcvie (Georg Karner) writes:
>If you use TeX notation, probably most people on the net will understand
>you.

Yes, but TeX notation is clumsy for many quick postings.  I'd like to push
for things like xi obviously being x_i, and I like the j=i+1 convention,
meaning if a j appears out of nowhere in an ASCII environment, it means
i+1, and similar ideas.  Someone should be able to define the Fibbonaci
sequence as "F0=0, Fk=Fi+Fj" instead of "F_0=0, F_{i+2}=F_{i+1}+F_i.  And
I sometimes use # or @ as stand-ins for Greek letters.
-- 
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.physics
From: edgar@function.mps.ohio-state.edu (Gerald Edgar)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Why is slope denoted by m?
Date: 8 Oct 1992 08:06:39 -0400
Organization: The Ohio State University, Dept. of Math.
NNTP-Posting-Host: function.mps.ohio-state.edu

In article <1992Oct7.181405.18957@unlinfo.unl.edu> kwright@hoss.unl.edu (Kevin Wright) writes:
>
>What is the origin of m for denoting the slope of a line?
>

Right on schedule! Someone asks this question here every autumn...
Presumably because it is a question in a certain text...

It is related to the French `monter', to ascend; `mont\'ee', ascent;
`montant', ascending.


-- 
  Gerald A. Edgar                Internet:  edgar@mps.ohio-state.edu
  Department of Mathematics      Bitnet:    EDGAR@OHSTPY
  The Ohio State University      telephone: 614-292-0395 (Office)
  Columbus, OH 43210             -292-4975 (Math. Dept.) -292-1479 (Dept. Fax)
Newsgroups: sci.math
From: matmcinn@nuscc.nus.sg (Mcinnes B T (Dr))
Subject: Holonomy Groups Spin7, G2
Organization: National University of Singapore
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 05:54:03 GMT

In Salamon's book on Holonomy theory, it is stated that no example is
known of a compact manifold of holonomy Spin7 or G2. As far as I am
aware, this is still the case. Does anyone have information to the
contrary? Thanks, Brett McInnes.
Newsgroups: sci.math
From: gagibson@grad07.math.ncsu.edu (Gregory A. Gibson)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Question on real numbers
Date: 8 Oct 92 22:08:40 GMT
Organization: NCSU Mathematics Dept.

In article <1992Oct8.211117.19295@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> vhansen@ipfs.bau-verm.uni-karlsruhe.de (Wolfgang von Hansen) writes:
>Hi everybody,
>
>is it possible to express any real number x with the following term
>
>x = a + rb;  a, b \in Q; r \in R, r const.
>
>Some more words to explain what I mean:
>I was wondering if there is an analogon between the real numbers and
>the complex numbers.
>
>It is well known that any complex number c can be
>written as an ordered pair of real numbers a, b: c = (a, b).
>Operations can be done by using i := (0, 1) to write c = a + ib. 
>Knowing that i * i = -1 one can perform complex arithmetics by using
>only the rules for real numbers.
>
>My idea is to write any real number as a pair of rational numbers
>one of them multiplied with a constant real number r (see above).
>a is not necessarily (spelling? ;-) different from null. A useful value
>for r may be \sqrt(n), n \in N, because r * r = n is easy to handle.
>This representation of the real numbers might improve the speed
>and/or accuracy of algorithms on computers since all calculations are
>done with rational numbers.
>
>There are some things left to do:
>1. Proove if it is (not) possible.
>2. Find a good value for r. (How many different values for r are
>   existing? none, one, finite, infinite?)
>3. Find algorithm(s) to convert real numbers.
>
>I'd be very happy if someone could give me some hints how to deal with
>these tasks. I'm afraid that there are some non-trivial problems
>to solve.
>
>Thanks for paying attention, Wolfgang

  
         The concept that you are looking for is that of a field   
  extension of the rational numbers.  For example, the set of all
  numbers of the form q1 + q2*sqrt(2) is a field( a set of numbers
  which is closed under arithmetic, +,- ,*,/ ) denoted Q(sqrt(2)).
         The problem with your plan is that the rationals are countable,
  so for any r in R, the set of numbers of the form q1 + q2*r is also
  a countable set.  The reals are not countable, so this set can not
  contain all real numbers.  By countable I mean any set which can be
  put into a one to one correspondence with the Natural numbers, 
  { 1, 2, 3, ... }.  So I'm afraid your idea won't work.  It is possible,
  to have computers sovle problems exactly using this sort of scheme
  if all of the numbers involved are in some extension field of the
  rationals and the only operations are +, - , *, and /.  If you need
  to take square roots or something like that then the result could be a
  real number which is not in your extension field.  
         For further info. on extension fields you should consult a text
  on basic abstract algebra.  I hope this helps.

        -- Greg Gibson
From: tao@ginger.princeton.edu (Terry Tao)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Calculating pi: help!
Date: 14 Oct 92 19:40:09 GMT
Organization: Princeton University
Originator: news@nimaster

In article <stephen.719088307@mont>, stephen@mont.cs.missouri.edu (Stephen Montgomery-Smith) writes:
|> In <7557@charon.cwi.nl> dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) writes:
|> 
|> >int a=10000,b,c=2800,d,e,f[2801],g;main(){for(;b-c;)f[b++]=a/5;for(;d=0,g=c*2;c
|> >-=14,printf("%.4d",e+d/a),e=d%a)for(b=c;d+=f[b]*a,f[b]=d%--g,d/=g--,--b;d*=b);}
|> 
|> 
|> I would be very interested to know how this program works.
|> 
|> Stephen
|> 

One note about the program: it assumes that b, d, e, and g are initialized to 0.

in pseudo code the rather compact program does the following:

set a as the constant 10000
set c as 2800

set f[b] = a/5 for all b from 0 to c-1

while c is positive
  set b = c, d = 0, g = 2*c
  while b is positive
    d is multipled by b
    d is incremented by a*f[b]
    f[b] becomes d mod g-1
    d is divided by g-1
    g is decremented by 2
    b is decremented by 1
  end while
  subtract 14 from c
  print as four digits the integer part of e+d/a
  e becomes d mod a
end while

in BASIC the program is equivalent to (note: don't try to run this program!)

DEFINT A-E
DEFDDBL P,X
DIM F(2800)

CONST DIGIT_CHUNK 4
CONST A = 10^DIGIT_CHUNK
CONST DIGITS = 800
CONST CMAX = DIGITS/DIGIT_CHUNK * 14
X = 1/A

FOR B = 0 TO CMAX-1: F(B) = A/5: NEXT B

FOR C = CMAX TO 0 STEP -14
  D=0
  FOR B = C TO 1 STEP -1
    D = D * B
    D = D + A*F(B)
    F[B] = D MOD (2*B-1)
    D = INT(D/(2*B-1))
  NEXT B
  PI = PI + D*X 
  X = X/A
NEXT C
?PI

  
However, the actual device used to calculate pi here is still obscure to me.
After eliminating the clever mechanisms for dealing with remainders of fractions
with integers, I think when you come right down to it we are using a formula of
the form (I've probably made a few minor mistakes, but this is what it should be)

pi = \sum_{c = 1}^\infty 1/5 \prod_{b = 1}^{c*14} b / (2*b-1)

But I've never heard of this formula or anything like it! why the 14 and the 5?

Terry
From: kavuri@lips1.ecn.purdue.edu (Surya N Kavuri )
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Eigenvalues of a Covariance matrix v/s any symmetric matrix ?
Date: 16 Oct 92 16:58:08 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network



   Can the eigenvalues of a covariance matrix be negative ?
   Can you prove it ?



  Surya Kavuri
Newsgroups: sci.math,geometry.research
From: orourke@sophia.smith.edu (Joseph O'Rourke)
Subject: Incident: definition?
Organization: Smith College, Northampton, MA, US
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 20:22:15 GMT

Is there a generally-accepted definition of the term "incident" 
that works in several contexts?  An arc of a graph (x,y) is 
incident to the nodes x and y.  An edge of an arrangement of 
lines is incident to a vertex if that vertex is an endpoint of 
the closure of the edge.  Note in this last case, incidence does 
not imply nonempty intersection, because arrangement edges
are usually considered open segments.  Are adjacent faces of 
a polytope considered incident?  I think not.
Newsgroups: sci.math
From: ara@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Allan Adler)
Subject: Re: What a weird group!!!
Organization: M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab.
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 21:26:11 GMT

The Bohr compactification of the reals is the dual group of the group R_d,
where R_d denotes the additive group of the reals with the discrete
topology. Since the group R_d is the direct limit of its finitely generated
subgroups, which are free abelian, the Bohr compactification is the
inverse limit of tori. Since the group R_d is isomorphic to the direct sum
of two copies of itself, the Bohr compactification of R is topologically
isomorphic to the product of two copies of itself. Actually, R_d is
isomorphic to the direct sum of continuum many copies of itself, so 
the Bohr compactification is topologically isomorphic to the product
of continuum many copies of itself. The cardinality of the Bohr 
compactification of R is 2^c, where c is the cardinality of R.

To get a little bit of a picture of what the Bohr compactification of R
might look like, consider something simpler: the dual group of the
additive group Q_d of rationals (with the discrete topology). It too can
be described as an inverse limit of tori, actually of circle groups,
but there is another way to describe it which is quite satisfying:
the dual of Q_d is topologically isomorphic to the additive group of
adeles modulo the additive group of rationals. Since the group R_d is
the direct sum of continuum many copies of Q_d, it follows that the
Bohr compactification of R is the product of continuum  many copies of
(adeles mod rationals).

The relation to almost period functions is that a function on R is
almost periodic if it extends continuously to the Bohr compactification
of R. Since the Bohr compactification is a compact abelian group, one
can take the Fourier transform there and get a function on the  dual
group of the Bohr compactification, i.e. on R_d. Thus, one represents
an almost periodic function as a series involving exponentials exp(2pi i r x),
where the various r are not necessarily commensurable (actually, as an
integral over R_d, which has counting measure. The support of such an
integrand must be countable, hence the integral is a series.).

Contributions for periodontal surgery may be mailed to:
Allan Adler
36 Rolens Drive, Apt. C4
Kingston, RI 02881

Allan Adler
ara@altdorf.ai.mit.edu
From: wsadjw@rw7.urc.tue.nl (Jan Willem Nienhuys)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: What a weird group!!!
Date: 16 Oct 92 13:25:24 GMT
Reply-To: wsadjw@urc.tue.nl
Organization: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

In article <1992Oct15.045312.13089@galois.mit.edu> jbaez@riesz.mit.edu (John C. Baez) writes:
>No, I'm not referring to sci.math.  I'm referring to the Bohr
>compactification of the real numbers, something I just learned about.
>This is, of course, due not to Niels Bohr but to his brother Harald.
>
>From an exercise in a book:  The Bohr compactification of the real
>numbers is a compact topological group which contains the real numbers
>as a dense set.  The embedding of the reals into the Bohr group is not a
>homeomorphism.
...
>But what does this group *look like*??  That's what I'd like to know!!

An easier (;-)) way is to consider the reals with discrete topology.
Algebraically, that's an enormous direct sum of copies of Q, and Q of
course is a union of copies of Z, or a sum of Q_p over all p.
Now take the dual (the set of all "continuous" characters).
That is a huge direct product of duals of Q, each a projective limit
of circles;  you may therefore think of (1) an enormous torus (with
a for each element of a Hamel basis of R over Q a coordinate) (2)
many such tori wrapped over each other so that a cross-section looks
like a complicated Cantor discontinuum.

I'm afraid I can't give you a much closer idea.  Hope this helps.
JWN


Newsgroups: sci.math