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Obama’s Sputnik Analogy Still on the Pad
Barack Obama gave a speech this week at a North Carolina community college warning Americans of the peril of falling behind our global competitors. The challenge, he said, is not unlike the one the...
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Understanding Popular Uses of Percentages
Four New Jersey women in March accused the Campbell Soup Company of misleading customers with claims of lower sodium levels in its “25% Less Sodium Tomato Soup.” Whether the soup has more or less...
View ArticleU.S. Middle Schoolers Are Behind in Math
A new study of mathematics curricula and classroom content in 40 countries reveals that while most eighth-grade teachers are focused on algebra and geometry, their U.S. counterparts are teaching simple...
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Showing Where Community Colleges Pass, Fail
Community colleges, the often-overlooked workhorses of America’s higher-education system, are finally getting some respect. Sure, many have been forced to cut their budgets due to shortfalls in state...
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Brams: Kick Coin Flips Out of NFL Overtimes
As an example of the broad interests and proposed solutions of Steven J. Brams, a New York University professor of politics, in 2011, he offered an alternative way for the National Football League to...
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Brams: Negotiate Mideast Peace With Point System
With the Arab world and the Middle East in turmoil, Israel may soon find itself negotiating with a new and unfamiliar government in Egypt. When the uneasy neighbors do meet, how many points would Egypt...
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Brams: Let Congress Select Super Committees
Following the failure of the budgetary super committee to come to an agreement in the fall, members of Congress admitted to being ashamed of the institution and the implacable partisanship that stymies...
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Brams: Use Approval Voting in Presidential Primaries
If Republicans are wondering about how to choose among less-than-inspiring choices available in the upcoming primaries — and how to sort losers from potential winners in a national election — they...
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Calculating an End to Divisive Politics
Much scholarly research never suggests a clear practical application for the public good. You can’t say that about the work of Steven J. Brams, professor of politics at New York University. He seems to...
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Study: Mother-Daughter Talks Need More Math
In 2005, then-Harvard University President Lawrence Summers wondered aloud whether the lack of women in science- and math-related careers reflected a difference in aptitude between the genders. His...
View ArticleWomen, Math, and the Addition of Stereotypes
Women and math have a checkered history in the popular imagination. Remember the Barbie doll that said “Math class is tough”? Mattel removed that phrase from the doll’s repertoire in 1992 after an...
View ArticleKatniss Everdeen: Heroine. Warrior. Math Tutor.
The best-selling novel and top-grossing film The Hunger Games has been called an exciting thriller, a metaphor for our get-ahead-at-all-costs society, and disturbing look at a dark future. Now we can...
View ArticleNumbers Point to a Tigers World Series Victory
Mathematician Bruce Bukiet has good news and bad news for San Francisco Giants fans. The bad news: The New Jersey Institute of Technology professor, who uses a sophisticated mathematical model to...
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In 2013, MLB Races May Go Down to the Wire
The 2013 Major League Baseball season promises to be close and exciting, with highly competitive races in five out of the six divisions. That’s the prediction of mathematician Bruce Bukiet, who uses a...
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Your Child’s Brain on Math
Parents whose children are struggling with math often view intense tutoring as the best way to help them master crucial skills, but a new study released on Monday suggests that for some kids even that...
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Mapping (and Potentially Preventing) Crime With Math
Mathematicians have long tried to bring order to chaos—to develop complex models to understand seemingly random events. One particularly versatile model has been the “Lévy flight,” a pattern of...
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Can Physics Solve Custody Battles?
A physicist and mathematician sat down at lunch one day and discussed a complicated human problem: shared custody of children with ex-spouses. By the end of that meal, they had transformed it into a...
View ArticleThe STEM Talent Shortage Debate
In science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), does the United States face a talent shortage or not? Like the brain drain issue, I started out on the side of crisis. The more I study the...
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The Dangerous Mathematical Con of Hedge Funds and Financial Advisers
In meetings with clients, hedge fund representatives present flashy charts and speak equal parts oracle and mad scientist. And for technical analysts who market themselves as the most technical of...
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The Mona Lisa Landscape Was Probably a Studio Backdrop
If you were to look at Lisa Gherardini in just the right way, the Mona Lisa would jump out of the wall at you. But it wouldn’t come bursting out of the actual Italian countryside. Gherardini was...
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