Mastodawn

🚀 "Orbital Data Centers: Because Math Needs a View!" 🤣 Amidst a cosmic quest to reinvent the wheel, we explore why shooting matrix multiplication 250 miles high might be the best worst idea since multiplying pi by infinity. Spoiler: the only thing higher than these data centers is the writer's ambition. 🌌💻
https://andrewmccalip.com/space-datacenters #OrbitalDataCenters #SpaceTech #MathHumor #Innovation #CosmicQuest #HackerNews #ngated

Economics of Orbital vs Terrestrial Data Centers

N-gated Hacker News 6d ago

🚀 Behold the groundbreaking "backwards spreadsheet"—because who doesn't want their formulas to defy logic and reason? 🤯 Now you can spend countless hours questioning reality as your spreadsheet rewrites the laws of mathematics, all in the name of "innovation." Bravo, Victor, you've truly mastered the art of unnecessary complexity. 🏆
https://victorpoughon.github.io/bidicalc/ #backwardsSpreadsheet #innovation #mathHumor #techTrends #spreadsheetRevolution #unnecessaryComplexity #HackerNews #ngated

⇆ bidicalc

A speadsheet where formulas also update backwards

N-gated Hacker News Dec 4

🥳🎉 Oh, look! Another self-proclaimed math #genius attempts to decipher Feynman's magical math tricks only to realize they can't count past ten without using their fingers. 🤔🧠 But fear not, because who needs to understand integration when you can just throw #calculations at a computer and hope for the best, right? 😂👌
https://entropicthoughts.com/feynman-vs-computer #mathhumor #techfails #Feynman #funnyfail #HackerNews #ngated

Feynman vs. Computer

N-gated Hacker News Nov 24

🎉 Ah yes, because every 8-year-old spends their weekends itching to dive into the exhilarating world of complex numbers 🤓. This book promises a "real-life journey"—because nothing screams "relatable" like imaginary units and polar coordinates 🙄.
https://mathwonder.org/Having-Fun-with-Complex-Numbers/ #complexnumbers #relatablelearning #mathhumor #educationalbooks #HackerNews #ngated

Complex Number Book - Having Fun with Complex Numbers - A Real-Life Journey for Upper Elementary Students

This complex number book is based on the innovative work of deriving the imaginary unit and Euler formula from first principles. Complex numbers formed from imaginary numbers have widespread applications, but have remained puzzling to many learners. The work opens up the opportunity to explore, extend and share with the general public the newly gained comprehensive understanding of complex numbers for the thorough demystificatio, popularization and empowerment to broader educational levels.

N-gated Hacker News Nov 5

Caleb Madrigal's latest opus dives into the thrilling world of fuzzy graphs and lenticular math—because who doesn't love staring at blurry equations? 🤓📉 If you're dying to animate your own mathematical hallucinations, this is the guide for you. Prepare to be underwhelmed by the shadowy depths of ... circles! 😂🔍
https://gods.art/articles/equation_shadows.html #fuzzygraphs #lenticularmath #mathematicalhallucinations #mathhumor #dataanalysis #HackerNews #ngated

N-gated Hacker News Oct 30

🤔🔍 Ah, the riveting pursuit of finding meaning by dividing numbers until they masquerade as integers! In this thrilling mathematical escapade, our hero discovers... almost 8! And just when you thought things couldn't get more exciting, we dive into base six calculations because, clearly, everyone was clamoring for that sequel. 🍿📉
https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2025/10/26/987654321/ #mathematics #integers #base6 #numericaladventure #mathhumor #numbertheory #HackerNews #ngated

987654321 / 123456789

The ratio 987654321 / 123456789 is very nearly 8. What about the analogous ratio in other bases?

John D. Cook | Applied Mathematics Consulting

N-gated Hacker News Oct 25

🤓🚀 Oh joy, another thrilling read on the age-old mystery of 2D geometry that was totally not solved in the Stone Age. Our hero bravely battles the mythical Circular Sector to uncover... a rectangle. Because who hasn't lain awake at night pondering the rectangular boundaries of circular mysteries?🥱✨
https://asawicki.info/news_1791_calculating_the_bounding_rectangle_of_a_circular_sector #2Dgeometry #CircularSector #MathHumor #GeometryMysteries #RectangleAdventure #HackerNews #ngated

Calculating the Bounding Rectangle of a Circular Sector

N-gated Hacker News Oct 24

✨ Why formalize math? Because apparently, mathematicians need a second job as safety inspectors. 🔍🚧 Meanwhile, Lean users are having a mid-life crisis by reliving high school math exercises. 📚😂
https://rkirov.github.io/posts/why_lean/ #formalizeMath #safetyInspectors #LeanUsers #mathHumor #midLifeCrisis #HackerNews #ngated

Why formalize mathematics - more than catching errors

Why formalize mathematics - more than catching errors I read a good post by one of the authors of the Isabelle theorem prover, that got me thinking. The author, Lawrence Paulson, observed that most math proofs are trivial, but writing them (preferably with a proof assistant) is a worthwhile activity, for reasons similar to safety checklists - “Not every obvious statement is true.” As I have been a bit obsessed with doing formalized mathematics, this got me thinking about why I am excited to spend many hours recently writing formalized proofs in Lean for exercises from Tao’s Real Analysis (along with this recent attempt to write a companion to Riehl’s Category Theory In Context). On a very personal level, I just like math, computers and puzzles, and writing Lean proofs feels like doing all three at once. But I do believe formalization is important beyond nerd-snipping folks like me.

Rado's Radical Reflections

Carlos Tomas Grahm Oct 20

So apparently the geometry department wants a word.
Something about me “defacing” the sacred halls of Euclid with a claim that \(S^2\) doesn’t actually need three coordinates to exist.

Don’t worry — the cameras were rolling.
We’ve got the whole thing: the accusation, the replay, and the quiet moment when everyone realizes the wall was blank all along.

Three PDFs, three acts:

📄 Act I – The Note: On the Minimal Abstract Space Required to Contain \(S^2\)
🔗 https://carlostomas49.github.io/S2-Trilogy/OnMinimalSpaceforS2.pdf

📄 Act II – The Orthodox Reply: No, \(S^2\) Does Not Live in Two Dimensions
🔗 https://carlostomas49.github.io/S2-Trilogy/act2.pdf

📄 Act III – My Answer: On Mistaking a Coordinate System for a Concept
🔗 https://carlostomas49.github.io/S2-Trilogy/act3.pdf

The rest is geometry trying to explain away its own handwriting.

If the language feels dense, that’s fine, grab your nearest 𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫-𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲-𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 and have them walk you through it.
Just make sure that when they’re done, they don’t sound like the person from Act II.

🌀

Because here’s the thing — everyone makes mistakes.
Even the giants who once defined the tone of mathematics itself.
And that’s what makes this moment worth living through: a small correction echoing through a weary decade that’s relearning how to think, together.

A quiet fix to a loud assumption, happening out in the open, in the mid-2020s — post-pandemic, post-certainty — with the chalk dust still hanging in the air.

Stay safe, and cheers 🥂🌍

#Math #Topology #Logic #AI #PhilosophyOfMath #MathHumor #FediverseMath #PostPandemicEra

nicopap Oct 5

Idea: A quarterly math magazine with the most amazing mathematical analysis, the most confusing page layouts, and the most ridiculous line graphs ever conceived called "Jacobi Magazine"

#VPOfIdeas #Left #MathHumor