Math Links for Week Ending July 24th, 2015

I have posted this in May when I did it but the "official" video has come out. This is my Ignite talk from this year's OAME on fun things about Pi. You can get my actual slideshow at http://bit.ly/petro-ignite-2015 which will have all the related links. And then don't forget to check out everyone else's video at the link below. That is, Amy Lin, Alex Overwijk, Matthew Oldridge, Kyle Pearce, Ron Lancaster, Marian Small, Dan Meyer, Jonathon So, Mary Bourassa, Nora Newcombe, George Hart, Don Fraser, and Sunil Singh. Thanks to @AmyLin1962 for posting these
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYmB4P-NnvCMmrVoREJIszXka8O_AZmC1

I have mentioned La Vie Mathematique before and the fact that she is teaching a summer course in means she has compressed a bunch of activities into about 28 days of classes. Things like congruent triangles, two truths and a lie for quadrilaterals, Row Games for beginning trig and more
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MPM2D, MFM2P
https://laviemathematique.wordpress.com/2015/06/15/summer-geometry-overview-and-first-day/

I always like the idea of basing what we teach on research. Consider this scenario:

"Jack takes a coin from his pocket and decides that he will flip it 4 times in a row, writing down the outcome of each flip on a scrap of paper. After he is done flipping, he will look at the flips that immediately followed an outcome of heads, and compute the relative frequency of heads on those flips. Because the coin is fair, Jack of course expects this conditional relative frequency to be equal to the probability of flipping a heads: 0.5. Shockingly, Jack is wrong." 

As it turns out the reality is that there is only a 40% chance of getting heads. Read about the research here and try the experiment on your own in your class. Though you could relate the idea of flipping coins could be done in the earlier grades the context here is about conditional probability so it probably works best in Grade 12 Data Management
Curriculum Tags:MDM4U
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2627354

Though it has been around for a while, I just stumbled across it. The Poetry with Mathematics blog does, just that. Intersects poetry and mathematics in both fun and serious ways. Check out their offerings here:
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http://poetrywithmathematics.blogspot.ca/

A new book called A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature’s Deep Design talks about the history of Pythagoras. The myth and the truth. An excerpt can be found here.
Curriculum Tags: Gr8, MPM1D, MFM1P
http://io9.com/what-did-pythagoras-mean-by-all-things-are-number-1717748417





Hey, it's an article about the importance of mathematical mistakes and it isn't somehow (at least obviously) connected to Jo Boaler.
Curriculum Tags: All
http://theconversation.com/when-theres-meaning-in-mathematical-mistakes-42962

Need to know why logarithms are connected to the design of the computer mouse? Look no further
Curriculum Tags: MHF4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3gS9tjACwU

Images from fireworks that show the parabolic envelope
Curriculum Tags: MPM2P, MFM2D, MCR3U, MBF3C, MCF3M
http://visualizingmath.tumblr.com/post/90798524925/to-those-who-celebrate-it-happy-independence-day