Hot take: The trapezoid area formula isn’t math, it’s an algebra trick. Teach kids to cut trapezoids up instead. When are they ever going to use that formula outside math class anyway?

A pair of problems by Jay Pantone, who works in analytic combinatorics, were solved earlier: one by GPT-5 and one by GPT-5.1. GPT-5.2 Pro solved these as well. The solutions were both valid, but Jay noted that both used numerical shortcuts that he didn’t intend.

🟥🟥🟧🟧⬜ 🟥🟦🟦🟧⬜ ⬜🟦🟦🟦⬜ 🟪🟪🟫🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟫🟫 day 1010: 120 points 78% digit.party

Digit Party! m.twitch.tv/videos/26561...

Digit Party just went over 1000 days! Robert Brignall and I celebrated by redesigning the whole thing. Place digits, match neighbors. 🟧🟧⬜⬜🟥 ⬜🟧🟧🟥🟪 ⬜⬜🟥🟪🟫 ⬛🟥🟫🟫🟫 ⬛⬛⬛🟫🟫 day 1001: 146 points 66% digit.party

Digit Party just went over 1000 days! Robert Brignall and I celebrated by redesigning the whole thing. Place digits, match neighbors. 🟧🟧⬜⬜🟥 ⬜🟧🟧🟥🟪 ⬜⬜🟥🟪🟫 ⬛🟥🟫🟫🟫 ⬛⬛⬛🟫🟫 day 1001: 146 points 66% digit.party

Everyone hates springing forward but loves falling back. Proposal: Abolish leap days, and redistribute those hours in the form of 6 annual "fall back" holidays. More sleep, less leap. A clear pareto improvement to our calendar.

I'm excited to share: we built a free AI coach for intro-level proof writing. It critiques drafts, points out gaps, and helps you or your students iterate without giving away the answer. Also for lapsed mathematicians to see if they've still got it. Demo below, link in reply.

Published today in the Notices of the AMS. Lol.

meanwhile, wikipedia is in existential crisis over whether √4 deserves its own page

interest in the natural numbers is at an all-time low

Just to say how much I like the digit party game digit.party created by Robert Brignall and @vatter.bsky.social.

Of course they would choose a math major

It’s final exam season again, and I like to display a clock while proctoring. But all the web clocks google suggests suck. So I made one (okay, tbh, chatgpt made it under my supervision): digit.party/clock

AI debt collector exhibiting speciesism

you're what now chatgpt?

I mean, it’s still better to have money than not have money right?

you'll never guess what color my daughter's squares ended up

Everyone hates springing forward but loves falling back. Proposal: Abolish leap days, and redistribute those hours in the form of 6 annual "fall back" holidays. More sleep, less leap. A clear pareto improvement to our calendar.

Logical proof that "months" are fake. Most people born in April are Aries. All Aries are born in March or April. Most people born in March or April were born in March. Therefore, most people born in April were born in March.

I asked GPT-4o to flip a coin 10,000 times. Same prompt, same parameters, but the *odds of getting Heads* took on 42 different probabilities (none below 85% btw). Obv don't use gpt-4o to flip your coins, but what the hell is going on? Here are some thoughts. towardsdatascience.com/avoidable-an...

Actually it's ok to divide by zero as long as you use the proper facilities. 🧮

There's an article in Scientific American today about superpermutations mentioning @robin.boskerenterprises.com, @gregegansf.bsky.social, @njohnston.ca, @jaypantone.com, me, and of course, “Anonymous 4chan Poster.” www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

the first step is admitting you have a problem. the second step is asking random users to fix it for free.

how????

Fermat thought 2^(2^n))+1 was prime after checking n=0,1,2,3,4. Euler factored the n=5 case, oops. Worse still, the odds are we'll never see another Fermat prime.

Look upon my proofs and despair.

So THIS is the best line I've seen in a proof.

but doctor, I *am* a coward

Contrapositives are for cowards. Behold.

Contrapositives are for cowards. Instead of saying, "if you do your share of the dishes, we'll have a clean kitchen", they skulk around leaving sticky notes like "if the kitchen's messy, someone didn't do their share." Logically equivalent, but completely lacking in courage.

"I decided to roll out my own LLM benchmark: how well can different models render an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle?" simonwillison.net/2024/Oct/25/...

I interviewed an early career candidate whose resume showed fine tuning Open AI GPT models. I asked her to tell me about it and she said, "honestly it was maddening. It constantly felt like we were on the edge of getting something useful then it would be a mess in a new way." I knew she was legit.

unfortunately the price was determined using new math so I didn’t buy it

why the romans never invented algebra

New to #MathSky or returning? This may help you get started! go.bsky.app/66Us7WW

what % of the population can enter their birthdate in this format?

this is not how temperature works

My 6-yo daughter has got into running, which is great, but she thinks miles are a unit of revolutions. Like, 4 laps around ANYTHING is a mile to her. "Daddy can I just run a short mile?" This is almost as bad as George Lucas and his "parsecs".

It’s not “whopper juniors” it’s “whoppers junior” jfc

uhh all of the above?

🤨

I think this might be the worst proof I've ever read.

wow, chatgpt-o1 is smart enough to invent the "go back in time 5 years and buy triple-leveraged nasdaq" strat. surprised it didn't invent something better like "take a delorean back in time 40 years with a sports almanac".

I wrote about Jackson and Richmond's supposed "proof" of the Four Color Theorem for Cantor's Paradise on Medium, giving a bit of the social media history of the "proof" and pointing out the fatal flaw. www.cantorsparadise.com/on-the-suppo...