One of the important skills that a mathematics or science student graduating from high school ought to have is the ability to quickly visualize the graphs of basic functions. The repertoire should include power functions, polynomial functions, trigonometric functions, exponential functions, and logarithmic functions. Having an instant and intimate knowledge of such graphs is a … Read more
In the two previous posts in this series we explored a method for solving second order linear differential equations with constant coefficients that is different from the standard textbook methods taught nowadays. I found the method in a 1941 book (or see here) by the Sokolnikoffs. The key point of the method, as we learned, … Read more
The ancient Greeks thought of atoms as the smallest, indivisible bits of matter. By the twentieth century, experiments showed that (what we nowadays call) atoms have internal structure; a key early experiment was the Geiger-Marsden experiment, performed under the supervision of Rutherford, about which we’ll have more to say in a future post. But the … Read more