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Massimo Boscherini

Khan Academy - 0 views

www.khanacademy.org

resources math

shared by Massimo Boscherini on 04 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • Massimo Boscherini on 04 Nov 14
     
    Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.
Massimo Boscherini

Special Series: 7 Billion - National Geographic Magazine - 2 views

ngm.nationalgeographic.com/7-billion

science resources Standard2 demographics biology environment

shared by Massimo Boscherini on 06 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • It's a new name for a new geologic epoch—one defined by our own massive impact on the planet.
  • There will soon be seven billion people on the planet. Find out why you shouldn't panic—at least, not yet.
  • Investigate some of the numbers that characterize our human population, and take a look at the face of the most "typical" person on the planet.
Massimo Boscherini

BBC News - Nature's hidden prime number code - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...magazine-14305667

science biology math prime numbers evolution natural selection cryptography

shared by Massimo Boscherini on 06 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • Buzzing quietly beneath the planet we inhabit is an unseen world of numbers, patterns and geometry. Mathematics is the code that makes sense of our universe.
  • But every 13 years, the banjos and basses get drowned out for six weeks by the chorus of an insect that has fascinated me ever since I became a mathematician. Only found in the eastern areas of North America, this cicadas survival depends on exploiting the strange properties of some of the most fundamental numbers in mathematics - the primes, numbers that are only divisible by themselves and one.
  • This choice of a 13-year cycle doesn't seem too arbitrary. There are another two broods across north America that also have this 13-year life cycle, appearing in different regions and different years. In addition there are another 12 broods that appear every 17 years.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • You could just dismiss these numbers as random. But it's very curious that there are no cicadas with 12, 14, 15, 16 or 18-year life cycles. However look at these cicadas through the mathematician's eyes and a pattern begins to emerge. Because 13 and 17 are both indivisible this gives the cicadas an evolutionary advantage as primes are helpful in avoiding other animals with periodic behaviour. Suppose for example that a predator appears every six years in the forest. Then a cicada with an eight or nine-year life cycle will coincide with the predator much more often than a cicada with a seven-year prime life cycle.
  • The cryptography that keeps our credit cards secure when we shop online exploits the same numbers that protect the cicadas in North America - the primes.
  • The reason this is so secure is that although it is easy to multiply two prime numbers together it is almost impossible to pull them apart.
  • The primes are the atoms of the arithmetic. The hydrogen and oxygen of the world of numbers.
  • We know primes go on for ever but finding a pattern in the primes is one of the biggest mysteries in mathematics. A million-dollar prize has been offered to anyone who can reveal the secret of these numbers.
Massimo Boscherini

Acid Rain | US EPA - 0 views

www.epa.gov/index.html

science biology resources environment Standard2

shared by Massimo Boscherini on 21 Sep 11 - Cached
  • Acid rain is a serious environmental problem that affects large parts of the United States and Canada. Acid rain is particularly damaging to lakes, streams, and forests and the plants and animals that live in these ecosystems.
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