five questions meme
23 October 2023 22:20A meme from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ursula! Let me know if you'd like five questions yourself.
1. Share a cool math result?
So I really liked Danny Calegari's explanation of Haken's algorithm to recognize the unknot in the first section of his Notices article. The basic idea is that a circle embedded in 3-dimensional space is unknotted if and only if it bounds an embedded disk, and one can reduce the existence of such a disk to a combinatorial problem that comes down to, of all things, linear programming! (I was probably the ideal audience for this, in that I knew most of the background but somehow not the algorithm.) The rest of the article I haven't read in mathematical detail (it's less connected to things I'm thinking about elsewhere) but has some interesting comments on sociology and psychology of mathematics.
2. Tell us about a play you'd like to see live?
Oh, right, seeing plays live, that's a thing one can do! (I feel like to a first approximation the only plays I have seen live are one of a) Shakespeare b) about math c) things my friends, or family's friends, were performing in. Oh right, there's also d) musicals performed at the outdoor theatre near where my family grew up and e) local shows my mom thought it would be fun to see.) So my first thought is that theer are a whole bunch of plays I've read aloud that were funny but would have been even funnier with physical presence on stage (most recently, Arsenic and Old Lace). But actually the play I want to see live is Tiger at the Gates, Christopher Fry's translation of Jean Giraudoux's anti-war play La guerre de troie n'aura pas lieu that I read for AP French Lit back in 2003. (The only reason I haven't organized a Discord read-aloud of it is that it's not easily available as an ebook -- it's in copyright and in print, but only through theatrical publishers.) I would really like to see it done live, though I'm not sure if this is the moment for anti-war plays. (On the other hand, I should see if there are good French performances of La guerre de troie n'aura pas lieu, which is public domain, available online -- I've never actually watched it.)
3. How did you learn to ride a bike (and how old were you)?
So when I was 8 my parents thought that getting a bike would be good occupational therapy for me and sister, and so we both got bikes with training wheels and rode them around the driveway. But then I never actually had any motivation to lose the training wheels, since there wasn't anywhere I could safely bike to from home (we lived at the top of a steep hill and next to a 45-mph road), and my parents weren't the type to push me to, so I lost interest after a bit.
Fast forward, I'm 19 and attending a summer undergrad math research program known for its weekly field trips. At the beginning of the program it's announced that there will be a biking field trip later in the summer, and if you don't know how to bike, the program has a bike and we will teach you how! I'm the only person this applies to, so one of the grad student program advisors takes me out to the parking lot and very patiently teaches me how to ride a bike, starting with getting me comfortable coasting downhill as he stabilizes the bike (since with most physical skills for me, one of the main issues is getting over my instinct to panic), and by the time of the bike trip I am all ready! I saw this advisor at the JMM this year for the first time in a long while and he greeted me with "I taught two more people to ride a bike!" (his kids).
4. What's your favorite burrito component?
Avocado in some form, guacamole is good but I also used to frequent a taqueria that offered sliced avocado. Good steak/beef or grilled vegetables can also greatly improve the burrito experience!
5. Tell us a place you'd like to visit for the first time?
There are so many places I haven't been! Like, most of continental Europe -- I've been to Paris, Marseille, Zurich, and Greece, which leaves a lot -- Italy, Germany, Scandinavia -- but then there's also a lot close to home, I haven't seen most of Michigan... I think one thing is that I'm comfortable with familiarity -- there are a number of places where I'm like "I've been there, it was nice there, I'd love to go back" -- and new places don't have that same association. But on the other hand there are so many places that I'm sure I'd be happy to see for the first time that the question feels unconstrained and I'm overcome with the paralysis of choice! (Of course realistically my travel schedule is mostly decided by conference locations / funding, and there are a bunch of major math conference locations I haven't been to but would like to.)
ursula! Let me know if you'd like five questions yourself.1. Share a cool math result?
So I really liked Danny Calegari's explanation of Haken's algorithm to recognize the unknot in the first section of his Notices article. The basic idea is that a circle embedded in 3-dimensional space is unknotted if and only if it bounds an embedded disk, and one can reduce the existence of such a disk to a combinatorial problem that comes down to, of all things, linear programming! (I was probably the ideal audience for this, in that I knew most of the background but somehow not the algorithm.) The rest of the article I haven't read in mathematical detail (it's less connected to things I'm thinking about elsewhere) but has some interesting comments on sociology and psychology of mathematics.
2. Tell us about a play you'd like to see live?
Oh, right, seeing plays live, that's a thing one can do! (I feel like to a first approximation the only plays I have seen live are one of a) Shakespeare b) about math c) things my friends, or family's friends, were performing in. Oh right, there's also d) musicals performed at the outdoor theatre near where my family grew up and e) local shows my mom thought it would be fun to see.) So my first thought is that theer are a whole bunch of plays I've read aloud that were funny but would have been even funnier with physical presence on stage (most recently, Arsenic and Old Lace). But actually the play I want to see live is Tiger at the Gates, Christopher Fry's translation of Jean Giraudoux's anti-war play La guerre de troie n'aura pas lieu that I read for AP French Lit back in 2003. (The only reason I haven't organized a Discord read-aloud of it is that it's not easily available as an ebook -- it's in copyright and in print, but only through theatrical publishers.) I would really like to see it done live, though I'm not sure if this is the moment for anti-war plays. (On the other hand, I should see if there are good French performances of La guerre de troie n'aura pas lieu, which is public domain, available online -- I've never actually watched it.)
3. How did you learn to ride a bike (and how old were you)?
So when I was 8 my parents thought that getting a bike would be good occupational therapy for me and sister, and so we both got bikes with training wheels and rode them around the driveway. But then I never actually had any motivation to lose the training wheels, since there wasn't anywhere I could safely bike to from home (we lived at the top of a steep hill and next to a 45-mph road), and my parents weren't the type to push me to, so I lost interest after a bit.
Fast forward, I'm 19 and attending a summer undergrad math research program known for its weekly field trips. At the beginning of the program it's announced that there will be a biking field trip later in the summer, and if you don't know how to bike, the program has a bike and we will teach you how! I'm the only person this applies to, so one of the grad student program advisors takes me out to the parking lot and very patiently teaches me how to ride a bike, starting with getting me comfortable coasting downhill as he stabilizes the bike (since with most physical skills for me, one of the main issues is getting over my instinct to panic), and by the time of the bike trip I am all ready! I saw this advisor at the JMM this year for the first time in a long while and he greeted me with "I taught two more people to ride a bike!" (his kids).
4. What's your favorite burrito component?
Avocado in some form, guacamole is good but I also used to frequent a taqueria that offered sliced avocado. Good steak/beef or grilled vegetables can also greatly improve the burrito experience!
5. Tell us a place you'd like to visit for the first time?
There are so many places I haven't been! Like, most of continental Europe -- I've been to Paris, Marseille, Zurich, and Greece, which leaves a lot -- Italy, Germany, Scandinavia -- but then there's also a lot close to home, I haven't seen most of Michigan... I think one thing is that I'm comfortable with familiarity -- there are a number of places where I'm like "I've been there, it was nice there, I'd love to go back" -- and new places don't have that same association. But on the other hand there are so many places that I'm sure I'd be happy to see for the first time that the question feels unconstrained and I'm overcome with the paralysis of choice! (Of course realistically my travel schedule is mostly decided by conference locations / funding, and there are a bunch of major math conference locations I haven't been to but would like to.)
