CTK Insights

How can be one so wrong? The common objection to the existence of trigonometric proofs of the Pythagorean theorem stems from the assertion that the most important trigonometric identity sin²α + cos²α = 1, being equivalent to the Pythagorean theorem, can;t be employed to proof the latter. However, as Jason Zimba has recently observed, that [...]

With the ever recurrent hoopla about forcing Algebra I courses on 9 and even 8 graders, I often recollect the expressed desire of an official math educator to have every student perform better than the average. Such semantic inconsistency does not necessarily strengthen the arguments either in favor or against making algebra a graduation requirement, but [...]

Believe it or not, but here's a message I found in my mail box: *** Just the Facts Number of physicians in the US: 700,000. Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year: 120,000.  Accidental deaths per physician: 0.171 (U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services) Number of gun owners in the US: 80,000,000.  Number of [...]

    Groundhog Day for the Fifth Column of Malice by Melanie Phillips Spectator.co.uk, 12/30/2008   So there is indeed now a war. In Gaza. Actually, there are two wars going on: one involving rockets and warplanes, and the other involving the media, as Barry Rubin notes: Nothing is clearer than Hamas’s strategy. It gives [...]

In 1938, the French V. Thébault proposed a problem that, in the English speaking world waited for a solution for 45 years until one was supplied by K. B. Taylor in 1983. Taylor's solution stretched over 24 printed pages. In Dutch, a solution has been published by H. Streefkerk's 10 years earlier. In 2003, Jean-Louis [...]

A particular case of the Isoperimetric Theorem says that among all rectangles of a given perimeter, the square has the largest area. (This is of course equivalent to the claim that among all rectangles of a given area the square has the least perimeter.) This particular case of the general theorem is so simple that [...]

I strongly believe that in a few years the thrust of an education reform will converge on the web. The process has begun even if not yet sunctioned by powers that be at the US Congress. The best universities put up their courses online, see, for example, a New York Times article. The general accesibility of [...]