# Mathematicians Explain Sports to Each Other

Just when I think I’ve heard every math pun under the sun, Math With Bad Drawings comes up with a new one. This week’s edition is called “Mathematicians Explain Sports to Each Other.” The one on basketball is my favorite.

To see the others (on tennis, soccer, golf, baseball, hockey, marathon, tee ball, cricket, and skiing), click here.

# The Map of Mathematics

This video made the rounds earlier this year:

# History’s Most Evil Mathematicians

Courtesy of Math With Bad Drawings: History’s Most Evil Mathematicians.

# Applying Science to Speed Training

I enjoyed this surprising (well, surprising to me) application of exponential functions: training sprinters and other runners.

# Field Guide to Math on the National Mall

For anyone visiting my old stomping grounds of Washington, D.C., this summer, the Mathematical Association of America has compiled its Field Guide to Math on the National Mall. For example:

Washington, D.C., was planned around a large right triangle, with the White House at the triangle’s northern vertex and the U.S. Capitol at its eastern vertex, linked by Pennsylvania Avenue (as the hypotenuse). A 1793 survey established the location of the triangle’s 90° vertex, and Thomas Jefferson, when he was Secretary of State, had a wooden post installed to mark the spot. This post was replaced in 1804 by a more substantial marker, which came to be known as the Jefferson Pier.

# Clowns and Graphing Rational Functions

I thought I had heard every silly mnemonic device for remembering mathematical formulas, but I recently heard a new one: the clowns BOBO, BOTU, and BETC for remembering how to graph rational functions.

• BOB0: bigger (exponent) on bottom, $x = 0$
• BOTU: bigger on top, undefined
• BETC: bottom equals top eponent, coefficients (i.e., the ratio of coefficients)

Which naturally leads to this pearl of wisdom:

# Impossible Cylinder

I didn’t believe this counterintuitive trick until I tried it myself… the instructions can be found at http://www.maa.org/…/horizons/RichesonImpossibleCylinder.pdf