Math - The Drafting Table

Nomography

Nomography is the art/science (both are involved) of graphical calculators. Using a nomogram, you can quickly solve an equation (but only the one it was designed for) with the aid of nothing more than a straightedge. It's something I've been interested in for quite a while, and finally feel

Economics

Considerations on a Universal Basic Income Scenario

A universal basic income is an idea that's getting some buzz. I decided to do some rough calculations to see what an implementation would look like. The Scenario A universal basic income (UBI) is a concept where everyone in a country/province/state gets a regular cheque from the government.

DIY

Elementary Cellular Automata in a Hydraulic Computer

Despite the same word appearing in both titles, this post is quite different from the previous one. The inspiration for making the project described in this post came partly from re-reading Anathem last year. A couple of books on complexity I read last year had some discussion on elementary (1-dimensional)

Water

Open Channel Hydraulics for Paddlers

This post combines two of my interests: engineering and paddling. During my undergrad studies (at the University of New Brunswick) I took a course called "Open Channel Hydraulics". Recently I decided to re-read some of my notes and textbooks and think about how they could provide insight for

Book

The Basics of Complexity

This fall I read a couple of books about complexity: A Crude Look at the Whole by John H. Miller and Complexity: A Guided Tour by Melanie Mitchell. For my final post of the year (except for an upcoming year in review post), I've reviewed these books and the concepts

Computer

Week 6: Clojure

After the past two posts on different topics, I'm returning to my series on Seven Languages in Seven Weeks by Bruce Tate. The programming language covered in this week's chapter is Clojure, a dialect of Lisp. Week 1 ˙ Week 2 ˙ Week 3 ˙ Week 4 ˙ Week 5 ˙ Week 6 ˙ Week 7

Computer

Week 3: Prolog

This post continues my series on Seven Language in Seven Weeks by Bruce Tate. As in the previous posts, I'm going to share my notes on this chapter, including a few excerpts, some significant methods, snippets of code, and links for further reading. Week 1 ˙ Week 2 ˙ Week 3 ˙ Week

Math

Circles and Triangles

This post is about a book on geometry that I read last year (finishing up over the holidays). Beautiful Geometry was written by Eli Maor and Eugen Jost. Each of its 51 chapters explains a topic in geometry and presents an artistic plate illustrating it. In addition to the artistic

Math

That's a Moiré

The title of this post comes from this comic, although it's a topic I've been planning to write a bit about. Moiré patterns are wavy effects that appear when two regular patterns (grids, parallel lines, etc.) with similar spacing interfere with each other. Lighter and darker regions appear in locations

Tiling

Stochastic tiling script

A bit over a year ago, I wrote a post about the mathematics of tiling. In this post, I explore some of those ideas further with an octave script I wrote to draw regular and semi-regular tilings. The script %% stochastictiling.m - this is a script to draw regular and

Professional

Modelling in Engineering

This topic of mathematical modelling is something I looked at for a chapter in my thesis, and it is a tool I use in my job. I think it's good to reflect on the capabilities and limitations of the tools we use, so that's what this post attempts to do.

Water

The Waves Shape the Shore, and the Shore Shapes the Waves

I'm continuing to work my way through books that I picked up on vacation. This post is a review of Waves and Beaches: the dynamics of the ocean surface by Willard Bascom. (I've been really busy with other stuff lately, but I hope to return to my regular blogging schedule

Math

A tiling primer

This post is a brief introduction to the mathematics of tiling, which I find quite fascinating. Tiles are a long-standing architectural feature. They have been used in cultures all over the world, but the math underlying how they can cover a space with no gaps is universal. To convey an

R

Introduction to Non-Parametric Statistics

Non-parametric statistics are something that I don't recall learning much about in any classes I took—just picked them up from my advisors and literature I read while I was working on my master's thesis—but they're something I think more people should be aware of. I've been wanting to

Computer

Cellular Automata, in Excel

This post is about cellular automata, a topic in discrete math. I made an implementation of "Conway's Game of Life" in an Excel spreadsheet. Conway's Game of Life is described as follows (from Wikipedia): The universe of the Game of Life is an infinite two-dimensional orthogonal grid of

Computer

A Simple Spreadsheet App

I've been on the road quite a bit the past few months for my job. In this post I wanted to share about an app that I've found useful out in the field. I'm also planning another post inspired by my travels in a couple of weeks. The Simple Spreadsheet

Math

Ticket to Ride's Adjacency Matrix

As promised, here is a post analyzing strategy for a board game: Ticket To Ride—one of my favourites. Analysis I had fun learning a bit more about graph theory and using it for the calculations in this section, but if you're just interested in the results as they apply

Computer

Mandelbrot Set in Excel

In my previous post, I promised "something fun with complex numbers in Excel". This is it. The Mandelbrot Set The Mandelbrot Set is famous as a very visually-appealing fractal. It is based on iteratively applying a simple rule to complex numbers (which comprise a real and an imaginary

Computer

7 Excel Functions and Features to Know

In this post, I thought I'd share some tools and features in Microsoft Excel that I've come across over the years. This post is not intended as a comprehensive tutorial on any of these features; rather, it can be a starting point for learning more about the ones that sound

Book

Nate Silver Makes My Bracket Picks

Apologies to my readers for not having a post last weekend. I was on the road for my job and had to put blogging on the back burner. My post this week is a review of the book The Signal and the Noise: Why so Many Predictions Fail—but Some

Math

Arabic Calligraphy

I recently got a very cool piece of art. So that's what this post is about. First things first, here it is framed and hanging on my wall: The design is Arabic calligraphy of the word al-Hurriyah (الحرية), meaning "freedom" or "liberty". The artist is Everitte

Tiling

Hilbert Curve

One of my favourite topics in math is fractals. For this post, I drew the Hilbert Curve fractal in octave. The Hilbert Curve is a space-filling curve: although it is one-dimensional (a series of line segments) itself, it covers a two-dimensional area. I recently learned about this fractal from a

Water

ASM1 in Octave

This post contains an implementation of the IWA's Activated Sludge Model No. 1 (ASM1) in octave. Models are a widely-used tool in the design and operation of wastewater treatment systems. For my job, I use a commercial simulator, but I thought it would be a useful exercise to write an

Math

Degrees of Go

Recently I started playing "Go" (known as baduk (바둑) in Korean and as wéiqí in Chinese). I started playing on an app on my phone, then made my own board (shown below). Go is a fascinating game. It has very simple rules, but is very mathematically complex—even

New Brunswick

Timing of River Ice Formation and Break-Up in New Brunswick

Half a dozen years ago, I did a summer work term for Hydro-Com Technologies. I had a good experience there and learned a lot. One project I was involved in while I was there was an analysis in trends in rivers in New Brunswick related to streamflow, ice break-up, etc.