John G. Thompson is a prominent American mathematician known for his contributions to group theory, specifically in the areas of finite groups and representation theory. Born on November 14, 1932, he has had a significant impact on modern algebra. Thompson is perhaps best known for his work on simple groups, particularly the classification of finite simple groups, and he also played a key role in the development of the theory of groups generated by permutations.
Mark Naimark is a notable figure in the field of mathematics, particularly known for his work in the area of mathematics education, research, or possibly other mathematical applications. However, without additional context, it can be difficult to specify who exactly Mark Naimark is, as there may be multiple individuals with that name or various contributions associated with it.
Stephen M. Gersten is a prominent figure in the field of education, particularly known for his work in special education and research on effective teaching strategies. He has contributed significantly to understanding instructional practices for students with disabilities, including issues related to intervention and curriculum development. Gersten has authored and co-authored numerous articles and books, often focusing on improving educational outcomes for diverse learners.
Thomas Kirkman was an English mathematician best known for his work in combinatorial mathematics and for formulating what is now known as "Kirkman's schoolgirl problem." This problem, posed in 1850, involves arranging groups of schoolgirls in such a way that they are always in different groups for each outing.
John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (1842–1919) was a prominent British physicist known for his significant contributions to the field of physics, particularly in the study of light and sound. He was a key figure in the development of various scientific principles, including those related to the scattering of light and the properties of gases. Strutt was born into an aristocratic family and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge.
William Rowan Hamilton (1805–1865) was an Irish mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, best known for his contributions to classical mechanics, optics, and algebra. He is particularly famous for the development of Hamiltonian mechanics, a reformulation of Newtonian mechanics that uses the principles of energy rather than forces, which laid the groundwork for modern theoretical physics.
Conway polyhedron notation (CPN) is a system devised by mathematician and crystallographer Sir Roger Penrose to succinctly describe the three-dimensional shapes (polyhedra) that can be formed by truncating the vertices of a polyhedron. It utilizes a series of letters and symbols to represent the faces, edges, and vertices of these geometric figures, serving as a shorthand that can capture the essential structure of a polyhedron in a compact form.
Icosian refers to a type of mathematical problem or puzzle related to a specific graph known as the icosahedron. The term is often associated with the Icosian game, which involves finding a Hamiltonian cycle in the graph representing the vertices and edges of an icosahedron. In graph theory, a Hamiltonian cycle is a cycle that visits every vertex exactly once and returns to the starting vertex.
Phutball is a tabletop game that combines elements of soccer (football) and strategy board games. It is played on a board that represents a field, typically divided into a grid, on which players move pieces that represent their soccer players. The objective is to score goals by maneuvering these pieces effectively, often using strategic planning and tactical decisions.
Surreal numbers are a class of numbers that extend the real numbers and include infinitesimal and infinite values. They were introduced by mathematician John Horton Conway in the early 1970s. The surreal numbers can be constructed in a specific way, involving the use of sets.
"Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays" is a comprehensive book on combinatorial game theory written by Elwyn Berlekamp, John H. Conway, and Richard K. Guy. First published in 1982, the book explores the mathematical principles underlying various two-player games, providing insights into strategy, winning tactics, and the mathematical framework that governs these games. The authors analyze a wide range of games, from traditional board games like Nim and chess to more abstract combinatorial games.
Von Neumann programming languages refer to programming languages that are based on the Von Neumann architecture, which is a computer architecture concept where the computer's memory holds both data and programs. This architecture was proposed by John Von Neumann in the 1940s and has been foundational in the design of most modern computers.
Polyhedra are three-dimensional geometric figures with flat polygonal faces, straight edges, and vertices (corners). The word "polyhedron" comes from the Greek words "poly," meaning many, and "hedron," meaning face. Each face of a polyhedron is a polygon, a two-dimensional shape with straight sides.
A **convex polytope** is a mathematical object that generalizes the concept of polygons and polyhedra to higher dimensions. More formally, a convex polytope can be defined in several ways, including: 1. **Geometrically:** A convex polytope is a bounded subset of Euclidean space that is convex, meaning that for any two points within the polytope, the line segment connecting them is also contained within the polytope.
Minkowski Portal Refinement (MPR) is a computational method used in materials science and crystallography for the analysis of crystalline structures. It combines geometric and optimization principles to explore the configuration space of possible atomic arrangements within a given material, particularly for complex or disordered systems. The method is named after Hermann Minkowski, who contributed to the field of geometry and mathematical formulations that are relevant in crystallography.
Shephard's problem refers to a question in the field of convex geometry, specifically related to the properties of convex bodies and their projections. Named after the mathematician G. A. Shephard, the problem explores the relationship between the structure of a convex body in higher-dimensional spaces and the geometric properties of its projections in lower-dimensional spaces. In precise terms, Shephard's problem can be stated about the expected volume or surface area of projections of convex bodies onto lower-dimensional subspaces.
The line-sphere intersection problem involves determining the points at which a line intersects a sphere in three-dimensional space. This is a common problem in fields such as computer graphics, physics, and geometric modeling. To describe this geometrically, we have: 1. **Sphere**: A sphere in 3D space can be defined by its center \( C \) and its radius \( r \).
A Complex Hadamard matrix is a special type of square matrix that is characterized by its entries being complex numbers, specifically, the matrix's entries must satisfy certain orthogonality properties.
Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project
Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
Intro to OurBigBook
. Source. We have two killer features:
- topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculusArticles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
- a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
- a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.Figure 1. Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page. View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivativeVideo 2. OurBigBook Web topics demo. Source. - local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
- to OurBigBook.com to get awesome multi-user features like topics and likes
- as HTML files to a static website, which you can host yourself for free on many external providers like GitHub Pages, and remain in full control
Figure 3. Visual Studio Code extension installation.Figure 4. Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation.Figure 5. Web editor. You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.Video 3. Edit locally and publish demo. Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.Video 4. OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo. Source. - Infinitely deep tables of contents:
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact





