April 2009

Page 5 — How I Got to Understand Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
Eli Maor
Now hear this! A bedrock principle of quantum mechanics makes an appearance in the orchestra pit.

Page 8 — A Conversation with Stephen Wolfram
Bruce Torrence
MH sits down with the creator of Mathematica to talk about the prospects for “A New Kind of Science” and its relation to mathematics.

Page 11 — Who’s Hypatia? Whose Hypatia Do You Mean?
Hardy Grant
A comprehensive look at what we do and don’t know about mathematics’ most illusive heroine, and what this means for today’s students, scholars, and seekers of inspiration.

Page 16 — Math and the Arts: Just Passing Through
Jeff Chyatte, Ram Subedi, Vitaly Shvetsov, and Stephanie Pepin
Apiece of wood with a hyperbolic curve cut out of it walks into a bar…

Page 17 — A Disappearing Number
Stephen Abbott
Complicite’s latest play about the collaboration between G.H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan wins top honors in 2008.

Page 20 — Four-Coloring the US Counties
Four-Coloring the US Counties
The proof by Appel and Haken shows it can be done, but when the paint actually hits the map it’s an earlier flawed argument from Kempe that proves most useful.

Page 22 — A Dozen Hat Problems
Ezra Brown and James Tanton
The hat problem rage invades MH in this latest dodecasized installment.

Page 26 — Book Reviews: Re-righting the History of Women in Science
Meredith Clement, Jeremy Lea, Lisa Pham, Brandon Smith, Devin Smith, Nancy Wagner, Charlotte Simmons, John Barthell
Two biographies of Hypatia leave two distinct impressions on this mixed study group, raising questions about how gender affects the way we read and record our history.

Page 28 — The View From Here: Top Job
Hunter Glanz
Mathematics rocks the top of the charts in the latest ranking from CareerCast.com.

Page 30 — The Playground
Derek Smith
Join the fun in the new Math Horizons problem section.