Page 2 - Sunday Function News Today

We've spent more than a few Sunday Function features discussing the properties of the prime numbers. They're just so important and interesting in number theory that they're an irresistible target. Let's set some scenery before getting to the actual function this week.

Anybody heard of the idea of The Singularity? Roughly, it goes like this: technological progress builds on itself, and this self-reinforcing feedback loop is eventually going to come to a head where humanity makes a quantum leap into an unknowable and godlike transhuman technological future - possibly as early as the middle of this century. The name of the idea comes from mathematics, where approximately speaking a singularity is a place where a function rockets off to infinity.

Happy Easter, everyone! This Sunday Function is going to be short and sweet, since unfortunately I've got a lot to do before Monday. Let's get down to business! Here's a function I've made up out of thin air. It's pretty arbitrary - in fact, it's discontinuous at x = -1/2 and not differentiable at x = 0:

Yes, it's Tuesday. Busy weekend, including a Relay for Life (you should find your local one and donate!). Today we'll get back on schedule a bit and make this one a rather more utilitarian than usual Sunday Function, playing into the last step we'll need in order to complete the Bose-Einstein condensation discussion. In the course of our journey we will meet this somewhat alarming creature:

This Sunday I was at an event that involved a number of drawings for door prizes. There were perhaps 30 couples there - it was, not to beat around the bush, a wedding registry shindig at Bed, Bath, & Beyond. (Did I mention I'm recently engaged? I am. It's the main reason for the endemic light posting, as I'm afraid the wedding bumps the blog down the priority list a bit. ;) )

Again, apologies for the hideously scanty posting. Been in the lab doing some really interesting research which will with some luck get me in a really nice journal, as well as doing the various rounds of revision on the paper for some previous research. Also putting two talks together for a conference/school. That whole wedding planning ain't doing wonders for my spare time either. But hey, these are all good things so I'm not complaining.

Here's a simple function that's not so often found in mathematical physics, but it's still a nice showpiece for exhibiting some interesting behavior:

Sorry for the two-day delay. The personal business to which I alluded kept me out until yesterday morning, delaying this post until today. I hope it's decent for all that! This week, the same function as last week. There's nothing so special about the function itself, but it does serve as a nice Rorschach blot to project our own wandering mathematical thoughts upon. As with last time, the specific "f(x) = stuff" form of the function is not particularly enlightening. It&#...

They are saying that retail pay has gone up by 10%. now, again, they are saying that retail pay has gone up by10%. now, again, of they are saying that retail pay has gone up by 10%. now, again, of kick understand that one. certainly they have been recruiting enter markets around my way because they have been so busy. and that the retail trade is back in full swing, im sure theyre looking for staff but the 18% thing in hospitality, im a bit staggered by. i 1896 thing in hospitality, im a bit stag...

Well, its Gabriel, Gabriel playin! Gabriel, Gabriel sayin When I blow my horn?" - Cole Porter, Anything Goes The commenters in last weeks Sunday Function proposed an excellent idea for this week. As we did then, well start simple and work up to it. Graph the curve f(x) = 1/x. Now take the horizontal axis and think of it as an axle, one that can rotate smoothly. Hook a motor onto it and spin it up to a nice fast clip. The graph of the function will trace out a surface in three-dimensional s...