Huh?
Welcome to the non-hidden part of this "website" where you can find something different and/or interesting and/or [insert a proper adjective].Here I will share some interesting (imho) readings as well as some mathematical (and not) trivia and other stuff.
Just snoop around!
Compulsory reading:
(which means literally everyone should read this)Some other must read:
(books I found superlative, you might too)- Ray Kurzweil - La singolarità è vicina (In English: the singularity is near. Those who will love this may keep reading his "sequel" - The Singularity is Nearer.
- Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo (no link for this for thou shalt know what is this book)
- Sharon McGrayne - The Theory that would not die
- Stephen Pinker - Enlightenment Now
- Temple Grandin - The Autistic Brain
- Steven Levitt - Freakonomics
On a desert island:
people sometimes say they have read books that have changed their life, or at least this is what they believe.Those kind of books are usually novels or some sort of psychological / philosophical books, or flimflams like "for the body and for the mind".
For me it's about five textbooks that really re-shaped my brain.
- Graham, Knuth, Patashnik - Concrete Mathematics
- John Von Neumann - Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour
- Russell, Norvig - Intelligenza Artificiale, Un Approccio Moderno.
- Li, Vitányi - An Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity and its applications
- Roger Penrose - La strada che porta alla realtà ("Road to Reality", not really a textbook, but ish)
Spare time for nuts:
well...- 101 Trivia di Algebra Lineare per Informatici. English version: 101 Trivia in Linear Algebra for Computer Science students. Very basics of Linear Algebra through some amusing reasoning "quick & dirty" problems.
- 29 ulteriori Trivia in Algebra lineare per Informatici esaltati. English version: 29 other Trivia in Linear Algebra for thrilled Computer Science students. 29 a bit more challenging "quick & dirty" problems in Linear Algebra, for your own amusement.
- 17 Trivia in Algebra Lineare per Matematici. English version: 17 Trivia in Linear Algebra for Mathematicians. Warning: this is not only for Mathematicians; whoever passionate enough in Linear Algebra can have fun.
- Problemi ed Esercizi in Sistemi Dinamici. English version: Problems and Exercises in Dynamical Systems. I am a great fan of V. Arnold, and he has also been one of my mentors (though only through his books). These will entertain the thrilled ones.
- Problemi ed Esercizi di Matematica Discreta. English version: Problems and Exercises in Discrete Maths.
Questions and problems presented hereby assume familiarity with the topics covered in the "Linear Algebra" course during the first year of the three-year Bachelor’s degree programme in Mathematics, as set out in the University of Bologna’s curriculum.
Something personal, something blue...
Just skip this.- As a library user, I have a current record of having consulted or read 837 books in the fields of Mathematics and Physics. This is just "to quantify" how obsessed I am about Maths.
- Ever since I was a child, I’ve always had a strange fascination with keys. I was intrigued and captivated by how they work, their shape
and their symbolism, and so I started collecting them. The collection has grown over time, partly because of my kleptomania,
which proves uncontrollable whenever I come across any kind of key.
Don’t leave keys lying about – you might not find them again. (Current amount of collected keys: 272.) - I find certain lights, noises, shades of colour and words particularly distressing. If I freeze up during a conversation, it’s most likely because I’m trying to come up with words that won’t bore me, or because I’ve heard a chilling noise.
- I have number-colour synesthesia. That’s why you might see me pulling faces when I read numbers, or notice that I write certain digits more often than others.
- I have a form of selective hyperthymesia, which makes me particularly sensitive to smells, scents, certain words and numbers. It’s not always easy to live with. It is a chronic sentence of pensiveness.
Trivia
Two of the following facts about me are false. Which ones?- After two nights of calculations, in August 2015, I derived a simple algorithm for the roulette game. The following evening I won 5000€ at the Casino of Sanremo.
- I once consulted as a mathematician for a government agency.
- I have memorised 1001 digits of π so far, and I know primes up to 1001 (which is not a prime).
- During high school, I managed to crack the codes for mobile phone top-ups, allowing me to top up my phone for free.
- Back in high school, I managed to log into all of my teacher's accounts purely for my own amusement, without doing anything else.
Trivia 2
Can you crack this code? :)
291055299100559277130303857128585283010395859239949218892388497275488103391112746091867
x^3 + y^4 - z^8 = 127