XKCD FTW: Greek Letters

Today's xkcd is fantastic! This is a big win. The mouseover is also great (and I am guilty as charged).

Wait until Randall Munroe finds out about mathfrak…

Alternative 'Big O' Notation

Here is my contribution. :)

Here is the tweet.

Crib Notes on a Fingernail (with \latex Notation)

If I were going to put mathematical formulas on my fingernail as crib notes, I'd also use \latex notation. :)

My favorite is the use of " \; ", which would allow the cheating student being modeled by the picture to ensure legible symbol spacing when writing exam solutions.

When will academics get rid of tests, quizzes and exams?

Cheating at UK's top universities soars by 30%https://t.co/46R8UZHS6I pic.twitter.com/KUDg0RGGCX

— Republic of Math (@republicofmath) April 29, 2018

Nice Footnote Notation for a Paper about Bribery Networks

I am amused by the notation for the footnote superscripts in this paper. :)

"Is it Possible to Take All Words Out of Mathematical Expressions?"

I just read a really cool new article in American Scientist about terminology, symbolic, and pictorial developments in mathematics.

Matrices, chaos, and birdtracks all make an appearance. The article also includes appearances by Gibbs, Silvester, Yorke, Cvitanović, and others.

Fake µs

I am very amused by the title ("Fake μs: A cautionary tail of shear-thinning locomotion") of this paper.

It's too bad, though, that "µ" is the standard notation for kinematic viscosity, as the title would be even more amusing with the notation "𝜈" for dynamic viscosity. It would then be "Fake 𝜈s". In any event, I approve! (And things are open for a sequel paper about dynamic viscosity.)

Also, I like viscous puns.

I previously used a variant of this pun, as you can see below.

I am spreading fake gnus. (This had to be done.) pic.twitter.com/eUcmp3qouZ

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) February 11, 2017

Update (8/31/17): Thanks to Peter Mucha for the comments about kinematic versus dynamic viscosity. This helped me improve my comments above.

Mathematical Symbolism

Claim: The terms "spiritually similar" and "morally equivalent" really need mathematical symbols to go with them.