Mathematics

Mathematical Equation Can Predict Your Happiness

Money can't make you happy but perhaps math can predict how much less unhappy you will be than if you lived in poverty. The happiness of over 18,000 people worldwide has been predicted by a mathematical equation, with results showing that moment-to-m ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 10 2014 - 2:25pm

Meta-Analyses Get Lots Of Attention, Without Noting That Approaches Affect Outcomes

Depending on the analysis strategy used, estimating treatment outcomes in meta-­analyses may differ and may result in major alterations in the conclusions derived from the analysis, according to a study in JAMA which could easily apply to all fields.  ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 12 2014 - 6:59pm

Fixing Fossil Record Correction Methods For More Accuracy

Mathematical techniques that not only identify whether two data sets correlate, but also whether one drives the other, have allowed researchers to look at a lot of old data in new ways. Methods have been developed to try to identify and correct for bias i ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 4 2014 - 10:32am

Standard Model Extension Uses Knot Algebra

A recent paper makes a connection between the quantum group SLq(2), which describes knots, and the elementary particles of the Standard Model.  A mathematical knot is an embedding of a circle in 3-dimensional Euclidean space. Unlike your shoes, with their ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 12 2014 - 10:28am

Being Too Analytical Could Push Ethics Out The Door

Calculating the pros and cons is a time-honored method for making analytical decisions but focusing too much on numberscalculations, especially those involving money, can lead to negative consequences, including social and moral transgressions, says a new ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 15 2014 - 9:57pm

Clearing Up Confusion Between Correlation And Causation

An example of unidirectional cause and effect: bad weather means umbrella sales rise, but buying umbrellas won't make it rain. Credit: Mariusz Olszewski/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND By Jonathan Borwein (Jon), University of Newcastle and Michael Rose, Universi ...

Article - The Conversation - Sep 25 2014 - 7:30am

Uncertainty Improves The Math Of Fluid Flow

Mathematicians have introduced a new element of uncertainty into an equation used to describe the behavior of fluids, which might make it possible to better reflect the inherent uncertainties of the natural world. ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 29 2014 - 5:30pm

Predicting The 2014 Baseball Postseason

Now that Major League Baseball’s regular season has ended with the wild wildcard win by the Kansas City Royals over the Oakland A’s and with the Pittsburgh Pirates being eliminated by the San Francisco Giants, I've once again begun analyzing the proba ...

Article - Bruce Bukiet - Oct 3 2014 - 1:40pm

Why There Are Fewer Female Economists

Economics is a dwindling field. Long called the 'dismal science' it is now considered just another philosophical school of thought; people in the money business who want quantification hire physicists rather than economists. And the lack of fema ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 28 2014 - 10:32am

Game Theory: When Are Groups Social? Or Insufferable?

Humans are primarily social creatures- Thoreau may have pretended he wanted to sit among nature by himself and write a book but he was in a house built by someone else, paid for by someone else, with clothes made by someone else, and writing a book that w ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 30 2014 - 2:22pm