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Month: June 2018

The Indian musical drums

Posted on June 24, 2018June 25, 2018 By Simply Curious 2 Comments on The Indian musical drums
The Indian musical drums
Science in Daily Life, Uncategorized

There is a well-known paper by the famous scientist and Nobel laureate C. V. Raman about the harmonic drums of India – the mridangam and the tabla. While the paper was written in the 1930s, it is quite detailed and refreshing in its clear description of how these instruments work. This post attempts to popularize … Read More “The Indian musical drums” »

The Rule of 72 – and what does the Swiss National Bank have to do with it

Posted on June 21, 2018June 29, 2018 By Simply Curious No Comments on The Rule of 72 – and what does the Swiss National Bank have to do with it
The Rule of 72 – and what does the Swiss National Bank have to do with it
Finance

I was listening to an academic talk and someone mentioned the “Rule of 72”. Apparently invented by Einstein, it is a simple numerical approximation that helps you understand the power of compound interest. This, according to legend, became popular when interest rates offered on deposits by the Swiss National Bank dropped to  in the 1930s. … Read More “The Rule of 72 – and what does the Swiss National Bank have to do with it” »

Bucking down to the Bakhshali manuscript

Posted on June 5, 2018June 7, 2018 By Simply Curious 2 Comments on Bucking down to the Bakhshali manuscript
Bucking down to the Bakhshali manuscript
Recreational Math, Uncategorized

The Bakhshali manuscript is an artifact discovered in 1881, near the town of Peshawar (in then British India, but now in present-day Pakistan). It is beautifully described in an article in the online magazine of the American Mathematical Society and I spent a few hours fascinated by the description in the article (written excellently by … Read More “Bucking down to the Bakhshali manuscript” »

A young Einstein at his desk, contemplating the world with his mind!

My Recent Posts

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  • Schrodinger’s Cat Lives again! November 27, 2019
  • Three pieces – and some puzzles September 9, 2019
  • Tales of Karatsuba May 14, 2019
  • Error Correcting Codes and the Quantum version February 6, 2019
  • Modulo arithmetic & cards November 13, 2018
  • Gauge invariance, Global and Local Symmetry October 17, 2018
  • Binary/Ternary codes and card tricks October 14, 2018
  • p-‘s and q-‘s redux October 14, 2018
  • Minding your p-‘s and q-‘s October 13, 2018
  • Math, Rhythmic patterns & A Card Trick September 30, 2018
  • Of Baby Hummers and clock arithmetic with Aryabhata and Archimedes September 15, 2018
  • Gedankenexperiments #1 August 8, 2018
  • The Indian musical drums June 24, 2018
  • The Rule of 72 – and what does the Swiss National Bank have to do with it June 21, 2018

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