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How Differential Equations Save the World
It is widely known that the course Difference- and Differential Equations is one of the most hated courses among students from the Bachelor EOR. This is probably due to the fact that only a small fraction of the students is able to pass the course. However, this should not take away from the fact that […]
Big Mac Index
When somebody from the West travels to Southeast Asia, he cannot help but notice how very low the cost of living is relative to the West. How do we compare prices across countries? The Big Mac index gives us an approximation. Purchasing power parity Purchasing power parity is a measurement used to compare the purchasing […]
Searching for the Unseen: A Journey into the World of Dark Matter
Have you ever wondered what everything in our Universe is made of? The answer may surprise you. Dark matter, a mysterious and elusive substance, makes up about 27% of the universe, while the matter we can see and interact with makes up only 5%. But what exactly is dark matter, and how do we study […]
Choosing prompts wisely: How to use ChatGPT optimally.
The AI industry is evolving rapidly, with major players such as OpenAI, Microsoft, Notion and Google constantly striving to maintain their competitive edge by launching products like Brad, Copilot and Notion AI. Among these, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been a pivotal product that has sparked the widespread adoption of AI technology. For those who are new […]
The Complexities of Satellite insurance
In today’s society, we rely heavily on the vast network of satellites that orbit our planet. From providing GPS navigation to enabling global communications, satellites have truly become an essential part of our daily lives. However, with the increasing number of satellites being launched around the Earth’s orbit, the risk of potential damages has also […]
Are Our Climate Change Prediction Models Reliable?
On Monday, March 20th, the IPCC published a climate report with advice for policymakers. This advice is partly based on computer models, but criticism of these models is growing. To what extent do the assumptions made in these models accurately reflect our society? And do they still hold when making predictions about 2100? Detlef van […]
Beat all your friends at Catan!
Catan: if you’re a board game lover like me, you’ve probably heard of it. If not, then I really recommend taking a look at it. The game has a combination of luck and strategic thinking, and it is different each time you play it, as you can create a different playing board each time. This […]
Is Chat GPT paving the way to a less intelligent society?
By now, everyone’s used ChatGPT to look something up. Whether it was a quick refresher on a topic for class, or a check for any errors in your work, or to write a Sinterklaas poem, ChatGPT was there. At first, many, including my cynical self, were skeptical that ChatGPT would work, and would actually prove […]
Fractals
In 1904, Swedish mathematician Niels Fabian Helge von Koch discovered a curve with finite area but infinite length. Later, one would call these fractals. We start with an equilateral triangle. On each edge, we find the middle third. On the outside of that middle third, we build an equilateral triangle, and then remove the middle […]
Infinite Series
An infinite series is a sum of infinitely many quantities. Series play a very relevant role in calculus and its generalizations such as functional analysis and discrete mathematics. Since summing infinitely many elements is hard to grasp, a better way to describe an infinite series is to consider it as a limiting process of summing […]
The Mandelbrot set: a hypnotising phenomenon
Although you may never have heard of it, you’ve most likely seen it before. It is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful sets in mathematics you will encounter. The set I’m referring to is called the Mandelbrot set. The iterative function (I will later elaborate on the meaning of this) which defines this […]
Past, Current and Future Macroeconomic Models
The Great Recession after the financial crisis gave rise to a lot of criticism of contemporary macroeconomic models. The standard modeling assumptions were severely challenged by scholars and policy makers, as they could not account for frictions in the financial intermediary sector or behavioral aspects of a turbulent economy. In this article, I will walk […]
Pyramid Schemes
In the Netherlands, a famous slogan on TV is ‘Let op: geld lenen kost geld’ (watch out: borrowing money costs money). No money can be earned for free. With a pyramid scheme, however, people seem to defy these laws of finance and make money out of nothing. How does this work? What is a pyramid […]
How Netflix chooses which movie you watch next.
Different Home pages? We have all been there, scrolling through the Netflix home page while not being able to decide what movie or series to watch. Some movies seem interesting, but not enough to really dedicate your night to them. It is certainly a common issue that Netflix is fully aware of. Since Netflix relies […]
Why bad movies are released at the beginning of the year
Looking to catch a movie this month? Chances are that the movie might disappoint you. In fact, apparently most movies which are considered bad tend to be released in January and February. To find out when bad movies come out, it is important to look when movies that are considered good come out. Most of […]
A breakthrough towards endless clean energy
On the fifth of December 2022, a group of researchers at the National Ignitions Facility (NIF) in the USA, conducted an experiment which released 3.15 MJ of energy while only using 2.05 MJ of energy [3]. During this experiment, heavy hydrogen atoms were fused into a helium atom, which released energy in the process, this […]
How to win Deal Or No Deal
Have you ever wondered whether there is a winning strategy when playing Deal Or No Deal? The game show might seem like a game of chance, as you choose a suitcase at random and are betting against a banker. However, the opposite is true: you can play according to a strategy when playing Deal Or […]
The moving sofa problem
Mathematics is undeniably beautiful in a certain way, providing us answers to many of life’s complex issues. It finds itself in all aspects of society, and has played a major role for thousands of years. However, despite our deep understanding, there are still many unsolved problems. For most of us, we can’t even begin to […]
Dunning-Kruger Effect
How intelligent do you think you are? Can you accurately predict your own skill level or judge the intelligence of your ideas? In 1999, David Dunning and Justin Kruger, two social psychologists, discovered that people are exceptionally poor judges of their abilities, revealing a cognitive bias that impacts almost everyone on the planet. This cognitive […]
The Four-Color Theorem
The Four-Color Theorem is a theorem that has its roots in graph theory. The theorem states that any planar graph can be colored properly with four colors. Here properly colored means that no two vertices of the graph that are connected are colored using the same color. The theorem was first conjectured by F. Guthrie […]
Why “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” Is Not Just Another Disney Song
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is of course sung by Bruno’s family, the Madrigal Family. But what if I told you that this type of song, where multiple melodies are sung simultaneously, is also called a Madrigal? And that there are many more meanings behind some of the musical and textual choices made for this […]
The Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence: a Scientific Perspective
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing field that has the potential to revolutionize many aspects of our lives, from healthcare and transportation to education and entertainment. In recent years, we have seen impressive developments in AI technology, such as the release of the ChatGPT language model, which can generate human-like text in a variety […]
Reaching the Unreachable
Have you ever felt like giving up? Wanting to quit something because it seems impossible to reach your goal (for example passing Difference- and Differential Equations)? Of course you have, but don’t give up too fast! Sometimes, it is possible to succeed in what seemed like a hopeless mission (like passing Difference- and Differential Equations). […]
How to Prevent High Interest Rates on Your Student Debt
A couple of weeks ago, Dutch students were hit with an extremely unpleasant surprise: not only did the current generation of students miss out on the “basisbeurs”, but they will also have to pay interest on their student loans! Luckily, there is a little loophole students can exploit to keep the damage to a minimum! […]
A crash course in general equilibrium theory
I have always had a weakness for history lessons. Although very different from the standard optimal control problems and differential equations I am solving in my studies, I find that the lessons we can learn from great previous minds are both insightful and fascinating. Combining both my favorite economics concepts and a history lesson, today […]
The Coming Recession – Why There Will Probably Be a Recession Next Year
We are living in economically tumultuous times, with high inflation, rapid interest rate rises, and an energy and climate crisis interfering with the economy. Many economic institutions talk of the imminence of a global recession. This fact gives rise to the question: What is a recession? And why should or shouldn’t we worry about it? […]
Why do cities often have a poor east side?
London, New York, Paris, Toronto, Manchester: all cities where poverty tends to gather in the east. For each of these cities, one could think of explanations for this on an individual basis. In London for example, the river Thames flowed eastwards. Since in the past the Thames was used to dump a lot of waste […]
Van Gogh – not just a painter
Van Gogh is undoubtedly one of the most famous painters of all time, but perhaps it’s time to consider him a mathematician. Starry Night is one of Van Gogh’s most renowned paintings, depicting just that: a starry night. With a bright moon on the right, and Venus in the centre left, the sky is dominated […]
How to read a QR code without your phone
You can see them almost everywhere nowadays: QR codes. They can be used for all kinds of things: showing you the menu in a restaurant, getting wifi and even paying for something via a ‘Tikkie’. The first time I saw such a QR code, I wondered immediately how it works, as you scan the QR […]
A triangle that changed the world
When you think of mathematics, you imagine a sea of numbers, formulae and relationships. This is, of course, as we know, quite often the case. However, mathematics hides quite interesting relationships you might not have thought of before. One of the most common “interesting relationships” in math is Euler’s identity: $e^{i*\pi} + 1 = 0$. […]