Lydia Nawas
Möbius Strip: The Strangest Shape
A Möbius Strip is a one-sided surface that can be constructed by taking a rectangular strip of paper, twisting it once and joining the ends of the strip. The result is a wonky shaped ring. This ring, discovered by Johann Benedict Listing and August Ferdinand Möbius in 1858, has a number of interesting properties. Most notably, a Möbius Strip [...]
Are You Tying Your Shoelaces Wrong?
We tie our shoelaces to ensure that our shoes stay on tight, and we do these by tying a knot. There are different ways to tie your shoelaces, you may have learnt the “around the tree” technique, but somehow, they still always come undone, why? This all has to do with knot theory. If you […]
L’Hôpital’s Rule
Some of you may have heard of the name L’Hôpital whilst you were at school, but why was it so important? L’Hôpital’s rule, more pedantically known as “la régle de L’Hôpital”, is a highly useful technique for finding the limit of complicated expressions. To refresh your memory, the explicit definition reads: Where the right hand […]
Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem
In mathematics, we like proofs. For thousands of years, mathematicians believed that we would always be able to say that a statement is true or false, and we do this by proving it. No one ever questioned whether this was always possible until 1931, when Austrian mathematician Kurt Gödel started to investigate, leading him to […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Why do we count in base 10?
What is two plus two? The realist will say four, the computer will say 100, and the cynic will say 5 – but which is correct? The reason we count in base 10 stems from the simplest fact: humans have 10 fingers. Understandable and logical, as this seems to be nature’s way of telling us […]
What is the power of your vote?
In most democratic countries, voting is an essential part in deciding how a country is led. For example, in the Netherlands there are local and nationwide elections in which you decide which political parties will run different aspects of governmental life. Naturally one is quick to assume that one vote does not matter much in […]
The Uncanny Valley
The robotics industry is one of the fastest growing industries of the 21st century. Found almost everywhere, robots have integrated into human society. By this, I am not referring to an apocalyptic world in which robots are superior to people, but rather the integration of robots as an aid function in society. Robots can be […]
Rutte IV: What does it mean for the environment?
The cabinet and its ministers for the new Dutch Coalition have been revealed, consisting of the VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie. It has been entitled Rutte IV, after Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s fourth consecutive term. With each new cabinet comes new objectives: what will the next 4 years look like? An increasingly important concern is […]
Why do we feel as though our friends are more popular than us?
Whilst this may appear as an insult, or a bleak depiction of one’s lonely life in comparison to the popular lives of others, this feeling is actually a mathematical phenomenon that appears regularly in everyday scenarios. This phenomenon is known as the “Friendship Paradox”. - Lydia Nawas