Related papers: Ahab's Arithmetic; or, the mathematics of Moby-Dic…
{\bf Abstract.} The present article is an essay about mathematical intuition and Artificial intelligence (A.I.), followed by a guided excursion to a well-known open problem. It has two objectives. The first is to reconcile the way of…
This study investigates the potential influence of Herman Melville reading on his own writings through computational semantic similarity analysis. Using documented records of books known to have been owned or read by Melville, we compare…
Recently long range correlations were detected in nucleotide sequences and in human writings by several authors. We undertake here a systematic investigation of two books, Moby Dick by H. Melville and Grimm's tales, with respect to the…
Logic has its origins in basic questions about the nature of the real world and how we describe it. This article seeks to bring out the physical and epistemological relevance of some of the more recent technical work in logic and…
We investigated long range correlations in two literary texts, Moby Dick by H. Melville and Grimm's tales. The analysis is based on the calculation of entropy like quantities as the mutual information for pairs of letters and the entropy,…
Many have wondered how mathematics, which appears to be the result of both human creativity and human discovery, can possibly exhibit the degree of success and seemingly-universal applicability to quantifying the physical world as…
This is the text of an article that I wrote and disseminated in September 1981, except that I've updated the references, corrected a few misprints, and added a table of contents, some footnotes, and an addendum. The original article gave a…
Well known Simpson's paradox is puzzling and surprising for many, especially for the empirical researchers and users of statistics. However there is no surprise as far as mathematical details are concerned. A lot more is written about the…
Mathematical understanding is built in many ways. Among these, illustration has been a companion and tool for research for as long as research has taken place. We use the term illustration to encompass any way one might bring a mathematical…
Mathematical research is often motivated by the desire to reach a beautiful result or to prove it in an elegant way. Mathematician's work is thus strongly influenced by his aesthetic judgments. However, the criteria these judgments are…
The term Gibbons conjecture is widely used in connection with symmetry results for the Allen-Cahn equation. However, its origin is less transparent than its frequent citation suggests. In this note, we revisit its emergence, tracing it to a…
Mathematical reasoning recently has been shown as a hard challenge for neural systems. Abilities including expression translation, logical reasoning, and mathematics knowledge acquiring appear to be essential to overcome the challenge. This…
The apparently trifling unexpected hanging paradox has generated an enormous philosophical literature. We introduce the mathematician to this literature, paying special attention to aspects that involve nontrivial mathematics. This xxx…
In the words of the twentieth-century British mathematician G. H. Hardy, "the human function is to 'discover or observe' mathematics" (1). For centuries, starting from the ancient Greeks, mankind has hunted for beauty and order in arts and…
This paper offers a glimpse of the major contributions made by Arabs to mathematics in middle ages history period. Its purpose is to stimulate interest in an object based on mutual respect and understanding. We give a short list of the most…
This article gives an introduction for mathematicians interested in numerical computations in algebraic geometry and number theory to some recent progress in algorithmic number theory, emphasising the key role of approximate computations…
In this survey I should like to introduce some concepts of algebraic geometry and try to demonstrate the fruitful interaction between algebraic geometry and computer algebra and, more generally, between mathematics and computer science. One…
Many mathematical models of synaptic plasticity have been proposed to explain the diversity of plasticity phenomena observed in biological organisms. These models range from simple interpretations of Hebb's postulate, which suggests that…
Math is widely considered as a powerful tool and its strong appeal depends on the high level of abstraction it allows in modelling a huge number of heterogeneous phenomena and problems, spanning from the static of buildings to the flight of…
The theme of the influence of Bourbaki's ideas and methodologies on disciplines that transcend the mathematical field has been frequently addressed and, in particular, the reflection on the relationship between Bourbaki and Oulipo has…