New Blog Location

Future blog posts can be found here.

http://www.bradyharanblog.com

Some nice mathematical books

People often stop me in the street and say: "You are Brady from Numberphile. Can you recommend a good mathematical book for Christmas!"

This is entirely untrue. It has never happened.

However I will use this blog post to recommend some books written by people from Numberphile videos.

This list of not exhaustive, just a few that sprang to mind while I was waiting for my computer to process a video.

Matt Parker's shiny new "Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension" is cracking - very funny like the man himself.

You can buy on Amazon in the UK and US - or get a signed copy from Matt.

Simon Singh's The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets - great hidden gems from the TV show (plus Futurama).

Simon's other books are great too - check him out on Amazon, etc.

Alex Bellos - of cake cutting fame - has got Alex Through the Looking Glass (aka Grapes of Math). It is the sequel to Alex's Adventures in Numberland (aka Here's Looking at Euclid).

Ed Frenkel has Love & Math - well worth a look.

Ron Graham - yes, that Graham - has Magical Mathematics written with Persi Diaconis (Persi is coming to Numberphile soon!)

Barry Mazur does great books too.

That'll do for now... Will add some more later perhaps.

Clearly I am biased towards Numberphile contributors - what did you expect!?

Help with a Selfie

If you are a scientist, science student, teacher or somehow involved in science, we need your help.

We are collecting "science selfies" of people from Commonwealth countries.

Professor Martyn Poliakoff would like to use them in a video which will be shown at his address at the Commonwealth Science Conference 2014 being held in India.

See his explanation here:



If you can help, here are some pointers:

Email: periodicvideos@gmail.com with SELFIE in the subject field to help us sort them.

- It is good if the photos looks like a selfie rather than anything too pro!

- Please include a name, country and what you do in the email too. This is important. It's okay if you don't want a surname to appear.

- Show us in your science environment (lab, classroom, outdoors?) if you can.

- The pics will be used in The Prof's video plus the video will appear here on our YouTube channel.

- Sorry if we can't use them all.

NEED THE SELFIES BY WEDNESDAY, 26 NOVEMBER, 2014.

Matt Parker's Book

Numberphile regular Matt Parker - aka Standupmaths - has a new book out.

It's called Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension.

I really recommend it.

Matt gives a lot of time and energy to Numberphile, and his main reward is enduring the mixed bag of YouTube comments! :)

So it's at rare times like this we can give something back by showing support.

But the main reason you should buy his book is because it's really good.

Like a series of really good, funny Numberphile videos in written form. So without my dodgy camerawork and editing! :)

WAYS TO BUY:

A signed copy direct from Matt.

Amazon US.

Amazon UK.

Or buy it from a book shop... Apparently they are a thing.

The book looks like this in the UK and US.

2014 Nobel Prizes

Every year we do videos for the Nobel Prizes in chemistry and physics.

It is always bit of a mad scramble to find someone who might have something to say at really short notice!

Here are this year's, from Sixty Symbols and Periodic Videos.

The First 100 Brady Numbers

Just posted a video in which The Brady Numbers came into existence!!!

I see they have made it onto Wikipedia, although who knows for how long?

Thanks to viewer Marek who subsequently got in touch and sent me this list of the first 100 Brady Numbers.

1. 2308
2. 4261
3. 6569
4. 10830
5. 17399
6. 28229
7. 45628
8. 73857
9. 119485
10. 193342
11. 312827
12. 506169
13. 818996
14. 1325165
15. 2144161
16. 3469326
17. 5613487
18. 9082813
19. 14696300
20. 23779113
21. 38475413
22. 62254526
23. 100729939
24. 162984465
25. 263714404
26. 426698869
27. 690413273
28. 1117112142
29. 1807525415
30. 2924637557
31. 4732162972
32. 7656800529
33. 12388963501
34. 20045764030
35. 32434727531
36. 52480491561
37. 84915219092
38. 137395710653
39. 222310929745
40. 359706640398
41. 582017570143
42. 941724210541
43. 1523741780684
44. 2465465991225
45. 3989207771909
46. 6454673763134
47. 10443881535043
48. 16898555298177
49. 27342436833220
50. 44240992131397
51. 71583428964617
52. 115824421096014
53. 187407850060631
54. 303232271156645
55. 490640121217276
56. 793872392373921
57. 1284512513591197
58. 2078384905965118
59. 3362897419556315
60. 5441282325521433
61. 8804179745077748
62. 14245462070599181
63. 23049641815676929
64. 37295103886276110
65. 60344745701953039
66. 97639849588229149
67. 157984595290182188
68. 255624444878411337
69. 413609040168593525
70. 669233485047004862
71. 1082842525215598387
72. 1752076010262603249
73. 2834918535478201636
74. 4586994545740804885
75. 7421913081219006521
76. 12008907626959811406
77. 19430820708178817927
78. 31439728335138629333
79. 50870549043317447260
80. 82310277378456076593
81. 133180826421773523853
82. 215491103800229600446
83. 348671930222003124299
84. 564163034022232724745
85. 912834964244235849044
86. 1476997998266468573789
87. 2389832962510704422833
88. 3866830960777172996622
89. 6256663923287877419455
90. 10123494884065050416077
91. 16380158807352927835532
92. 26503653691417978251609
93. 42883812498770906087141
94. 69387466190188884338750
95. 112271278688959790425891
96. 181658744879148674764641
97. 293930023568108465190532
98. 475588768447257139955173
99. 769518792015365605145705
100. 1245107560462622745100878

And here is a list of the first 337 from "Yeelk".

I quit my job for Physics

Recently received this amazing message from viewer Filipe (pictured):

Dear Brady, Hi. 

My name is Filipe (or Philip) and I live in Brazil. 

Two years ago aprox, I was working at an Investment Company in São Paulo. 

I was very unhappy with my current job. I was working insane hours and doing a job that I didn’t love.  I graduated as an engineer and I love Physics and Maths. But I wasn't doing any of that. 

Long story short: I saw your videos, particularly Sixty Symbols. They inspired me to change my life around. I decided to try going for a PhD. 

Everybody said I could not do it because I was already 3 years in the investment industry and it has been a long time since I had formally studied all the Maths and Physics. 

I decided to ignore these people. 

I quit my job, spent most of my savings on 30 day trip to England. 

I wanted to do a PhD in Physics. I travelled to meet people at the top universities (Cambridge, Oxford, Kings, Imperial, Nottingham...) and talked to everyone I could about my situation. 

In Nottingham I talked for hours (on several different days actually) with Prof Roger Bowley. Emailed Prof Martyn and talked with Prof Tony Padilla and with Samantha. 

And had a brilliant interview with Professor Philip Moriarty. I explained to him what I want to do. He said that he had just the exact idea and was waiting for the right person. 

I received and bunch of offers and I’m starting my PhD 1st of April at University of Nottingham. Philip is going to be my Supervisor. 

My whole life is changing. My girlfriend is considering doing a PhD as well in Medicine at Nottingham and my family is planning to move in to England the next year as well. 

I would very much like to thank you. 

The videos (Numberphile, Periodic Videos, Deep Sky Videos and Sixty Symbols) were the spark I needed to re-ignite the passion. 

Hope to see you some time over the next 4 years in Nottingham and get to say Thank You personally. 

Yours Faithfully Filipe

(Partly edited for privacy, style, etc, and reproduced with Filipe's permission)