Five Online Math Favorites

According to Google, there are more than 121 million results for “math.” The following is an unordered and incomplete list of some of my favorite math things on the web.

1. I laugh out loud at the comics on xkcd.com, but I think my favorite joke on the site is the disclaimer that appears at the bottom of every page.

Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).

But if you insist that I choose just one of Randall Munroe’s cartoons, I’ll pick Fields Arranged by Purity.

2. I used to watch really old, really bad movies with my father on Sunday afternoons (but only when the Steelers weren’t playing, of course). The following is a clip that I remember, now ubiquitous on YouTube.  

Ma & Pa Kettle – YouTube 

3. The only thing better than a great a cappella song is a funny a capella song. The only thing better than that is a funny a capella song that involves numerous math puns. Thanks, Klein Four!

Finite Simple Group of Order Two – Klein Four

4. When my friend Art Benjamin was interviewed on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert said to him, “You call yourself a mathemagician. Now, what does that mean? Were those two words not nerdy enough by themselves?” Nerdy or not, Art is frickin’ amazing.

Art Benjamin Does Mental Math – TED Conference 

5. The following is a quote I’ve seen numerous times on the web, yet I’ve never seen an attribution. I’ll post it here, and credit Anon, though I’m pretty sure it’s a rip-off from a similar quote by Eleanor Roosevelt — “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”

Small minds discuss persons. Average minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas. Really great minds discuss mathematics.