2026-05-25T05:51:36Z https://yabu.me Richard Elwes https://yabu.me/npub1m4zfe40awg0pgu40l7gy4qxcwgkh9t97pwa7csuefv5ps60dmv2slkf85f https://media.mathstodon.xyz/accounts/avatars/109/319/361/309/751/564/original/01cbf7ff10db6283.png https://media.mathstodon.xyz/accounts/avatars/109/319/361/309/751/564/original/01cbf7ff10db6283.png https://yabu.me/nevent1qqs027w7nflgsd9jdfdxw3lm9k4768x9k4nqw4jcn3x67lwtkndlxkqzyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32jwz70x First media review for Huge Numbers!<br/><br/>Emily Conover in Science News writes: &#34;It’s a delightful survey of the field of googology, the study of large numbers.... It’s a joy to marvel at how boundaries have been broken time and again, thanks to the creative, intrepid explorers of the biggest numbers known.&#34;<br/><br/><a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/huge-numbers-book-math-googology">https://www.sciencenews.org/article/huge-numbers-book-math-googology</a> 2026-04-04T11:46:28Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqs2zcnv0tn899apqsahx5vvccd5ac36856u3p3awj58nyjd9lg8a4qzyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd322rzavg In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsz993dlj8e6mcg8h39hdj0eydkfup4l964p58g7auflqq6afg6psse5am9t'>nevent1q…am9t</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Am I right in understanding that you don’t object to your work being formalised, you just don’t want to do it yourself? 2026-03-29T20:24:15Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqs2sz77st5htaqplu9g084ld7jf8utnszdfq055rcmlmsnzph9pztszyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32ly7jl3 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsfmn5w9lhrsvkwrvdkff2enhpcrpf59a0uq9k5v4kfkd6w972gh9c0un79t'>nevent1q…n79t</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Never heard of it but the replies here persuade me I would like it, so thank you! 2026-02-26T19:38:28Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqs9tr6rag2pdq0x4ezhgsvcczx5ussryn2x20pv8un2rmm9ygt7qjgzyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32q7ccxj In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsrhu7gxg0zjwt063qasrwukw7a36qq9nq9j8vnh8hdqwa4fnwragqk5mw8s'>nevent1q…mw8s</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Yes me, and you’re right - I literally did have to do a second take because I ran out of breath first time through! 2026-02-23T19:28:36Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsyf5qy4zpqht9mmj5ddzwhmfrdqsct9j350k4yje67kuaeeku03pgzyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd3203j4c3 Just finished another day working on the audiobook of Huge Numbers. This was one of the challenges past Richard threw at me today…<br/> <img src="https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/116/121/041/345/246/050/original/9fe3cac7346f2bcb.png"> <br/> 2026-02-23T17:08:32Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqstepmn9vpv2kz4c4ky4apkh7u06yq3e4mnlcy6s5cs3cy8rvq5kzczyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32hal4xu In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs9th3luzfzr09w7d6ss7dwncgvwd8nkhymhv0n9dvw3ksy08rypmc0sfgcz'>nevent1q…fgcz</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Thanks - yes you&#39;re the second person to suggest this approach, and the answer is quite possibly yes - clearly I should learn my way around regular expressions.... 2026-01-15T11:29:46Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsp8a0gp74zulj24sz2fw634lvyqc4fudxcg5qu8affrmjlwhqtkpczyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32ug450n I had the opportunity to use AI to speed up my work yesterday - and I didn&#39;t take it.<br/><br/>I am updating some old lecture notes, and needed to replace an obolete typesetting command with a new command. Essentially a search &amp; replace job, but the syntax of the two commands is different enough that the editor&#39;s textual search &amp; replace wouldn&#39;t work. I used the inbuilt search, but then had to change each occurrence manually.<br/><br/>Or I could have uploaded the file into Copilot and asked it to make all those changes for me. Why didn&#39;t I?<br/><br/>Because then my entire module&#39;s lecture notes would have passed through a highly complex process I do not understand or trust. I would not feel confident that the AI had only changed the things I asked it to change.<br/><br/>When my notes contain human mistakes - hardly a rare occurrence - I feel fine apologising to the students and making the corrections.<br/><br/>But if my notes contained weird, unexplained, AI-generated errors, I expect I&#39;d feel angry &amp; embarrassed.<br/><br/>I suppose could ask a second AI to compare the output against the original - I didn&#39;t actually think of this at the time. I suppose that would provide some reassurance, but would it be enough? Is that the answer to these conundrums? 2026-01-15T10:32:22Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqswzsdkp40c27tzdamftutj0j5kx7g2tvvcztsxl4vlscq0y45a6lqzyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd3244jlsz Me on Numberphile talking about some of my favourite shapes!<br/><br/><a href="https://youtu.be/BhSlqIe1CRQ?si=yNnlH5-OSK81OaPN">https://youtu.be/BhSlqIe1CRQ?si=yNnlH5-OSK81OaPN</a> 2025-07-31T13:01:25Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsql3dktzydkvwz0duxt64wr7rztdu23wrwcgtlvsc4j7u8wj7frggzyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32ewuwkk Via Viz Magazine. <a href="https://shop.viz.co.uk/viz346bs">https://shop.viz.co.uk/viz346bs</a><br/> <img src="https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/114/723/396/655/856/515/original/d9540295e0dd5fbb.png"> <br/> 2025-06-21T21:09:42Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqst738fpsgsrlsjxkvexxq3rsr4ftvswtdcr80u26nv2epqzrucejszyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32cnu0ed In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsdkl3c87jq2sz3hxpuumnjggudm97t4emg368zq2l2vsttqu3damcds87h9'>nevent1q…87h9</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Ok yes this is very cool! The biggest constructible odd-sided polygon is the product of the known Fermat primes: <br/><br/>3 . 5 . 17 . 257 . 65537<br/><br/>which is 2^32 - 1<br/><br/>which is the largest integer expressible in computational systems which allow integers to have length up 32 bits. 2025-05-13T17:07:11Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsgds59c5ncnv6xx0uppzltqt8jhu85vu2ln3pxy6xyyppysxl508gzyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32q4qcys Mathematicians! What are the biggest (finite) numbers that have arisen in your research or teaching?<br/><br/>[NB I&#39;m not asking for the biggest numbers you know of, but ones which have arisen in your work.] 2025-05-12T13:12:04Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsfh2cyy2nfxggqpl029j5ukfqswqrs042djuxqjn42hef3w6erkhszyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32k47dvz Represent pi in an imaginative way and win a prize!<br/><br/><a href="https://think-maths.co.uk/pi-comp/">https://think-maths.co.uk/pi-comp/</a> 2025-02-18T20:21:51Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsvxfkg5mhdrpeqev4ep5se8e5nw943004hn3avttpmfwputycrehqzyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32rq40pg In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsxawv9e8wd9w09h4uystn75ndnw7vvj2swhjnwt45rltrfflkzn2c3xm4se'>nevent1q…m4se</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>I last visited the Louvre 20 years ago and was incredibly depressed by the Mona Lisa experience. I couldn’t see a thing through the field of arms holding phones up in the air (why?).<br/><br/>But the thing that really got me was that in the same room were other renaissance paintings, including a Titian or two, which it was impossible to enjoy because of the ginormous crowd of people bustling around them, paying them no attention at whatsoever.<br/><br/><a href="https://www.contexttravel.com/blog/articles/louvre-artworks-5-underrated-masterpieces?display_currency=USD">https://www.contexttravel.com/blog/articles/louvre-artworks-5-underrated-masterpieces?display_currency=USD</a> 2025-02-09T23:59:36Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsxydrfzlwx7qm4kgh0pf9pkh5d0ygasrlslk69qu9xr5udgm6f65szyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32zdc02k In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsv0wyqv2dgxv0teye8hpx0t0e0cgr59dpl4fqnqkmvwp7ktmsz8nqdk7qth'>nevent1q…7qth</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Lots of good stuff around the model theory of fields!<br/><br/>The one I know best is a theorem of hers with Angus Macintyre and Lou Van Den Dries which has been important in the model theory of finite (&amp; pseudofinite) fields. It limits the possible sizes of definable sets. It basically says that given a formula ϕ in the language of fields, for any finite field F and any choice of parameters in F, ϕ will define a set of size approx μ |𝐹|ᵈ for a pair (μ,d) from a finite collection where d is a natural number (the &#34;dimension&#34; of the set).<br/><br/>This generalises the Lang-Weil bound, from absolutely irreducible varieties to arbitrary definable sets.<br/><br/>It also made pseudofinite fields an important example of a a new class of geometrically well-behaved &#34;supersimple&#34; first order theories.<br/> <a href="https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/bays/mtpsf/ChDrMa92.pdf">https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/bays/mtpsf/ChDrMa92.pdf</a> 2025-01-24T09:36:21Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsp5r9ws5xuknwuwaylfythpufreym40crc37m6vucq23vhcvhlz9gzyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32ktdf75 I was very sad to hear of the death of Zoé Chatzidakis, who has been a powerful force in model theory. This is a nice obituary from the Fields Institute.<br/><br/><a href="https://www.fields.utoronto.ca/news/Memoriam-Dr-Zoé-Chatzidakis">https://www.fields.utoronto.ca/news/Memoriam-Dr-Zoé-Chatzidakis</a> 2025-01-24T00:29:58Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsf3ey0drvnvuye5ym3a9ammd4k8vlss7d7w02lnzv20y49vlr36zgzyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32ghzaue Excited and a bit frightened to make my debut on Numberphile.<br/><br/>Here&#39;s me talking about an &#34;unprovable theorem&#34; and some very big numbers.<br/><br/><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Le7NgS-wO0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Le7NgS-wO0</a> 2024-11-26T22:03:46Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsrdy69gy2lcsumanm4mw20f8sp3crz26ytku4283uygzutpc35vjqzyrw5f8x4l4epu9rj4lleqj5qmpez6u4vhc9mhmzrn99jsxrfahd32m3ftj2 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqswmyjzr3arjvwv5vh0qefsq477fsplxtzsqdr9cr4jhsgzc90je5gg7cdj6'>nevent1q…cdj6</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>In question 10, “La” is unambiguously the first word alphabetically in the English language that begins with an “L, so I would have put an “a” in the 1 circle. (I may well have been failed for doing so of course!) 2024-10-21T19:50:38Z