Our Videos
During the summer of 2014, Ram presented a series of six lectures titled Discover the Beauty of Math to a select group of middle and high school students in Atlanta. It is as much a summer program as his expression of love for Math. It is one of the most productive and lovely summers that Ram experienced.
The focus of this series was not to teach math procedures or even to teach problem solving. Instead, its goal was to present the inherent beauty of math and thousands of years of history behind it. Ultimately, the mission of these sessions was to create interest in Math among children and hopefully a life long passion for it. The program was a phenomenal success with great reviews from both children and parents.
A good friend of Mathus Academy, Vamsi, took the time to video record all the sessions and edit them in a presentable format. Here, we share these videos – one introductory session to the parents and the six lectures. As you watch the videos, please feel free to like the videos, enter your comments as feedback to the videos and share them with others. To receive automated notifications when new blog posts are published, please subscribe to this blog by clicking on the Subscribe button to the right, and subscribe to the Youtube channel.
Please try to watch these videos along with your children and family, if possible. You may need to watch them over several days or weeks, as each of the six videos is 1.5 – 2 hrs long (parent’s session is shorter at about 20 minutes). Please also note that these lectures were optimized for teaching in a face-to-face setting and not necessarily to over video recordings. We tried our best to make them video-friendly, but please excuse us for crude video-making in today’s world of multi-media graphics and animation. If you like these videos, please forwarded this blog to your friends and family to watch. There are no better gifts than gifts of discovery inherent beauty, passion and inspiration. Enjoy!
Please try to watch these videos along with your children and family, if possible. You may need to watch them over several days or weeks, as each of the six videos is 1.5 – 2 hrs long (parent’s session is shorter at about 20 minutes). Please also note that these lectures were optimized for teaching in a face-to-face setting and not necessarily to over video recordings. We tried our best to make them video-friendly, but please excuse us for crude video-making in today’s world of multi-media graphics and animation. If you like these videos, please forwarded this blog to your friends and family to watch. There are no better gifts than gifts of discovery inherent beauty, passion and inspiration. Enjoy!
This is one of my personal favorites. I incorporated many bits of this lecture into our staple MathGenius program in a variety of ways.
Galileo once said that if the nature is a book, it is written in the language of mathematics. Children and parents will learn how mathematicians unraveled this beautiful language of nature over the millennia. You will also learn an interesting problem posed by a particular 12th century son of Bonacci, that demonstrates how nature expresses itself through mathematics.
This lecture has a special place in the series for me. The intriguing concept of the Platonic Solids inspired me to start working on the Discover the Beauty of Math series and got me started on researching the other five lectures as well.
Is the ancient Greek’s belief that nature is wrapped in five symmetrical solids called regular polyhedra true? You will learn how the Platonic Solids intrigued many mathematicians over two thousand years and continue to inspire many architects and artists to date, by interactively building the Platonic Solids themselves during the program.
How did an ingenious librarian of the ancient Library of Alexandria cleverly used mathematics to measure the size of the Earth before the invention of modern satellites and even telescope? And what does it have to do with the intriguing Story of Pi (not the movie, but the mathematical π)?
Algebra, Calculus, and Probability are not eight-headed dragon to be scared of. They are three of the best things that ever happened to mankind. Even a 5th grader can appreciate their beauty. And so can you!
The problem that took over 300 years to solve: what problem did a particular 17th century French mathematician wrote on the margin of his notebook (and wrote that he has a solution for it), but didn’t bother to write the actual solution because the margin was too small? Why did it take the brightest mathematical minds over 300 years to solve this simplistic looking problem?
A million dollars a piece sounds impressive. Why not take a shot at any of these 7 millennia math problems and pocket a cool million dollars? Come take a shot. Even if you don’t make the million dollars, you may find the passion of your life that stays with all your life!
