103. Dimensional Analysis

2016-10-19

Dimensional analysis is awesome, but human brains are depressingly easy to distract with number-crunching.

Audio Version MP3

Randall Monroe’s “what if?” blog - http://what-if.xkcd.com/

A simplified version of Maxwell’s dimensional analysis of the speed of light - https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~temple/MAT22C/LecturesMat22CW15/10-MaxwellAndStokes-22C-W15.pdf

A history of units & dimensional analysis - http://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~joschu/docs/history-of-units.pdf

Sources of Mathematical Thinking, Dehaene et. al. 1999 - http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/~jborwein/mathbrain.pdf

Summary of the paper from MIT news - http://news.mit.edu/1999/math-0512

A study on Amazonian tribes that have no words for large numbers, & no numeracy on those scales - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120221104037.htm

← Back to Episodes