Universidad Alberto Hurtado

Facultad de Educacin
Ingls Transversal

ENGLISH I
MATHEMATICS

Macarena Guajardo Gonzlez

Second Term 2013

Math Dictionary Terms

A
Acute - an angle less than 90
Addend - one of the numbers being added in an addition problem
Addition - combining quantities
Algebra - a strand of mathematics in which variables are used to express rules about
numbers and relationships
Algorithm - a step-by-step procedure for math operations
Altitude - the height of a shape
And - 1) combine, 2) shared attributes, 3) represents decimal point when a number is
in words
Angle - two line segments that meet at a point
Apparent Outlier - a piece of data that is way out at the end of the range
Area - the size of a two-dimensional figure in square units
Array - a rectangular arrangement of objects with equal amounts in each row
Associative Property - the sum or product of a set of numbers is the same, no matter
how the numbers are grouped
Attribute - a characteristic of a shape or set of data
Average - a number that best describes a set of data
Axis - one of the reference lines on a coordinate graph
B
Balance - 1) a scale uses to figure out approximate weight, or 2) to be equal or to
make equal
Bar Graph - a way of organizing data in horizontal or vertical bars
Base - the face on which a three-dimensional object sits
Beneath - in a lower place
Between - in a position that separates two other things
Bi - prefix meaning two
Binary - a number system which used only the digits of 0 and 1
Bisect - to divide into two equal parts
Bisymmetrical - a line that divides a two-dimensional shape in two congruent parts
that are mirror images of each other
Borrowing - see subtraction
C
Calculate - to perform a mathematical operation (+, -, x, divide sign)
Calendar - a tool to keep track of the date
Capacity - how much an object can hold
Cartesian plane - coordinate grid
Center - middle point
Centimeter - a metric measure which takes 10 millimeters to make
Century - 100 years
Chord - a line segment which joins two points on a circle
Circle - a perfectly round shape that has all points equally as far from the center
Circumference - the perimeter of a circle
Coins - metal money
Clockwise - turning in the direction a clock turns - to the right
Column - a vertical list
Commutative Property - the sum or product stays the same when the order of
addends/factors changes
Composite Number - a number that has more than two factors
Compute - to figure out an answer
Cone - a three-dimensional shape with a circle base and one vertex
Congruent - having exactly the same shape and size
Consecutive - in order
Connect - to join together
Coordinates - an ordered pair of numbers that gives the location of a point on a coordinate

grid
Corner Count - to say numbers one by one in order
Counterclockwise - turning in the opposite direction a clock turns - to the left
Cube - a three-dimensional shape with six square faces
Curve - a line that is not straight, but does not have a corner (vertex)
Cylinder - a three-dimensional shape with parallel circular bases
D
Data - information
Decagon - ten-sided polygon
Decimal - a fractional number less than one whole written with a decimal point
Decimeter - one-tenth of a meter, equal to 10 centimeters
Denominator - the bottom number in a fraction which tells the number of pieces making
up a whole
Diagonal - a line segment that connects one vertex to another on a polygon, but is not
on the perimeter of the polygon
Diameter - a line segment that goes through the center of a circle
Difference - the amount that remains when one quantity is subtracted from another
Digit - any one of the symbols used in making numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Digital Root - adding digits in a number until only one digit remains
Dimension - the number of measures needed to describe a geometric figure
Distance - a measure of length giving how far things are apart
Distributive Property - when one factor is written as a sum, multiplying each addend
before adding produces the same product
Division - the operation which makes equal groups
Divisor - the amount by which another quantity is to be divided
Dodecagon - twelve-sided polygon
Double - twice as much
E
Each - every one of a group
Edge - a line that connects two faces on a three-dimensional shape
Endpoint - the end of a line segment
Equal - having the same value as
Equilateral Triangle - a triangle with all sides having the same length
Equation - a math sentence showing two parts as equal
Equivalent - having the same value
Estimate - an approximate answer
Even - a number that is a multiple of 2. It has a 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, or 8 in the ones place
Expanded Form - a number that is stretched out to show all the place value parts
Exponent - a number that shows how many times a number is to be multiplied by
itself
F
Face - a side on a three-dimensional shape
Face Value - the amount something is worth as shown
Fact - something proven to be true
Fact Families - a group of addition/subtraction or multiplication/division facts that use
the same set of numbers in various combinations
Factor - a number that is multiplied by another number
Fewer - less than
Flip - reflection rotation
Foot - 12 inches in standard measurement
Formula - an equation or rule that shows a relationship between two or more numbers
Fraction - a number showing part of a whole
Frequency - how often something happens in a set of data or within a certain time
Function - gives one output value for each input value
G
Gallon - a standard measure of liquid equal to 128 ounces or 4 quarts
Geometry - a strand of mathematics dealing with figures and their parts

Googal - a number which has a 1 followed by 100 zeros

Gram - a metric measure of weight/mass smaller in weight than an ounce
Graph - a visual display of data
Greater Than - more than
Grid - a set of horizontal and vertical lines which form squares
Growth Pattern - a type of pattern made by following a certain rule (formula)
H
Half - one of two equal parts
Height - the distance from the base to the top of something
Hemi - half
Hemisphere - half of the earth
Heptagon - seven-sided polygon
Hexagon - six-sided polygon
Horizontal - a line parallel to the horizon
Hour - a measure of time equaling 60 minutes
Hypotenuse - the longest side of a right triangle which is opposite the right angle
I
Imperial Measure - standard form of measurement including inches, pounds, etc.
Improper Fraction - a fraction greater than one whole that is not written as a mixed
number
Inch - a standard measure of length, one-twelfth of a foot
Infinity - never ending
Integer - whole numbers and their negative partners (1 and -1)
Intersection - the elements that belong to both sets in overlapping sets
Isosceles Triangle - a triangle with two sides that are the same length
J
Junction - any place where two or more things join to meet
K
Kilo - one thousand
Kilogram - a metric measure of weight/mass equal to 1,000 grams (just over 2
pounds)
Kilometer - a metric measure of length equal to 1,000 meters (over 3200 feet)
L
Lateral - side part
Latitude - the distance north and south of the equator
Least - smallest
Length - the distance along a line or figure from one point to another
Less Than - fewer than
Light Year - the distance light travels through space in one year (about 5.8 trillion
miles)
Line - a straight path that extends forever in both directions
Line of Symmetry - a line that divides a shape into two halves that are a mirror
image of each other
Line Segment - a straight path from one point to another
Linear - having to do with lines
Liter - a metric measure of volume/capacity almost equal to a quart
Longitude - the distance east and west of the equator
M
Mass - how much matter is in an object
Maximum - greatest amount
Mean - a way to average a group without extremes in the data in which all data is
added and equally divided up
Measure - the length, quantity, dimensions, or capacity of something
Median - a way to average counts or measures when they are extremes in the data.
The middle point of the ordered group of data is found
Metric - a system of measurement based on tens
Midpoint - the point on a line segment that divides the segment into two equal parts
Mile - a standard measure of length equal to 5280 feet

Million - a large number equal to one thousand 1,000s

Minimum - least amount
Minute - a measure of time equal to 60 seconds
Mixed Fraction - a number with a whole number and a fraction part
Mode - a way to average data when there are many identical data points. The mode is
the data that occurs most often
Money - coins and paper bills used for buying and selling
More Than - greater than
Multiple - the product of any two whole numbers
Multiplication - the operation of adding the same number over and over or groups
shown in an array
N
Negative Numbers - numbers less than zero
Net - a two-dimensional figure that can be folded to make a three-dimensional model
Network - connection between points or line segments
Nonagon - nine-sided polygon
None - not even one
Number - symbols used for counting and measuring
Numberline - a picture (diagram) showing numbers as points on a line
Numeral - digits used to make up numbers
Numerator - the top number in a fraction which tells the number of parts selected
O
Oblong - a shape that is greater in length than in width
Obtuse Angle - an angle greater than 90
Octagon - eight-sided polygon
Odd - a number that is not a multiple of 2. It has a 1, 3,5, 7, or 9 in the ones place
Ounce - a standard measure of weight/mass
Outcome - one of the possibilities in a probability experiment
Oval - a curved shape like an egg
P
Parallel - straight lines that always stay the same distance away from each other
Parallelogram - a four-sided polygon with two sets of parallel sides
Patterns - a repeating sequence of number or shapes
Pentagon - five-sided polygon
Percent - a number compared to part of 100 using a % sign
Perimeter - distance around the outside edge of a closed figure
Perpendicular- two lines that form a right angle where they intersect
Pictograph - a visual display of data which uses pictures to represent amounts
Pi - the comparison of the diameter of a circle to its circumference (about 3.14)
Pint - standard unit of liquid measure equaling two cups
Place Value - the value of each digit in a number
Point - a location (dot) that has no length, width or height
Polygon - a closed two-dimensional figure made with straight line segments which join
only at endpoints
Position - the place something holds in space
Possible - has a chance of happening
Prime Number - a number with only two factors: 1 and itself
Prism - a three-dimensional shape with two congruent bases
Probability - the strand of math looking at the chance of events occurring
Product - the answer to a multiplication problem
Proportion - a number sentence showing two equal ratios
Protractor - a math tool for measuring and drawing angles
Pyramid - a three-dimensional figure with a polygon base and all other faces are triangles
which met at a common vertex
Q
Quadrant - one of the four sections of a coordinate grid
Quadrilateral - four-sided polygon
Qualify - to describe the characteristics of something

Quantity - an amount
Quart - a standard unit of liquid measure that is equal to 4 cups
Quarter - 1) a coin with a value of $.25, 2) one-fourth of something
Quotient - the answer to a division problem
R
Radius - a line segment from the center of a circle to the edge
Random - by chance
Range - the least to greatest value in a set of data
Ratio - comparing two numbers using division
Rectangle - a parallelogram with four right angles
Reflection - creating a mirror image of a shape by flipping it over
Remainder - the amount left over when you have divided as far as possible. Must be
smaller than the divisor
Reoccurring - happening repeatedly
Rhombus - a parallelogram with all sides equal in length
Right Angle - a 90 angle
Rotation - turning a shape around on a vertex
Rounding - determining an approximate value of a number to a given place value
Row - a horizontal list
Rule - words that describe a relationship between numbers or objects
Ruler - a measuring tool used to determine length
S
Second - 1) number two in order, or 2) a measure of time equal to 1/60th of a minute
Scale - a measuring tool used to determine weight
Scalene - a triangle with three sides, each a different length
Semicircle - half of a circle
Septagon - seven-sided polygon
Set - a collection of data with something in common
Shape - something having a specific form
Side - a line segment that forms part of a polygon
Simplify - to reduce a fraction to lowest terms
Similar - having the same shape, but not the same size
Slope - the rise of a line
Solid figure - a geometric shape with three dimensions
Sort - to put together things that are in some way alike
Sphere - a perfectly round three-dimensional geometric solid
Square - a parallelogram with four congruent sides and four right angles
Square Number - numbers that can be shown in a square array
Straight - unbending
Subtraction - the operation of finding the difference between two numbers or taking
away
Sum - the answer in an addition problem
Surface - the outside part
Surface area - the area of all the faces on a three-dimensional shape
Symbol - something that stands for something else
Symmetry - showing an exact duplicate of a shape on an opposite side of a line (line
of symmetry) or around a central point (point symmetry)
T
Table - an orderly arrangement of data
Take Away - see subtraction
Tally - marks used to keep track of an amount
Temperature - amount of heat or cold, measured by a thermometer
Tesselate - to arrange an area in a repeating geometric pattern
Tetrahedron - a three-dimensional shape with four triangular faces
Tile - see tesselate
Time - the way we measure years, days, minutes
Total - the whole amount
Translation - sliding a geometric shape a certain distance in the same direction

Trapezoid - a quadrilateral with only one set of parallel sides

Triangle - a three-sided polygon
Triangular Numbers - a sequence of numbers that can be shown with dots making up
a triangle shape
U
Undecagon - an 11-sided polygon
Uneven - not even
Uniform - the same
Unit - a fixed amount in measurement
V
Value - how much something is worth
Variable - a letter or symbol that stands for another number
Venn Diagram - a drawing with circles that shows relationships between sets of data
Vertex - the place where two or more line segments come together
Vertical - a line that is perpendicular to the horizon
Volume - the number of cubic units it takes to fill a three-dimensional shape
W
Week - a set of seven consecutive days
Weight - a measure of the heaviness of an object
Whole Number - all counting numbers including zero
Width - a measure of the distance of an object from side to side
X
x-axis - the horizontal axis on a coordinate grid
Y
Yard - a standard unit of measure equal to 3 feet
y-axis - the vertical axis on a coordinate grid
Year - a length of time equal to 365 days
Z
Zenith - the highest or greatest point
Zero - a number with no value
Zillion - a large number equal to a thousand millions

NUMBERS!NUMBERS!NUMBERS!NUMBERS!
I.

When do we use the word number and when do we use the word numeral?
Complete the text with the appropriate word.

A n__________ is an abstract entity that represents a count or measurement. In mathematics, the definition of a
number has extended to include fractions, negative, irrational, transcendental and complex n____________s.
A n___________ is a symbol or group of symbols, or a word in a natural language that represents a
n____________. N____________s differ from n__________s just like words differ from the things they refer to.
The symbols 11, eleven and XI are different
n__________s, all representing the same n___________. In common usage, n___________s are often used as
labels (e.g. road, telephone and house numbering), as indicators of order (serial n__________s), and as codes
(ISBN)

(Adapted from English for Mathematics)

II.

Read the sentences carefully. Pay close attention to the numbers in brackets. Use the proper
form of a numeral in each sentence according to the context.

1) Radar was first used in World War (2).

2) I have a train to catch at (12:48).
3) Elizabeth (2) comes from the House of Windsor.
4) I was born on June (3), (1975)
5) Bens telephone number is (205891)
6) In the last match England beat Poland (2:0).
7) John McEnroe was leading (30:0) in the (2) game of the (1) set when the match was
broken off due to a thunderstorm.
8) The dictionary costs ($28.50)
9) The match is being watched by (27,498) spectators, said the voice from the
loudspeakers.
10) The temperature in Italy rarely falls below (0).
11) Chris saves (1/2) of his pocket money for summer holidays.
III. Listen and write down the numbers that you hear in the following sentences. Each sentence is repeated
twice.
1

Current research shows that ___________ Americans stop smoking each year.

Could you give Jack a call at ___________ ?

We're thinking about getting a house. Currently, the average mortgage is about ____________.

____________ new jobs have been created in the high tech sector over the past ____________ years.

Jane is celebrating her __________ birthday next Monday!

___________ of all Americans eat a hamburger at least once a week.

The density of hydrogen is ____________ in that compound.

So, what time shall we get together next week? What do you say if we meet for lunch at _____________ .

Statistics show that flossing __________ a day can greatly improve general dental hygiene.

10

Wall Street closed up _____________ .

SYMBOLS
93=6
13 4
17 9 = 8
x5=9
ba

WORDS
The difference between 9 and 3 is 6
13 decreased by 4
9 from 17 is 8
5 less than x is 9
Subtract a from b

SYMBOLS
a:b=c
a/b
a/b

WORDS
a divided by b equals c
a over b
The quotient of a and b

Math Connections - by Gisele Glosser

I have always been fascinated by connections between math and other disciplines. From my experience, students are
more motivated to learn math when these connections are made in the classroom. This article is devoted to connecting
math with other disciplines (science, social studies, etc.) and with the real world.

Math and History of Computers

Students can examine the binary number system. They can look at the relationship between base 2 numbers and how
computer circuitry was developed. The history of computers can be studied from the invention of the ENIAC through
today's wireless devices.

Math and Science

The math teacher can teach students about exponential notation. Once students become proficient in reading and writing
numbers in exponential form, and in converting numbers between exponential, factor, and standard form, they can apply
this knowledge to topics in science. For example, they can write the distance between the sun and each planet using
scientific notation. For advanced students, you can teach them about negative exponents. Then they can explore the halflife of certain radioactive elements, or the size of bacteria and viruses. Have you been to the playground lately? You'll find
many connections between algebra, science, and the real world.

Math and Social Studies

After teaching a Unit on Graphing, you can have your students apply these skills to topics in Social Studies. For example,
they can draw bar graphs to compare the Population, Per Capita Income, and Population Density of various countries.

Math and Sports

Students can compute the percent win-loss of games played by their favorite sports teams. They can find data on teams in
their school, or they can find data for professional teams online and in the newspapers. You can bring this activity into the
computer lab by placing all the data in a spreadsheet. A formula can be used to compute the percent win-loss.

Math and Technology

There are two main approaches to to addressing technology in the math classroom. You can integrate math and
technology, making these topics the object of instruction. For example, round-off error is described below. You can also
use technology to facilitate math learning. For example, the use of an iPod, an interactive whiteboard, or other devices.

Math and Writing

One of the things stressed by standardized tests is the ability to answer open-ended questions. Typically, students are

asked to provide written explanations for solutions to math problems. This assesses their ability to express their
mathematical ideas in written form. To help them prepare for these types of questions, I do a math project that involves
writing. I ask students to answer several open-ended questions using full sentences. The math teacher can grade students
based on the mathematical correctness of their responses. The Language Arts or English Teacher can grade them on
spelling and grammar.

Playing games in many worlds - Part I - by Marianne Freiberger

Submitted by mf344 on February 6, 2013
This article is part of our Science fiction, science fact project, exploring the weird and wonderful world of
parallel universes. Click here to see other articles on the topic.

Would you stake your fortune on a 100 to 1 outsider? Probably not. But what if, somewhere in a parallel
universe, the straggling nag does come in first? Would the pleasure you feel in that universe outweigh the
pain you feel in the one in which you've lost?
Questions not dissimilar to this one occupy physicists and for entirely respectable reasons. Quantum
mechanics suggests that reality is fuzzy, at least at very small scales. Particles can be in a state of
superposition, simultaneously possessing properties we would normally deem mutually exclusive. For
example, they can be in several places at once (see the previous article for more on this).

How would you bet in a parallel universe?

The big question is why we never see superposition in everyday life. Traditional interpretations of quantum
mechanics say that when we make a measurement (such as looking where a particle is) the superposition
somehow collapses and only one of the superposed states remains real. We don't know which one that will
be but quantum mechanics provides us with probabilities. The method which extracts those probabilities from
the maths of quantum mechanics is known as the Born rule.
The many-worlds interpretation takes a different approach. It suggests that when the measurement is made
the world splits into separate branches. In each of the branches you see one of the possible outcomes.
But then, what of the Born rule? If every possible outcome happens, it makes no sense to talk about the
chance of it happening that chance is 1. If the many-worlds interpretation is to be taken seriously, then the
Born rule needs a new explanation. What do the numbers it attaches to different outcomes, to different
branches of the world, mean?

Looking after yourself

Probability is a slippery concept even in the ordinary one-world view of reality. Yet we all use some notion of
it, albeit perhaps a hazy one, whenever we ponder a decision. Whether it's buying a house or deciding
whether to go on a date, we come up with some sort of assessment of how likely it is that things turn out well.
Combining this with some assessment of how much we care how things turn out, we make a decision. And a
lot of the time what we are trying to look after when making the decision is the well-being of our future self.
This still applies if you're an inhabitant of a many-worlds world. "If I believe that I live in branching reality and I
know that there will be various versions of me after branching, I have the same reasons to care about those
various versions of me as I have to care about the one version of me if there wasn't any branching," says
David Wallace, a philosopher of physics at the University of Oxford. "So I can ask: what are my preferences
between various actions I can choose?" This intriguing idea lies at the heart of an attempt to make sense of
the Born rule in the many-worlds context that was pioneered in by the physicist David Deutsch in the 1990s.
How to bet wisely in one world...
It makes sense to phrase all of this in the language of betting. Suppose you're just about to perform a
measurement of a quantum system. For example, electrons have an electromagnetic property called spin
and when you measure spin it can come out to be pointing up or down. Now someone offers you a bet: if the
spin points up you win 10, if it points down you lose 10.

Heads, tails or both?

There is a rational way of approaching this problem in the ordinary one-world view in which there is no
branching and you get either spin-up or spin-down but not both. First you should rate how much you like or
dislike each possible outcome of the bet (in the technical language, you attach a utility to each outcome). You
might simply rate each outcome by its monetary value, so thats +10 for spin-up and -10 for spin-down. But
maybe you resent losing 10 more than you enjoy winning it, so in that case you might rate spin-up as only,
say, 5 and spin-down as -10. You also rate the value of not taking the bet. Write
and
for the
utilities you attach to spin-up and spin-down, and
for the utility you attach to not taking the bet.
Now suppose you believe that the probability of spin-up is . The probability of spin-down is therefore
The expected utility of taking the bet is

This quantity measures the average amount of utility, or satisfaction, youd expect to get if you repeated the
bet many times. The expected utility of not taking the bet is simply
There is a mathematical result which says that a rational person (someone adhering to certain principles of
rationality) should aim to maximise their expected utility. That is, if your expected utility of taking the bet is
bigger than the expected utility of not taking it (
), then you
should take it, otherwise you shouldnt.
...and how to bet wisely in many worlds
Now lets go back to the many-worlds situation. You know that the moment you measure the electron spin
the world splits into two branches. In one of them you observe spin-up and in the other you observe spindown. So if you accept the bet, then in one branch you win 10 and in the other you lose 10.
What should you do now? You might calculate how much the bet would gain you on average over the two
branches,

and see how that compares to the utility of not taking the bet. This is the same calculation as a person in a
non-branching universe would make, in which the probabilities of spin-up and spin-down are both 1/2.
But perhaps you feel sorry for the you in the loosing branch. In that case you might base your decision on the
quantity

in which spin-down counts for more than spin-up. Youd be behaving like a person in a non-branching
universe, where the probability of spin-up is 1/4 and the probability of spin-down is 3/4.
The question of which weight to attach to each outcome, whether its 1/2 to both or 1/4 to one and 3/4 to the
other, could of course be very tricky until you realise that quantum mechanics comes with an inbuilt
suggestion for the weights. The Born rule attaches a number to each outcome, say to spin-up and
to
spin down, which the traditional view point interpreted as a probability. So why not use those numbers for the
weights? Then, like a person in a non-branching universe, youd base your decision on the quantity

Youd accept the bet if

is bigger than the expected utility of not accepting it.

The Born rule is named after the physicist Max Born (1882-1970).
In an intriguing result Wallace, building on work by Deutsch, has shown that this is indeed the only rational
way to go. "[If you know that you live in a branching universe] and you think that the underlying laws of
physics are [those given by] quantum mechanics, then not only is it rationally required to bet according to
some probabilities, it's rationally required to bet as if the probabilities were the [numbers given by the Born
rule]," explains Wallace. Anything else will contravene one of several principles of rationality (we'll have a
closer look at some of these, quite controversial, principles the next article).
The result does not just apply to this simple toy example of spin measurement, it works in a more general
setting too. Suppose the universe is just about to split into a number of branches to each of which the Born
rule attributes a number. Then if you are faced with a number of possible action (to bet or not to bet) you're
rationally compelled to choose the one that maximises your expected utility, calculated using the numbers
given by the Born rule.
But why does this "explain" the Born rule in the many-worlds context? This is what we'll look at in the next
article.

Playing games in many worlds - Part II

In the previous article we looked at an intriguing result, developed by David Deutsch and David Wallace,
which claims to make sense of the Born rule in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. But
does it?
Proponents of the many-worlds view argue that the Deutsch/Wallace result makes sense of the Born rule in
the many-worlds context. The numbers it attaches to each outcome of a measurement, or more generally to
each branch of the universe, are no longer redundant or mystifying. They are the numbers that any rational
person must use in their decision making.
The idea that human behaviour can explain quantities that have popped out of theoretical physics might
seem weird at first. In the traditional interpretation of quantum mechanics the numbers given by the Born rule
are interpreted as probabilities. Probability is something solid and objective, so we are happy to let that
stand. But human behaviour? Solid and objective?
Rationality and probability

Decision theory can be used to understand the calculus of probability.

There is a two-part answer to this qualm. In their arguments Deutsch and Wallace assume that people's
preferences stick to certain basic principles of rationality. For example, when faced with a variety of actions, a
person should be able to order them according to preference. The result says that as long as these rationality
principles are adhered to, there is only one possible course of action when you are faced with a set of
decisions in a branching universe. This course of action involves the numbers given by the Born rule. Viewed
in this way, the Born rule begins to acquire the flavour of inevitability we expect from a physical law.
The second answer is that even in an ordinary, non-branching, world probability, as a concept, is far from
solid and objective. We say that the probability of heads coming up when you toss a perfectly symmetric coin
is 1/2. But how can you justify this statement? You can toss that coin many, many times and note that it
comes up heads in roughly half of the tosses. But it's hardly ever going to be exactly half of the tosses. So
how can we insist that probability is something fixed and absolute? "Probability seems to be something
perfectly objective, it's not just a matter of opinion," says Wallace. "But equally it's not clear what that
something objective is."
People have looked to decision theory as a way of making sense of probability long before Deutsch and
Wallace adapted the idea for branching universes. "One way of seeing what somebody's own assessments
of the probabilities are is to ask them what bet they would take in a given circumstance," says Wallace. "Even
if you don't understand probability, you can still understand action, preferences, choices and decisions. This
kind of strategy as a way of understanding why probability calculus has the form it does has been very
influential."
If you are happy to think of probability in terms of the role it plays in rational decision making, then there is
not much difference between the interpretation of the Born rule in the many-worlds view and its interpretation
in the one-world view. "The question of whether [the Born rule numbers] are really probabilities, or just
[pretend] probabilities, starts to collapse into a question of language," says Wallace. And, crucially, there is
no reason to reject this interpretation in the many-worlds view if you accept it in the one-world view.
And there is something else. Traditional decision theory, applied in a one-world situation where a coin comes
up heads or tails, but not both, tells you how to make rational decisions, like accepting a bet on a coin toss,
based on what you believe the probabilities are. If you happen to falsely believe that the probability of heads
is 0.99, then that's your problem. It doesn't contravene any of the rationality axioms.

But the Deutsch/Wallace result goes further. Not only does it tell you how to make optimal decisions using
some probabilities (if we call them that), it tells you that those probabilities must be the ones given by the
Born rule. So what started out as a weakness of the many-worlds view, not knowing what the Born rule
meant, lead to a result that is stronger than its counter-part in ordinary decision theory.
But really?
Not everybody is convinced however. The Born rule is something we observe experimentally. If it says that
the probabilities of observing spin-up and spin-down are both 1/2, and you repeat the experiment of
measuring spin many times, then roughly half of the times you will measure spin-up and the other half spindown. Any decent scientific theory should explain these experimental observations directly. "[The
Deutsch/Wallace result] doesn't tell you why you see experimental outcomes that follow [the Born rule],"
argues Adrian Kent, a quantum physicist at the University of Cambridge who opposes the many-worlds view.
"What we need is some story about probabilities, or some other concept that replaces probabilities, that has
direct scientific use. The whole thing about decision theory is answering the wrong question."

Probability is a slippery concept. Image: Diacritica.

Another sticking point are the principles of rationality that underlie the Deutsch/Wallace result. "[What if] I
don't believe the [principles] of rationality?" asks Kent. "Why are they right? In the end no-one can prove that
they are. I think there are perfectly well-defined strategies for which you can make a rational case and which
don't satisfy those axioms."
As an example, one of those principles says that there should be no conflict of interest between yourself and
one of your future selves. If one of your future selves prefers being rich to being poor, then your present self
should also prefer that future self to be rich rather than poor.
But suppose you can ensure that your future selves are either filthy rich or poor but decent. You may prefer
being filthy rich, but for moral reasons you may still decide to make sure that half of your future selves are
poor. This violates the principle: your present self wants some of your future selves to be poor but the poor
future selves might themselves want to be rich. But can this strategy really be deemed irrational?
Kent also points out that mathematically it is not entirely clear exactly how the world splits into branches and
which numbers the Born rule attaches to each branch. How can a person possibly make decisions about
whether or not to accept a bet without that information?
The debates surrounding these issues are subtle and technical. For proponents of the many-worlds view, the
Deutsch/Wallace result is a triumph. By suggesting a meaning for a major component of the mathematics of
quantum mechanics it has removed a major obstacle to taking the many-worlds view seriously. And there is
no doubt that the result is intriguing at the very least.

Other evidence for many worlds?

Ultimately though hardline opponents of the many-words view will only be swayed by more direct
experimental evidence. Is there any on the horizon? The many-worlds theory hinges on the idea that
superposition exists not only in very small systems, involving small particles or molecules, but all the way up
to the scale of the universe. So whenever an instance of superposition in a larger system is confirmed in the
lab, that can be counted as evidence for the many-worlds view.
But the tell tale signs of superposition are very delicate: you can only observe them in systems that are
extremely well isolated from their surroundings (see this article for more). For larger systems this level of
isolation is currently beyond reach. But experimentalists are hard at work, not least because we need such
methods to build superfast quantum computers, which exploit superposition. It's a long way away, but
perhaps one day the shadowy signatures of our other selves will be revealed

Maths in a minute: Number mysteries

Submitted by mf344 on July 16, 2013
Number theory is famous for problems that everyone can understand and that are easy to express, but that
are fiendishly difficult to prove. Here are some of our favourites.
The Goldbach conjecture
The Goldbach conjecture is named after the mathematician Christian Goldbach who formulated it in the
middle of the eighteenth century. It states that any even natural number greater than 2 can be written as the
sum of two prime numbers.

Leonard Euler (1707-1783) corresponded with Christian Goldbach about the conjecture now named after the
latter.
It is easy to see that this is true for the first few even numbers greater than 2:
4=2+2
6=3+3
8=3+5
10=5+5=3+7.

This seems so straightforward you might be tempted to try and prove it yourself and you'd be in very good
company as some of the brightest mathematical minds have been chiselling away at the conjecture ever
since it was first pronounced. But so far without success. The closest result that has been proved, in 1995,
says that every even number is the sum of at most six primes.
There is a similar statement, called the weak Goldbach conjecture, which says that every odd natural number
greater than 5 is the sum of three primes. Again we can see that this is true for the first few odd numbers
greater than 5:
7 = 3+2+2
11=3+3+5
13=3+5+5
17=5+5+7.
This statement is called "weak" because once someone finds a proof for the ordinary "strong" Goldbach
conjecture, the weak one can be deduced from it.
In 1938 Nils Pipping showed that the (strong) Goldbach conjecture is true for even numbers up to and
including 105. The latest result, established using a computer search, shows it is true for even numbers up to
and including 4 x 1018 that's a huge number, but for mathematicians it isn't good enough. Only a general
proof will do.
Perfect numbers
A perfect number is a number that's the sum of all of its divisors (excluding itself). For example, 6 is a perfect
number because its divisors (apart from 6 itself) are 1, 2 and 3, and
6 = 1 + 2 + 3.
The next perfect number is 28, which has divisors 1, 2, 4, 7 and 14, and:
28 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14.

Euclid, depicted with a compass in Raphael's painting The school of Athens.

The next three perfect numbers are 496, 8128 and 33,550,336.
The gaps between perfect numbers are as wide as their discovery has been painstaking. The first four
perfect numbers seem to have been known to the Greeks, the fifth and sixth weren't written down explicitly
until the 15th century and the seventh followed in the 16th century. Today we know of 48 perfect number, the
largest of which has over 34 million digits. All of these 48 are even. This raises two questions:

Are there infinitely many perfect numbers?

Are there any odd perfect numbers?
So far no one has been able to answer these questions with a conclusive proof.
One thing that was already known to the Greek mathematician Euclid over 2,000 years ago is that if p is a
prime number and 2p-1 is also a prime number, then 2 p-1(2p-1) is an even perfect number. For example,
21(22-1) = 6
22(23-1) = 28.
The 18th century mathematician Leonhard Euler proved that every even perfect number is of this form. The
largest known perfect number, the one with over 34 million digits, is
257885160 x (2578851611).
This leads us straight to our next number mystery.
Mersenne primes

Marin Mersenne, (1588-1648).

Prime numbers are those numbers that are divisible only by themselves and 1. The first few are 2, 3, 5, 7,
and 11. Unlike for perfect numbers we do know that there are infinitely many of them. The proof for that was
furnished by Euclid, however there is no easy recipe that generates all the prime numbers. This is where
numbers of the form 2p-1, where p is a prime, come in useful. These are called Mersenne numbers, after the
French monk Marin Mersenne (1588-1648) who studied them, and they have a good chance of being prime
themselves.
The question is, are there infinitely many such Mersenne primes? Mathematicians believe that there probably
are, but again nobody has as yet been able to prove that conjecture. A total of 48 Mersenne primes have
been found so far, the largest, discovered in January 2013, being
257885161 1.
These correspond to the 48 known perfect numbers. The search for larger and larger Mersenne primes
continues, as does the search for a conclusive proof that there are infinitely many.
And there is more...

Another favourite number theory mystery is the twin prime conjecture, which states that there are infinitely
many pairs of primes that are 2 apart. There's been recent progress on this, so we refer you to our news
story. One mystery that has been solved, after over 350 years of effort, is Fermat's last theorem. We recently
celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the announcement of its proof you can find out more here. That's
probably enough to fill a minute, but if you haven't had enough you can read more about number theory,
prime numbers, Mersenne primes and the search for larger and larger primes here on Plus.

Maths in a minute: Not always 180

Submitted by mf344 on July 3, 2013
Over 2000 years ago the Greek mathematician Euclid came up with a list of five postulates on which he thought
geometry should be built. One of them, the fifth, was equivalent to a statement we are all familiar with: that the
angles in a triangle add up to 180 degrees. However, this postulate did not seem as obvious as the other four on
Euclid's list, so mathematicians attempted to deduce it from them: to show that a geometry obeying the first four
postulates would necessarily obey the fifth. Their struggle continued for centuries, but in the end they failed. They
found examples of geometries that do not obey the fifth postulate.
Spherical geometry

Image: Lars H. Rohwedder.

In spherical geometry the Euclidean idea of a line becomes a great circle, that is, a circle of maximum radius spanning
right around the fattest part of the sphere. It is no longer true that the sum of the angles of a triangle is always 180
degrees. Very small triangles will have angles summing to only a little more than 180 degrees (because, from the
perspective of a very small triangle, the surface of a sphere is nearly flat). Bigger triangles will have angles summing to
very much more than 180 degrees.
One funny thing about the length of time it took to discover spherical geometry is that it is the geometry that holds on
the surface of the Earth! But we never really notice, because we are so small compared to the size of the Earth that if
we draw a triangle on the ground, and measure its angles, the amount by which the sum of the angles exceeds 180
degrees is so tiny that we can't detect it.
But there is another geometry that takes things in the other direction:
Hyperbolic geometry

Hyperbolic geometry isn't as easy to visualise as spherical geometry because it can't be modelled in three-dimensional
Euclidean space without distortion. One way of visualising it is called the Poincar disc.
Take a round disc, like the one bounded by the blue circle in the figure on the right, and imagine an ant living within it.
In Euclidean geometry the shortest path between two points inside that disc is along a straight line. In hyperbolic
geometry distances are measured differently so the shortest path is no longer along a Euclidean straight line but along
the arc of a circle that meets the boundary of the disc at right angles, like the one shown in red in the figure. A
hyperbolic ant would experience the straight-line path as a detour it prefers to move along the arc of such a circle.
A hyperbolic triangle, whose sides are arcs of these semicircles, has angles that add up to less than 180 degrees. All the
black and white shapes in the figure on the left are hyperbolic triangles.

One consequence of this new hyperbolic metric is that the boundary circle of the disc is infinitely far away from the
point of view of the hyperbolic ant. This is because the metric distorts distances with respect to the ordinary Euclidean
one. Paths that look the same length in the Euclidean metric are longer in the hyperbolic metric the closer they are to
the boundary circle. The figure below shows a tiling of the hyperbolic plane by regular heptagons. Because of the
distorted metric the heptagons are all of the same size in the hyperbolic metric. And as we can see the ant would need
to traverse infinitely many of them to get to the boundary circle it is infinitely far away!

Image created by David Wright.

Hyperbolic geometry may look like a fanciful mathematical construct but it has real-life uses. When Einstein developed
his special theory of relativity in 1905 he found that the symmetries of hyperbolic geometry were exactly what he
needed to formulate the theory. Today mathematicians believe that hyperbolic geometry may help to understand
large networks like Facebook or the Internet.

Mathematical mysteries: Strange Geometries - by Helen Joyce

Submitted by plusadmin on December 1, 2001
Euclidean Geometry
The famous mathematician Euclid is credited with being the first person to axiomatise the geometry of the
world we live in - that is, to describe the geometric rules which govern it. Based on these axioms, he proved
theorems - some of the earliest uses of proof in the history of mathematics. Euclid's work is discussed in
detail in The Origins of Proof, from Issue 7 of Plus.
Euclid's famous treatise, the Elements, was most probably a summary of what was known about geometry in
his time, rather than being his original work. In it, he sets out five geometric "postulates", the fifth of which is
this:
If a straight line falling on two straight lines make the interior angles on the same side less than two right
angles, the two straight lines, if produced indefinitely, meet on that side on which are the angles less than the
two right angles.
In the nineteenth century, this postulate was shown by Legendre to be equivalent to the statement that
The sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles.

The angles of a triangle sum to 180 degrees.

The fifth postulate, as Euclid stated it, seemed sufficiently complicated that it should be provable from the
other postulates, rather than something to be taken as given. In the two thousand years following Euclid,
many mathematicians, professional and amateur, tried to prove that the fifth postulate followed from the first
four - and failed.
Geometry in which the fifth postulate is assumed is known as "Euclidean" or "flat" geometry. Its defining
characteristic is that the angles of a triangle always sum to 180 degrees.

The famous artist Escher was fascinated by geometry. In the picture below, he illustrates a flat geometry with
interlocking angels and devils.

M.C. Escher's "Regular division of the plane".

All M.C. Escher works 2002 Cordon Art - Baarn - Holland (www.mcescher.com).
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Eventually, in the nineteenth century, an example of a geometry was found in which the fifth postulate did not
hold, although the other four did. Surprisingly for something that took so long, one example is quite easy to
visualise. It is the geometry of the surface of a sphere, known as "spherical geometry".
Spherical Geometry
In spherical geometry the Euclidean idea of a line becomes a great circle, that is, a circle of maximum radius.
It is no longer true that the sum of the angles of a triangle is always 180 degrees. Very small triangles will
have angles summing to only a little more than 180 degrees (because, from the perspective of a very small
triangle, the surface of a sphere is nearly flat). Bigger triangles will have angles summing to very much more
than 180 degrees.

The angles of a triangle sum to more than 180 degrees.

One funny thing about the length of time it took to discover spherical geometry is that it is the geometry that
holds on the surface of the earth! But we never really notice, because we are so small compared to the size
of the earth that if we draw a triangle on the ground, and measure its angles, the amount by which the sum of
the angles exceeds 180 degrees is so tiny that we can't detect it.

Here is Escher's depiction of spherical geometry, again using the angel/devil motifs.

M.C. Escher's "Sphere with Angels and Devils".

All M.C. Escher works 2002 Cordon Art - Baarn - Holland (www.mcescher.com).
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Now you might ask, is there a geometry in which Euclid's fifth postulate fails, but in the opposite way? That is,
is there a geometry in which the angles of a triangle sum to less than 180 degrees?
The answer is that there is. It is known as hyperbolic geometry.
Hyperbolic Geometry
Hyperbolic geometry isn't so easy to visualise as spherical geometry is, because it can't be modelled in
three-dimensional Euclidean space without distortion. In hyperbolic geometry, as in spherical geometry,
Euclid's first four postulates hold, but the fifth does not. We assume that there exists a line and a point not on
the line with at least two parallels to the given line passing through the given point.
One way of visualising hyperbolic geometry is called the Poincar half-plane model. The relationship
between this model and "real" hyperbolic space is similar to that between flat maps and our spherical world.
For example, if you fly a plane in a straight line from London to San Francisco, and then draw your route on a
map, the route won't look straight any more, because maps distort straight lines. (In the standard "Mercator
projection" maps, distances near the Poles are greatly distorted.) In the Poincar half-plane model, the
hyperbolic plane is flattened into a Euclidean half-plane. As part of the flattening, many of the lines in the
hyperbolic plane appear curved in the model. Lines in the hyperbolic plane will appear either as lines
perpendicular to the edge of the half-plane or as circles whose centres lie on the edge of the half-plane.

Lines in hyperbolic geometry.

As you get nearer and nearer to the edge of the halfplane, distances get greater and greater, so that you can
only approach the edge, but never arrive. A triangle is then the intersection of three "lines", and if you
experiment a little, you should be able to convince yourself that the angles of a hyperbolic triangle always
add up to strictly less than 180 degrees.

The angles of a triangle sum to less than 180 degrees.

There are other ways to model hyperbolic geometry on the flat plane. One is to represent the hyperbolic
plane on a circle, with distances getting greater and greater as you approach the circumference. A third
Escher angel/devil picture illustrates this beautifully.

M.C. Escher's "Circle limit IV".

All M.C. Escher works 2002 Cordon Art - Baarn - Holland (www.mcescher.com).
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Both spherical and hyperbolic geometries are examples of curved geometries, unlike Euclidean geometry,
which is flat. In spherical geometry, the curvature is positive, in hyperbolic geometry, it is negative.
Curved space?
A question that has interested cosmologists for quite some time now is whether the universe we live in is flat,
in this sense that the angles of a triangle always add up to 180 degrees. It certainly seems to be, but as we
know from history, this isn't necessarily a good guide! Einstein's theory of relativity tells us that gravity causes
space to curve locally. Around massive objects, like stars, space is distorted. This can be seen by the way
beams of light are bent as they pass near to such objects. Near black holes, the distortion is so strong that

beams of light that go too close are "sucked in" to the black hole, never to reemerge. So if you imagine
drawing triangles with beams of light as your sides, there will be no guarantee that the angles will sum to
180o, unless you have chosen your location carefully, far away from massive objects!
But there is another way in which the universe might not be flat, and that is on the very large scale. As we
see further and further away, using ever more powerful telescopes, we could eventually realise that the
whole of space is slightly curved, so slightly that it was not apparent except on enormous scales.
Elsewhere in this issue of Plus, (see No place like home), Sir Martin Rees discusses this very question. He
tells us that the current view, using very recent data, is that in fact we do live in a flat universe, or if there is a
curvature, it is very slight.

IRREGULAR VERBS
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