Text The Four Coloring Problem

The Four Coloring Problem

BIRTHDAY CHALLENGE: Pick a line drawing of the Map of Nigeria (like the one below) with the borders of its states included and try to color each state with one of four colors (yellow, red, blue and green) such that no two bordering countries have the same color.

Colored map with 6 colors. Source: http://www.nigeriahc.org.uk/

Today’s my dad’s birthday and I…

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Yesterday happened to be the birthday of some friends so I’ve decided to share some facts about 5 that I found off Number Gossip.

## 5 is a Hungry, Narcissistic number!

Both Hungry and Narcissistic Numbers form sequences of integers with very special properties.

The k-th hungry number is the smallest number n such that $2^n$ contains the first k digits of the decimal expansion of $\pi$. They are named hungry numbers because they try to eat as much “pi” as possible.

A k-digit number n is called narcissistic if it is equal to the sum of k-th powers of its digits.

In other words, 5 is the first hungry number because it is the smallest number such that $2^5$ has the first digit of $\pi$ (3). 5, a one-digit number, is also narcissistic because $5^1$ is 5.

Here are other facts about 5:

1. It is the smallest number of queens needed to attack every square on a standard chess board
2. 5 is the only prime which is the difference of two squares of primes
3. 5 is the only polygon that has the same number of sides and diagonals is a pentagon

5 may be hungry and narcissistic but you guys are awesome!

*This post was dedicated to Tayo ‘Einstein’ Olufuwa, Amani Tinkasimile and Samuel Opoku-Agyemang.

Happy Birthday to the 5s Yesterday happened to be the birthday of some friends so I’ve decided to share some facts about 5 that I found off…
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I’ve been messing with Paper, the iOS app, and here are some of my mathematically inspired designs (Click to Enlarge).

Oluwasanya Awe

Oluwasanya Awe is a mathematics enthusiast, blogger and educator. He has worked with a number of institutions and corporate organisations in workshops that inspire and motivate kids to see beauty and fun in mathematics.

MATH ART: Mathematics-Inspired Art #1 I’ve been messing with Paper, the iOS app, and here are some of my mathematically inspired designs (Click to Enlarge).
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This is what reminds you of why we’re in ALA was created

Tomorrow will be the climax of entrepreneurial leadership for the first year students as they present their Original Ideas for the Development of Africa. The air is currently tensed with first years wrapping up their presentation slides and practicing their ten-minute pitches. We’re all excited about the brilliant ideas that will be coming out of this year’s E-Fest (PenAfrica, one of the startups from E-Fest has gone on to publish the first of its Ekari Book Series).

It’s really exciting seeing first years work so hard on their projects. Visiting each of these classes and seeing the students tired from hours of research, brainstorming, practice, feedback and iteration has actually reminded me of the value of entrepreneurship in Africa. It’s also brought to mind the value of mathematics in this age.

Mathematics should be like this. Seriously.

Mathematics, like entrepreneurship is about finding problems – unsolved, open-ended problems – and developing creative solutions to these problems. Who would have thought that geometry could, one day, be used to solve number theory problems? This is where the overlap between mathematics and entrepreneurship comes. There’s usually no ‘one solution’ type of problem in either of the two fields. If we ever want to develop the next generation of scientists, mathematicians etc. we will need to begin to instill an entrepreneurial mindset into our mathematics students.

The entrepreneurial mindset is very similar to the mathematician’s – seeing every challenge as an opportunity to create something new. Educators do not necessarily have to introduce Entrepreneurial Thinking 101 into every high school course but we need to begin to show our students that mathematics is more than an arduous subject of rote memorization but an opportunity to take on an unsolved problem while picking up the necessary tools along the way.

Mathematics is more than addition, subtraction, determinants and derivatives but a quest to create change – to solve a problem.

Oluwasanya Awe

Oluwasanya Awe is a mathematics enthusiast, blogger and educator. He has worked with a number of institutions and corporate organisations in workshops that inspire and motivate kids to see beauty and fun in mathematics.

Enterprise Fest: Why Mathematicians Need Entrepreneurship This is what reminds you of why we’re in ALA was created Tomorrow will be the climax of entrepreneurial leadership for the first year students as they present their Original Ideas for the Development of Africa.
Text GAMING: Threes to the Power of Two

GAMING: Threes to the Power of Two

If you’ve been following tech news lately, You might have noticed the fading of the famous Flappy Bird game to the entrance of Threes and other variants (1024 and 2048).

The basic idea behind these games is adding numbers together. For Threes, it’s about adding multiples of three together to get higher numbers. I haven’t played Threes yet but it seems to have pretty good reviews.

On the other…

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The Fold and One Cut Problem

The Fold and One Cut Problem I’m on the point of finishing a literature review piece…

It’s here!

Today’s Pi Day and we’ll be celebrating it at the African Leadership Academy for the first time. Watch out for more posts today (hopefully).

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MATH ART: Sierpinski Triangle Falling to Infinity

I friend shared this with me and, in my head, I was like: This is beauty!

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Valentine’s Day: Amicable Numbers

Amicable till the end!

Amicable…

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POLL: Favourite Mathematicians

Paul Erdös in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Who’s your favourite mathematician? Mine’s the rather eccentric P…

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