Mr. Kevin Dykema
President
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Reston, Virginia
Third email: 4 January 2024
RE: Your note today, “Everyone Belongs in Mathematics.”
Happy New Year, Kevin.
Of course, Pythagoras said it first; but according to his significant other, Theano (nobody seems sure if she was his wife, colleague, maybe a daughter, or…), “it”Everything is according to numbers.”
With the current images coming in from the James Webb Space Telescope, there are many discussions about the veracity of big bang cosmology and the Standard Models. Which needs correction? The smoothness and the earliest possible galaxy formations have pushed people into corners searching for a new physics. It is a remarkable time in our history of discoveries.
What is the most simple construction in the universe? My mentor, Phil Davis of Brown and NIST, hammered me — the circle and sphere. Do you agree?
If so, a possible alternative to big bang cosmology might start the universe symbolically at the Planck base units and imagine that those units describe an infinitesimal sphere and that there is an expansion of one such sphere per unit of Planck Time and Planck Length. If so, we have an exponential notation of big bang cosmology without Hawking’s “singularity of everything.” If we start with those Planck units, numbers are everywhere and everything begins. If simple, it all begins within the simple mathematics of base-2.
I’ve talked a lot about this construct within the website: https://81018.com/
Might there be anything we can do together to explore it further? Thanks.
Warmly,
Bruce
Second email: 4 May 2023 @ 12:25 PM
Hi Kevin:
Just the kind of question the president of the association should be asking! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
At one time I would have answered, “…numbers, equations, and shapes” but today, I would say, “…continuity, symmetry, and harmony” and then add, “Mathematics opens up the universe from the first moment of time until today with all three active from the first moment in time until now. Follow the numbers, equations, and geometries.”
Then I would haul out the charts, https://81018.com/big-board/
https://81018.com/chart/ and so on.
My latest in the effort to refocus on the fundamentals is here: https://81018.com/most-simple/
Thanks again, and my best wishes to you for all that you do.
Warmly,
Bruce
PS. To whom shall I write to get permission to reproduce that article on our website? I can link to it, but too often within a couple of years those links fail. Thanks. -BEC
First email to Kevin: 2 March 2023
RE: Your March 2, 2023 article and email, When Am I Ever Going to Use This?
Dear Kevin:
The kids think practically, and they are boldly-and-increasingly asking that key question. In 2011 I began to address it and eventually we stopped it cold. I showed the students the mathematics of the universe!
We began with the Planck base units of length and time, calculated an expansion based on the assumption that there would be one sphere per unit of Planck Time and Planck Length, and we were off to the races. The result — our first Mathematics of the Universe chart: https://81018.com/big-board/
It took awhile but we then emerged with a more comprehensive chart in 2016: https://81018.com/chart/
We started with our high school geometry classes and did a geometric progression, ostensibly base-2, going within by following the tetrahedrons and octahedrons. In 112 steps or notations we were down within the Planck base units. We also went out by doubling the edges each step. There were just 90 steps to the edges of the universe, or a total of just 202 base-2 notation to encapsulate everything, everywhere for all time.
Rather remarkable. We then tested these charts with an AP class within the sixth grade. It was enlivening. The kids for the first time saw the universe fully integrated with mathematics and geometries.
“You’ll use it everyday because you and this universe are equations and numbers and dynamics and you don’t want to miss out on all the fun of learning who you are and how you work! So now, let’s get to work!”
And, it worked most every time!
Best wishes to you in your new presidency!
Warmly,
Bruce Camber
(now so-called “retired” from the day-to-day classroom)
*****************