Author Archives: Xander

About Xander

Xander completed his PhD in mathematics at UC Riverside in the Spring of 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. His thesis, titled Fractal Zeta Functions in Metric Measure Spaces, explores some connections between the geometry of certain metric spaces, and the spectra of the Laplace operator on those spaces. He is currently an instructor at Northland Pioneer College, out in the beautiful deserts of northern Arizona.

Finding a Limit

Posted on 19 February 2013 by Xander

This semester, I am assisting my advisor with his honors calculus class. As he is out of town today, I will be giving the lecture. We decided to show off a rather beautiful little bit of mathematics which makes use … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | Comments Off on Finding a Limit

Pythagorean Ginger Cookies

Posted on 13 February 2013 by Xander

For the last several months, I have been working hard on getting my masters thesis written. This is a somewhat tedious activity—the research phase is essentially done, and now I have to get everything typed up all nicely. Other interests … Continue reading →

Posted in Silliness | Tagged | Comments Off on Pythagorean Ginger Cookies

The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra

Posted on 23 January 2013 by Xander

An Analogy When cooking, we need three things: a collection of ingredients (say butter, sugar, flour, &c.), a description of a technique for combining them (a recipe), and some tools for actually getting the work done (bowls and knives, as … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics | Tagged , | Comments Off on The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra

Ten Factorial Seconds?!

Posted on 18 October 2012 by Xander

Here’s an interesting little problem that came across my desk this afternoon: how much time is \(10!\) seconds? Is it a duration that is best measured in seconds? days? centuries? And, perhaps more importantly, what is the best way of … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics | Tagged , | Comments Off on Ten Factorial Seconds?!

GREs

Posted on 15 October 2012 by Xander

I took the GRE subject exam in mathematics Saturday morning. It was a pretty brutal test. The algebra, topology, and analysis all seemed pretty straight-forward, but the linear algebra and calculus computations kicked my ass (much as I expected). Now … Continue reading →

Posted in Meta | Comments Off on GREs

Newton Fractals

Posted on 2 October 2012 by Xander

The question of solvability is one of the driving questions in mathematics. That is, given an equation, can it be solved? and if so, what are the solutions? There are some equations that are very easily solved. For instance, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Fractals | Tagged , | Comments Off on Newton Fractals

MMM LXV

Posted on 3 September 2012 by Xander
Posted in MMM | Tagged , , | Comments Off on MMM LXV

MMM LXIV

Posted on 27 August 2012 by Xander
Posted in MMM | Tagged , , | Comments Off on MMM LXIV

MMM LXIII

Posted on 13 August 2012 by Xander
Posted in MMM | Tagged , , | Comments Off on MMM LXIII

Do You Own a Pair?

Posted on 19 July 2012 by Xander

In the vein of the silliness suggested by Patrick Vennebush at Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks, I present Gottfried Leibnitz, jeans model. Gauss, eat your heart out. For those that care, here is the logo: Clearly, I have too much … Continue reading →

Posted in Silliness | Tagged | 1 Comment