Monthly Archives: August 2012

Quotations for the hiatus: John, Jack, Jimmy and Jim

Posted on August 20, 2012 by strathmaths

DoF will be on hiatus for a few weeks as term approaches and I scurry about trying to prepare my classes. To keep our readers happily occupied, here’s a batch of quotations for you to ponder if you feel so … Continue reading →

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A few farewells

Posted on August 17, 2012 by strathmaths

Some familiar faces will be absent from the Department when teaching starts again in September. In particular, two contributors to Degree of Freedom will be moving on to better things: Dr Mateja Prešern will be taking up a lectureship in the School … Continue reading →

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Quotation for the week: Ruelle

Posted on August 13, 2012 by strathmaths

A lovely image here for the interplay between formal and informal reasoning that characterises even the purest of mathematics: A fully formal proof of the Lee–Yang circle theorem would be very long and quite unreadable and uncheckable by a human … Continue reading →

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Quotation for the week: Johnson

Posted on August 6, 2012 by strathmaths

A slightly unexpected detail from the life of the great English man of letters Dr Samuel Johnson (he of the Dictionary), recounted as usual by his biographer James Boswell. We had tea in the afternoon, and our landlord’s daughter, a modest … Continue reading →

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