Breaking Math Podcast

In October of 2023, Sofia Baca passed away unexpectedly from natural causes. Sofia was one of the founders and cohosts of the Breaking Math Podcast. In this episode, host Gabriel Hesch interviews Diane Baca, mother of Sofia Baca as we talk about her passions for creativity, mathematics, science, and discovering what it means to be human. Sofia lived an exceptional life with explosive creativity, a voracious passion for mathematics, physics, computer science, and creativity. Sofia also struggled immensely with mental health issues which included substance abuse as well as struggling for a very long time understand the source of their discontent. Sofia found great happiness in connecting with other people through teaching, tutoring, and creative expression. The podcast will continue in honor of Sofia. There are many folders of ideas that Sofia left with ideas for the show or for other projects. We will continue this show with sharing some of these ideas, but also with sharing stories of Sofia - including her id

Join Sofía Baca and her guests, the host and co-host of the Nerd Forensics podcast, Millicent Oriana and Jacob Urban, as they explore what it means to be able to solve one problem in multiple ways.This episode is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. For full text, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/[Featuring: Sofía Baca; Millicent Oriana, Jacob Urban[Help Support The Podcast by clicking on the links below: Try out ZenCastr w/ 30% DiscountUse my special link to save 30% off your first month of any Zencastr paid plan Patreon YouTube Breaking Math WebsiteEmail us for copies of the transcript!

The history of mathematics, in many ways, begins with counting. Things that needed, initially, to be counted were, and often still are, just that; things. We can say we have twelve tomatoes, or five friends, or that eleven days have passed. As society got more complex, tools that had been used since time immemorial, such as string and scales, became essential tools for counting not only concrete things, like sheep and bison, but more abstract things, such as distance and weight based on agreed-upon multiples of physical artifacts that were copied. This development could not have taken place without the idea of a unit: a standard of measuring something that defines what it means to have one of something. These units can be treated not only as counting numbers, but can be manipulated using fractions, and divided into arbitrarily small divisions. They can even be multiplied and divided together to form new units. So where does the idea of a unit come from? What's the difference between a unit, a dimension, and a

Help Support The Podcast by clicking on the links below: Try out ZenCastr w/ 30% DiscountUse my special link to save 30% off your first month of any Zencastr paid plan Patreon YouTube Breaking Math WebsiteEmail us for copies of the transcript!Join Sofia Baca and Nerd Forensics co-host Jacob Urban as they discuss all things counting!Counting is the first arithmetic concept we learn, and we typically learn to do so during early childhood. Counting is the basis of arithmetic. Before people could manipulate numbers, numbers had to exist. Counting was first done on the body, before it was done on apparatuses outside the body such as clay tablets and hard drives. However, counting has become an invaluable tool in mathematics itself, as became apparent when counting started to be examined analytically. How did counting begin? What is the study of combinatorics? And what can be counted? All of this and more, on this episode of Breaking Math.This episode is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAli

As you listen to this episode, you'll be exerting mental effort, as well as maybe exerting effort doing other things. The energy allowing your neurons to continually charge and discharge, as well as exert mechanical energy in your muscles and chemical energy in places like your liver and kidneys, came from the food you ate. Specifically, it came from food you chewed, and then digested with acid and with the help of symbiotic bacteria. And even if that food you're eating is meat, you can trace its energy back to the sun and the formation of the earth. Much of this was established in the previous episode, but this time we're going to explore a fundamental property of all systems in which heat can be defined. All of these structures had a certain order to them; the cow that might have made your hamburger had all the same parts that you do: stomach, lips, teeth, and brain. The plants, such as the tomatoes and wheat, were also complex structures, complete with signaling mechanisms. As you chewed that food, you mix

Christopher Roblesz is a math educator who, until the pandemic, worked as a teacher. It was his experiences during the pandemic, and his unwavering passion for preparing disadvantaged youth for STEM careers, that eventually led him to developing mathnmore, a company focused on providing an enriched educational experience for sstudents who are preparing for these careers.More on energy and entropy next time!All of this and more on this interview episode of Breaking Math![Featuring: Sofia Baca; Christopher Roblesz]

Join Sofia Baca and her guests Millicent Oriana from Nerd Forensics and Arianna Lunarosa as they discuss energy.The sound that you're listening to, the device that you're listening on, and the cells in both the ear you're using to listen and the brain that understands these words have at least one thing in common: they represent the consumption or transference of energy. The same goes for your eyes if you're reading a transcript of this. The waves in the ears are pressure waves, while eyes receive information in the form of radiant energy, but they both are still called "energy". But what is energy? Energy is a scalar quantity measured in dimensions of force times distance, and the role that energy plays depends on the dynamics of the system. So what is the difference between potential and kinetic energy? How can understanding energy simplify problems? And how do we design a roller coaster in frictionless physics land?[Featuring: Sofia Baca; Millicent Oriana, Arianna Lunarosa]This episode is distributed under

An interview with Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder about her second book Existential Physics. Sabine is host of the famous youtube show Science with Sabine. 

The world around us is a four-dimensional world; there are three spatial dimensions, and one temporal dimension. Many of these objects emit an almost unfathomable number of photons. As we developed as creatures on this planet, we gathered the ability to sense the world around us; and given the amount of information represented as photons, it is no surprise that we developed an organ for sensing photons. But because of the amount of photons that are involved, and our relatively limited computational resources, it is necessary to develop shortcuts if we want to simulate an environment in silico. So what is raytracing? How is that different from what happens in games? And what does Ptolemy have to do with 3D graphics? All of this and more on this episode of Breaking Math.

Physical objects are everywhere, and they're all made out of molecules, and atoms. However, the arrangement and refinement of these atoms can be the difference between a computer and sand, or between a tree and paper. For a species as reliant on tool use, the ability to conceieve of, design, create, and produce these materials is an ongoing concern. Since we've been around as humans, and even before, we have been material scientists in some regard, searching for new materials to make things out of, including the tools we use to make things. So what is the difference between iron and steel? How do we think up new things to make things out of? And what are time crystals? All of this and more on this episode of Breaking Math.This episode is released under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. More information here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/[Featuring: Sofía Baca, Gabriel Hesch; Taylor Sparks]

Robert Black is an author who has written a six-book series about seven influential mathematicians, their lives, and their work. We interview him and his books, and take a peek into the lives of these influential mathematicians.Addendum: Hey Breaking Math fans, I just wanted to let y'all know that the second material science podcast is delayed.[Featuring: Sofía Baca; Robert Black]

Matter is that which takes up space, and has mass. It is what we interact with, and what we are. Imagining a world without matter is to imagine light particles drifting aimlessly in space. Gasses, liquids, solids, and plasmas are all states of matter. Material science studies all of these, and their combinations and intricacies, found in examining foams, gels, meshes, and other materials and metamaterials. Chris Cogswell is a material scientist, and host of The Mad Scientist Podcast, a podcast that takes a critical look at things ranging from technological fads, to pseudoscience, and topics that deserve a critical eye. On the first of a pair of two episodes about material science, we interview Chris about his experience with studying material science, and ask questions about the subject in general.Links referenced by Chris Cogswell:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUvi5eQhPTc is about nanomagnetism and cool demonstration of ferrofluid- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Dlt63N-Uuk goes over nanomagnetic applic

Seldom do we think about self-reference, but it is a huge part of the world we live in. Every time that we say 'myself', for instance, we are engaging in self-reference. Long ago, the Liar Paradox and the Golden Ratio were among the first formal examples of self-reference. Freedom to refer to the self has given us fruitful results in mathematics and technology. Recursion, for example, is used in algorithms such as PageRank, which is one of the primary algorithms in Google's search engine. Elements of self-reference can also be found in foundational shifts in the way we understand mathematics, and has propelled our understanding of mathematics forward. Forming modern set theory was only possible due to a paradox called Russel's paradox, for example. Even humor uses self-reference. Realizing this, can we find harmony in self-reference? Even in a podcast intro, are there elements of self-reference? Nobody knows, but I'd check if I were you. Catch all of this, and more, on this episode of Breaking Math. Episode 7

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Michael Brooks is a science writer who specializes in making difficult concepts easier to grasp. In his latest book, Brooks goes through several mathematical concepts and discusses their motivation, history, and discovery. So how do stories make it easier to learn? What are some of the challenges associated with conveying difficult concepts to the general public? And who, historically, has been a mathematician? All of this and more on this episode of Breaking Math.  Songs were Breaking Math Intro and Outro by Elliot Smith of Albuquerque.  This episode is published under a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribute-ShareAlike-NonCommercial license. For more information, visit CreativeCommons.org  [Featuring: Sofía Baca, Gabriel Hesch, Meryl Flaherty; Michael Brooks]t

There are times in mathematics when we are generalizing the behavior of many different, but similar, entities. One such time that this happens is the use cases of Big O notation, which include describing the long-term behavior of functions, and talking about how accurate numerical calculations are. On this problem episode, we are going to discuss Big O notation and how to use it.This episode is licensed by Sofia Baca under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For more information, visit CreativeCommons.org.[Featuring: Sofía Baca]

The world is often uncertain, but it has only been in the last half millennium that we've found ways to interact mathematically with that concept. From its roots in death statistics, insurance, and gambling to modern Bayesian networks and machine learning, we've seen immense productivity in this field. Every way of looking at probability has something in common: the use of random variables. Random variables let us talk about events with uncertain outcomes in a concrete way. So what are random variables? How are they defined? And how do they interact? All of this, and more, on this episode of Breaking Math.Interact with the hosts:@SciPodSofia@TechPodGabeOr the guest:@KampPodMilliePatreon here: patreon.com/breakingmathpodcastFeaturing music by Elliot Smith. For info about music used in ads, which are inserted dynamically, contact us at breakingmathpodcast@gmail.com[Featuring: Sofía Baca, Gabriel Hesch; Millicent Oriana]

Mathematics is a subject that has been used for great things over time: it has helped people grow food, design shelter, and in every part of life. It should be, then, no surprise that sometimes mathematics is used for evil; that is to say, there are times where mathematics is used to either implement or justify regressive things like greed, racism, classism, and even genocide. So when has math been used for destructive purposes? What makes us mis-apply mathematics? And why can oversimplification lead to devastation? All of this, and more, on this episode of Breaking Math.Theme song is Breaking Math Theme by Elliot Smith of Albuquerque.This episode is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For more information, go to CreativeCommons.org--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Join Sofía Baca with her guest Millicent Oriana from the newly launched Nerd Forensics podcast as they discuss some apparent paradoxes in probability and Russian roulette.Intro is "Breaking Math Theme" by Elliot Smith. Ads feature "Ding Dong" by Simon Panrucker[Featuring: Sofía Baca; Millicent Oriana]--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast.  https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support

Katharine Hayhoe was the lead author on the 2018 US Climate Assessment report, and has spent her time since then spreading the word about climate change. She was always faced with the difficult task of convincing people who had stakes in things that would be affected by acknowledging the information in her report. In her newest book, “Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World”, she discusses the challenges associated with these conversations, at both the micro and macro level. So who is Katherine Heyhoe? How has she learned to get people to acknowledge the reality of climate science? And is she the best, or worst, person to strike up a discussion about how the weather’s been? All of this, and more, on this episode of Breaking Math. Papers Cited: -“99.94 percent of papers agree with the scientific consensus.”More info: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0270467617707079This episode is distributed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International License. For more information, visit c