Tag Archives: stem

Episode 4: Weather Talk

weather

We know that The Weather is the most basic, most mundane small talk topic in, you know, the world.  We understand that The Weather is just boring to discuss.

Except when it isn’t.

Join us in this episode as we discuss the fascinating, and varied, uses of math in weather predictions, from model-building to handling competing forecasts. We speak with Hannah Christensen, a postdoctoral researcher in the Physics Department of Oxford University, whose 2015 Guardian article, Banking on Better Forecasts: The New Maths of Weather Prediction, outlines how forecasters use probabilistic models to minimize, or at least better explain, the “chance” in next week’s chance of rain.  We also have a conversation with Frank D’Amico, a statistician at Duquesne University, who explains the conditions under which the simple act of comparing two bell curves turns into one of the greatest unsolved puzzles in statistics, the Behrens-Fisher problem.

Turns out, The Weather isn’t so boring, after all.  To hear why, listen in to our conversation in Episode 4.  We promise: It’s not just small talk.

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Episode 1: Racism and Segregation

Racism and Segregation

In Racism and Segregation, Anna and Annie call on two people whose online contributions have helped paint a picture of racism and segregation in this country.

Dustin Cable’s work on the Racial Dot Map paints this picture in a nearly literal way; see what we mean here.  Also, check out his methodology and code, and see one source of his inspiration–the work of Brandon Martin-Anderson and Peter Richardson–here.

Nicky Case and collaborator Vi Hart created a playable blog post called Parable of the Polygons earlier this year.  This interactive site demonstrates the Nobel Prize-winning work of Thomas Schelling–work that concludes that small individual bias may be responsible for the neighborhood segregation we see so clearly in the Racial Dot Map.

Want to understand how math can help us better understand bias, racism, and segregation in this country?  Listen to Episode 1: Racism and Segregation now.

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