Baez TWF #244 is out

[marcus]

Main Question or Discussion Point

In this edition JB asks the question

When was the first calculus textbook written - and in what language?

and gives an unexpected answer.

Also there is an account of a conversation in a café in Toronto about how to measure the size of a category. It ends with the observation that

We're still just learning to count.

 

[Dcase]

Hi Marcus:

As usual John Baez has a great and interesting blog in TWF 244.

I am fascinated with item 5 which discusses Euler’s bridges. From my perspective this is a problem ideal for the strategy analysis of game theory had such a tool been available in the 1700s.

Geert Jan Olsder [mathematics] Delft University in 2005 presented a variant of this problem as a train routing schedule using game theory.
MAX PLUS IN HET (TREIN)VERKEER ...[Text in English]
http://webserv.nhl.nl/~kamminga/wintersymposium/Olsder2005.pdf [Broken]

There does exist the possibility of the Braess' paradox in traffic flow problems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess'_paradox