My Blog
Hi there, welcome to my blog! You’re probably wondering what this blog is about, why I’m writing it, or many other things. Well, I’ll get to that in a moment, but first let me introduce myself in case you don’t already know me.
My name is Jonathan, I was born and raised as a Bay Area native, where I still live today. I attended all of my grade school classes in a city called Antioch, in the East Bay. I currently attend UC Berkeley, where I study Data Science, Cognitive Science, and Psychology. At the time that I write this I’m, a Sophomore going into my 4th semester. If you’re curious about the rest of my life, check out my about me page!
Now, why am I writing this blog? Well, ever since I was young, I’ve loved math, whether it was simple Algebra, Calculus, or Statistics. But, I was just good at solving algorithmic math – plugging in numbers, crunching formulae, etc.. However, my understanding and appreciation for the field really changed when I took Discrete Mathematics in university. It introduced me to a whole new side of math: proofs. The math itself in the course wasn’t much more advanced that basic pre-calculus, but it was the skill and intuition needed to come up with a proof that entranced me.
In the same semester, I took my first coding class, Foundations of Data Science. In this class, I learned how to work with code (Python specifically) to do massive calculations almost instantaneously. Taking both of these classes at the same time encouraged me to pull aspects and skills from both when solving problems.
Alright, now with that said, let’s get back to the present. So, why write this blog? Well, I began to really enjoy using the above two-pronged approach to solving problems. On the pure mathematics side, you can write an elegant proof to convey your solution. However, the issue with theoretical proofs is they are often non-constructive (i.e., there is no definite answer as the proof is by definition generalized). Well, this is where the second prong comes in handy. Using methods from computer science, you can run simulations and calculate values to show the discrete solutions (if they exist). Yet even here, there still arises an issue, there is no transparency; you can’t see what the code is doing. Here again, the other prong complements this weakness; mathematical proofs are all about transparency and method, so the two approaches perfectly complement each other.
So, I figured what better way to practice my skills than to use the two together, my only problem now was finding problems to solve. I came across a mathematics problem while on the platform Tik-Tok, and I thought it would be the perfect problem. So I wrote out a proof, and that will be my first issue of the blog! As you may have guessed, that’s what I’ll be doing for most of my blog posts; finding riddles, problems, or proof challenges online, and attempting to complete them with formal proofs, computation, or both if possible! So, if that sounds interesting, you want to learn more about math and computer science, or you’re just curious, stick around and check out some of my posts!
If you have any suggestions for a problem that you’d like me to attempt, you want to correct a mistake I’ve made, or just want more details about any part of any post on my blog, feel free to comment on any one of my posts, and I’ll do my best to respond promptly with an answer to your question/comment. If you have a proof, and would like it to be shared on this blog with credit given to yourself, just contact me, and I’d be happy to share it on this platform. If you’d prefer to privately communicate for any reason (listed above or not), you can use the same link!
With this blog, I mainly hope to improve my own skills and problem solving ability. However, if that were my only goal, there would be no need to post any of this. Of course, my other goal is to help inspire interest and passion for math in some of you! I don’t expect this blog to go big, but even if there are a few of you who draw some benefit from these posts, then I’ll be happy!
Well that’s all I’ve got for today, but I hope to see you in a comment or a message on one of my posts in the future – until next time!
– Jonathan
