The Little Star (with Zvezdelina Stankova) - Numberphile Podcast
Mathematician Zvezdelina Stankova was born in Bulgaria and is now a teaching professor at UC Berkeley.
Zvezda's webpage - math.berkeley.edu/~stankova/
Zvezda videos on Numberphile - • Zvezdelina Stankova on...
The Legend of Question Six - • The Legend of Question...
Berkeley Math Circle - mathcircle.berkeley.edu
This episode was supported by G-Research, a world-leading quantitative finance research firm, hiring the brightest minds to tackle the biggest questions in finance - learn more at gresearch.co.uk/numberphile/ - www.gresearch.co.uk/numberphile/
You can support Numberphile on Patreon - / numberphile
Like these people - www.numberphile.com/patrons
With thanks to MSRI - www.msri.org
Пікірлер: 60
Zvezdelina is from my city and I was surprised to learn that she didn’t go to the maths high school where I studied. I certainly wouldn’t consider myself a big patriot and yet I can’t help but feel a sense of pride because of her achievements both in the academic sense and with regards to her multiple appearances on one of my all time favourite channels - Numberphile. Thank you for your contributions to the field of Mathematics and for representing Ruse and Bulgaria as a whole! Best wishes, Simeon Stefanov
56:10 - “No, I don’t think my students are as tough as I was” 😂 Zvezda is awesome, a true hero in the math community today!
@grantcivyt
Жыл бұрын
It would be funnier if it wasn't so sad. On the bright side, it turns out you don't need a great education to succeed in life in America. But it sure would help kids if we did provide that. If you'd like to learn more about our depressing education system, read up on what happened to the real-life math program from Stand and Deliver.
I always enjoy listening to Zvezda, be it about math or, apparently, her biography. She is so pleasant and authentic.
When Zvezdalina said that her favorite sci-fi novel is The Day of the Triffids I almost spit my coffee out. Just last night I remembered the 2009 movie based on the novel and I was like: "This is pretty obscure nowadays, I wonder if anyone still likes this?". I don't know I just thought it was pretty cool that she likes the novel.
Math circles in Eastern European communist countries were basically after-school math clubs. We used the same name in Romania, a country with a significantly different language to Bulgaria - the name probably originated in the Soviet Union, then was internalized by its satellite communist countries. 'Circle' was probably used due to the highly symmetrical nature of round objects, obvious not just to mathematicians, thereby a perfect metaphor for equality (King Arthur and his knights were happy to share a round table, too!) Math was held in high regard back then in the Eastern Bloc and the math circles would attract real talent, students that would take part in math competitions, and then go on to study mathematics-related subjects at university level. The maths circles were, indeed, attracting young people who wanted to do more, not just something else, as Zvezda explained - they were math clubs with a twist.
@huskytail
Жыл бұрын
Study circles exist thankfully way before the Soviet union. Some of the organizational stuff was definitely common throughout the Eastern block, definitely, but the study circles have been a very strong part of Bulgarian education since the start of Chitalishte (before the end of the Ottoman empire in Bulgaria)
Doc. Stankova has such a lovely voice, it's good to hear from her again!
Wow Brady, I loved the moving map of all the locations Zvezda was referring to, wonderfully coordinated!
Absolutely wonderful interview. Thanks for this.
The interviewer is also equally excited that I liked
I like the podcast but would appreciate a less flashy video background too
@numberphile2
2 жыл бұрын
Just don't watch it!!!!! Open a new tab and look at absolutely anything you want. :)
@JDSileo
2 жыл бұрын
@@numberphile2 I must agree with the others. This animation is quite disturbing. It's giving me a headache and unless you have KZread Premium you can't go to another app on mobile.
@strongmanlin
2 жыл бұрын
@@numberphile2 I think the background is mostly fine, but it would be better if the waveform only maxed out at maybe 1/4 of the height of the frame instead of the whole frame.
@scottmuck
2 жыл бұрын
Yep, turning phone over to avoid seizure lol 😂
@MacShapow
2 жыл бұрын
There is a podcast feed you can use instead of the YT feed.
I didn't even realize there was a Numberphile podcast. Cool!
@numberphile2
2 жыл бұрын
Give us a sub on your podcast player! ;) All episodes here too: kzread.info/head/PLH2AOVeIaWFmnXrXQ_UhKVy9Zp0RtRMm5
I revisit her triangular highway and pebbling the chessboard videos all the time. love how she explains things
Love Zvezda! She's amazing!
This story is so vivid for me.. Keeping the proportions, it is very symilar to mine, and probably with dozens of other unidenfied girls and boys of that age: also struggeling with equating linear problems, also having the first mathematical epiphania in the 5-th grade. Also having marvelous, inspiring (women) teachers at my elementary in Bucharest /Romania and attending mathematical circles (usually at 17h, on Saturdays; later, for grown-ups, at 8h on Sundays). I always felt deeply gratefull for this. As a consequence, I always carry with me the need to share the beauty of mathematics, in particular of geometry, which was for me the first meningful contact with mathematics: both axiomatic as well as experimental. Sadly, in order to be able to live from mathematics, I had no option other than living my country- nowadays I live in Brazil. Zvezdelina's work and achievements are remarcable and meaningfull!
That was quite a story. There's a lot wrong with math education in the U.S. I wish her well, we should teach it better. And I did like the map thing. It took me a little bit to get, but when I did, it was fun.
This lady is such a hero!
Thank you for the podcasts these are amazing Brady!
6:27 this was a bit concerning, then I realized the auto generated subtitles were a tad off. "My father came from a small town where there were no conditions for him to study anything but violence"
@gidikalchhauser
Жыл бұрын
I can hear the sound of violence
Loved the podcast, thanks Brady and Zvezda! Edit: quite a few people are complaining about the background, but personally, I was quite transfixed by it, I liked it
These biographies are great. I have so many points where even my life criss-crosses them. In this video I can check off Bulgaria, Australia and the USA.
I participated at some maths competition during my school time. Mathe Känguru and over the years I won a "first place" twice which granted me some fancy stuff. Like I won a t shirt for getting a long streak of correct answers and also like a chemistry set which was fun to mix all together. And this summer semester I begun to take my first actual maths class at university which is required for the masters programme I want to do. I would describe myself to be very interested and adapt in the topic, for example i am consuming maths content on KZread like these podcasts, main videos and many other channels. However this class in particular isn't even meant for maths students, it's for computer science students - so it's less extreme in some way. But it's still a lot of work and difficult to get started in so I am happy to not study maths academically. I enjoy the results and some of the beauty but I dislike some of the redundant proofs and syntax at time.
heyy thats my proffessor!
Mooie Zvezdelina!
why no video?
Zvezda is absolutely correct; the largest problem in US schools is a lack of uniformity. Curriculums are totally inconsistent, from grade to grade, teacher to teacher, meaning that the education doesn't build upon itself. Some topics will be completely skipped over while others are needlessly repeated. A common curriculum is absolutely needed, but Americans have low trust in public schools - not without reason. It would be hard to convince enough people to approve a more unified approach.
(e^iπ + 2)st comment!
@romanski5811
2 жыл бұрын
e^(💧log(😄))
I have never heard my home country being pronounced as "burgaly" before...
салют почти землякам :))))
The waveform thing is VERY annoying!!!! Ugh!!
Horrible graphic for a podcast.
@numberphile2
2 жыл бұрын
I never imagine people actually watch it, just leave a tab open.... But I like to have some easter eggs in there just in case! Sorry you don't like it.
@jpopelish
2 жыл бұрын
@@numberphile2 I guess I have to fight off the seizures and watch for the easter eggs, now. Whoever came up with the audio amplitude bars, as a graphic addition to podcast words, had to be an audio engineer worrying about levels, not someone thinking about the audience. Wondering around in 2D slices of a 4D cube would be much better.
@morkmon
2 жыл бұрын
@@jpopelish just use a podcast app
@culwin
2 жыл бұрын
@@numberphile2 Well you clearly made the effort to do the world map thing throughout... so it sure seems like we are meant to look at it... but then strangely messed it all up with the sound bars.
"Even during the communist era..." That was the best era in Bulgarian, and world, history.
@huskytail
Жыл бұрын
Pff haha, right. So great nobody goes back to it
@theheadshot45
Жыл бұрын
@@huskytail Except there are a number of communist countries, including China which is now the world's most powerful country. Cry about it.
@huskytail
Жыл бұрын
@@theheadshot45 including China? Please indulge me and tell me which are those other GREAT communist countries 😂. And also, China's system is communist only by name, especially compared to what we had in Bulgaria.
@theheadshot45
Жыл бұрын
@@huskytail Read 'Socialism with Chinese Characteristics' by Roland Boer. The only reason you don't see China as socialist is because you're not educated. You don't live there, and have never even visited. China has the world's biggest economy, one of the highest populations, and is improving every day. Meanwhile, the West is collapsing daily. The US and UK in particular are decaying, struggling to make ends meet for families and are running out of energy. Europe is now telling its people not to use AC or heating, even in extreme weather. Pathetic. China's life expectancy overtook the US in 2021.