Tag: Giant Leaps

It’s Leap Year Day!

By on February 29, 2016

Common knowledgcredo's article leap yeare says we enjoy this extra day every four years, but is that really the frequency of February 29? Two online resources from the MIT Libraries answer this question and highlight the breadth of information they offer the MIT community.

Credo, a vast array of online encyclopedias, offers quick background on the subject of Leap Year. Besides confirming only century years divisible by four “leap,” you can also learn the term is first written in “English medieval encyclopedia On the Properties of Things (1398), translated by John Trevisa from the 12th-century Latin original by Bartholomew the Englishman.”[i]

MathSciNet, a major international math database, provides more leap year math. To quote:

“N is called a leap year if ∑∞k=1(−1)k+1(a1a2⋯ak|N)=1, where (x∣y)=1 if x divides y and 0 otherwise.”[ii]

Leap into this day and the MIT Libraries!

 

[i] Leap year. (2004). In Word histories and mysteries. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved from http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/hmwhm/leap_year/0

[ii] http://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=1300279

“Giant Leaps” – a video made by AMPS

By on June 15, 2009

What is the legacy of the Apollo program, and what can we learn from it to help us confront the scientific and engineering challenges of our own time?  This short film kicked off the “Giant Leaps” Symposium commemorating the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. The symposium was organized by the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, and held at MIT on June 11, 2009.  Find out more about Giant Leaps.

Check out this great video and more on MIT TechTV.