Asaf Karagila

Dianna Crown, the physics woman on YouTube, has posted a video where she is interviewed by her editor about why and how she found herself majoring in physics in MIT.

Back in the days of yore, if one wanted to know mathematics, one would have to go to the university and take a course; or hire a tutor; or go to the library and open a book and learn on their own.

There are many discussions on the multiverse of set theory generated by a model.

I am sitting in the 6th European Set Theory Conference in Budapest, and watching all these wonderful talks, and many of them use colors for emphasis of some things.

When one is ascending a difficult path uphill, it is a good idea to keep your eyes on the path as you move forward.

As some of you may have noticed, I don't use this blog to write about my papers in the "traditional way" math bloggers summarize and explain their recent work.

This is not something particularly interesting, I think.

Good news!

My mentor, teacher, mathematical confidant and generally good friend, Matti Rubin passed away this morning.

If you follow my blog, you probably know that I am a big fan of Michael Stevens from the VSauce channel, who in the recent year or so released several very good videos about mathematics, and about infinity in particular.

I've been given the chance to teach the course in axiomatic set theory in Jerusalem this semester.

Back in the fall semester of 2015-2016 I had taken a course in functional analysis.

Teaching pure mathematics is not a trivial thing.

I am not a Platonist, as I keep pointing out.

Let me begin by giving a spoiler warning.

I don't usually like to write about new papers.

One of my huge pet peeves is with people who think that writing \(1+2+3+\ldots=-\frac1{12}\) is a reasonable thing without context.

During the first day of the conference we realized that it might be a good idea to get the lectured videoed, so we quickly set up the videos for the second and third day.

It's been a while, quite a while, since I last posted anything.

To the readers of my blog, it should come as no surprise that I have a lot of appreciation to what Michael Stevens is doing in Vsauce.

I recently learned that diamonds are cut and polished with the dust of other diamonds.

I was asked to write a short introduction to set theory for the European Set Theory Society website.

The registration to Menachem Magidor's 70th Birthday Conference is still open!

I recently heard the news that Oren Kolman passed away a couple of weeks ago.

After so many terrible YouTube videos about math, about four months ago Michael Stevens made a really nice video about the Banach-Tarski (Banach-T-Rex) paradox.

I am happy to announce, on behalf of the organizing committee, that the registration for Menachem Magidor's 70th Birthday Conference is now open!

What is cofinality of a[n infinite] cardinal?

In a recent Math.SE question about the foundations of category theory without set theory, someone made a claim that \(\ZF\) makes it hard to learn mathematics, because in \(\ZF\) the questions "is \(\RR\subseteq\pi\)?"

Some time ago I was talking to some people about how they read a paper.

I had already written about anti-anti-Banach-Tarski arguments.

Randall Munroe of the xkcd fame has a new book coming up where he explains various concepts using a small repository of "simple" words (this is based on this xkcd comic).

In the best TV show ever produced, Patrick McGoohan plays the mysterious No.

Anyone who peruses mathematical Q&A sites, or had students come to office hours or send questions via other means (email, designated forums, carrier pigeons, or written on a note tied to a brick tossed into your office) knows the following statement: "I d…

Ever explained to a "working mathematician" about the undecidability of the continuum hypothesis?

I am not a Platonist.

I don't like social media very much.

Have you heard?

Here are the rules of research.

When assuming the axiom of choice the product topology and box the topology are quite different when considering infinite products.

The account has been suspended, I'd like to thank everyone who helped!

So closing in on my third year, and in theory I should finish my dissertation by next summer.

In a manner more befitting to Edgar Allan Poe, Mathematics is a cruel and unforgiving mistress.

Well, it's that special day of the year again.

Last night I posted a strange story about a gecko and a moth.

Spring has begun in Israel.

One of the reasons I love set theory so much, and specifically choice related research, is that this is an extremely fertile ground for amusing terminology.

Last Wednesday I gave a talk about the Partition Principle in our students seminar.

This is nothing new, but it's a choice-y way of thinking about it.

In a previous post, I gave a humorous classification of large cardinals, dividing them to large large cardinals and small large cardinals, and so on.

Many people, more often than not these are people from analysis or worse (read: physicists, which in general are not bad, but I am bothered when they think they have a say in how theoretical mathematics should be done), pseudo-mathematical, non-mathematic…