The Math Factor Podcast

Ptolemy Mathcards

The Ptolemy Mathcard Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canadien Borax Corp., produced a set of sixteen mathcards in Feb. 2000, reissued in 2001 and 2005. Today the Math Factor is proud to be able to provide these to its audience, through the generous support of the University of Arkansas Dept. of Mathematics, Honors College and Graduate School.

The fundamental idea behind the cards is that they are a kind of viral art; ideally, large stacks of the cards are meant to be given freely to trusted co-conspirators, who then pass around smaller stacks, etc, finally distributing the cards far and wide, to those who might most benefit.

In a future version of this piece, the cards will be packaged and distributed in sixteen different unique boxed sets; each set of sixteen sets will in turn be packaged in one of sixteen different larger boxes, etc., finally culminating in sixteen styles of shipping containers filled to the brim with Ptolemy Mathcards; the entire series of sixteen shipping containers would be available as a set for the serious collector.

It is not yet clear that the world is ready.