Alexander Farrugia

Mathematics PhD and senior lecturer at Ġ.F. Abela Junior College. I'm mainly into algebraic and spectral graph theory. Author of 'But What is i, Exactly?'.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

All the money I earn from my PDF eBook until the 30th of November 2024 will be donated to the Malta Male Cancer Support Association. (I shall, of course, top this money with my own donation.) Thank you in advance for your support and generosity. Link: https://t.co/btCXzxIpwJ

[Ashvin Swaminathan @aaswaminathan01]

A decade ago, I abandoned the first math problem my PhD advisor ever gave me.

This week, I finally solved it—and formally verified it—using @AnthropicAI's Claude Code, @OpenAI's Codex, and @HarmonicMath's Aristotle.

Here’s how AI turned my 10-year-old notes into a 15,000-line Lean 4 proof. 🧵

[Valeriy M., PhD, MBA, CQF @predict_addict]

I saw a guy studying math in Starbucks today.

Table: one book.
Tools: a pen and a stack of paper.

He wrote down a problem.

Then just… stared at it.

Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
Twenty minutes.

Like a psychopath.

No laptop.
No ChatGPT.
No YouTube “calculus in 10 minutes.”

Just a page full of symbols and a guy thinking.

Then he crossed everything out.

Started again.

More symbols.
More scratching on paper.
More staring into space like he was trying to summon Euler.

An hour later he had solved one problem.

One.

Meanwhile the guy next to him refreshed his email 27 times and watched two productivity videos.

Funny thing about math.

The people who look the least busy
are usually the ones actually doing the hardest work.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

My Sunday Times of Malta article was published in yesterday's edition.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@Dean_of_math Both learned a lot.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@pickover It is 1. Otherwise if p is any polynomial, then p(0) wouldn't be equal to its constant term.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@pickover Python.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@PuzzleADayBlog Reminds me of Raymond Smullyan's Knights and Knaves.

[SKG @sonukg4india]

❄️🐥

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@HansMokeNiemann In other rating systems, the rating is supplemented by a deviation, which becomes smaller the more the player plays and bigger the less they play. This deviation is a measure of uncertainty; the lower it is, the more the rating is 'true'. Perhaps chess could try such a system.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@pickover Hello pi. What business do you have in this equation? :)

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@sonukg4india Such a pretty problem.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@chesscom I guess you're the only account that can post 'chess' and get close to 1K likes.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@pickover Arrows are a little misleading.

[Algebra Etc. @AlgebraFact]

For large n, if you write out the values of the nth row of Pascal's triangle in binary and turn them sideways, you can see a circular arc.

Here's an example with n = 20.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@craig_wb @FastestPitStop @F1 There are no back markers on the grid right now.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@alz_zyd_ I don't know what the state of the art is now, but last year ChatGPT couldn't consistently solve very simple variants of the Wolf-Sheep-Cabbage game.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@Samsea04 @formularacers_ Is this for 2026 or 2025? Because the news item is about 2026.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@HansMokeNiemann There are quite a few rating systems based on ELO that achieve this. It wouldn't be difficult to implement.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@HansMokeNiemann Hi Mr Niemann, I'm not an officially rated chess player, just an amateur who enjoys the game of chess. I admire your tenacity amid everything that happened to you in recent years. It would be an honour for me just to meet you, let alone play against you. I wish you a great 2025.

[Alexander Farrugia @farrugiamaths]

@sapires @mathladyhazel I noticed it too.