Author: Geeks out of the Box

This is a blog about Simon, a young mathematician and programmer, and his little sister Neva. We write this blog together, share their projects and thoughts on their journey towards self-dicovery. They’re growing up in a supportive non-coercive learning environment. We deeply believe in interest-based, self-paced education and have had to move countries to make this possible as a family. Visit Simon’s website at https://simontiger.com/ We are a family from Amsterdam who moved to Antwerp because homeschooling is illegal in The Netherlands. This blog started as https://antwerpenhomeschooling.wordpress.com in March 2016. Over the years, most of our entries have gravitated towards exploring together with Simon as he has developed an insatiable passion for programming, math and science. His sister Neva is treading on his heals. We changed or name to Geeks of the Box in May 2021.
By Geeks out of the Box Posted on

Secure Hash Algorithms

Simon is mesmerized with cryptographic hash functions. He is following the Cryptocurrency course on Brilliant.org and learning about secure hash algorithms at a whole new level now. SHA–2 (Secure Hash Algorithm 2) … Continue reading Secure Hash Algorithms

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Simon’s videos are featured on the Global Math Project website!

In October, Simon’s videos were featured on the Global Math Project website! The bulk are his latest three videos with detailed proofs of pile-splitting magic: In this video, I will … Continue reading Simon’s videos are featured on the Global Math Project website!

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Simon’s Game Bot

Also in October, Simon built a game bot that can play math games with him. At the moment, the bot only plays the higher-lower game, but will learn to play … Continue reading Simon’s Game Bot

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A Beautiful Universe by Professor Cumrun Vafa World Science Scholars Live Session

Simon enjoyed the informal interaction during the live session, even though he had been a little critical about the course. He always tunes in better once it gets less formal. … Continue reading A Beautiful Universe by Professor Cumrun Vafa World Science Scholars Live Session

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How many weeks old are you?

I always have my birthdays on a Saturday, a little girl told us at a playground. We laughed at first. But then we asked ourselves, why are we celebrating how … Continue reading How many weeks old are you?

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More Math games on a sheet of paper or on the street, using two pieces of chalk

Here come a few simple but beautiful math games that don’t take much time or preparation. Simon has learned about these from the following great resources, worth checking out: Math … Continue reading More Math games on a sheet of paper or on the street, using two pieces of chalk

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James Tanton’s Matrix Math

Yes, this one is about what Simon learned from James Tanton again. Simon basically spent two months living on Tanton’s websites. He even gave me two colorful lectures on matrix … Continue reading James Tanton’s Matrix Math

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P-adic System is used in computers!

Back in October, Simon got fascinated with this weird system called p-adic numbers (where p stands for “prime”). It’s a system in which you can have numbers going infinitely far … Continue reading P-adic System is used in computers!

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Simon’s first impressions of this year’s first course with World Science Scholars

Last weekend, Simon started this new school year’s first World Science Scholars course, A Beautiful Universe: Black Holes, String Theory, and the Laws of Nature as Mathematical Puzzles with Breakthrough … Continue reading Simon’s first impressions of this year’s first course with World Science Scholars