Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

From Mirrors To Wallpapers: A Virtual Math Circle Module On Symmetry, Nicole A. Sullivant, Christina L. Duron, Douglas T. Pfeffer

Journal of Math Circles

Symmetry is a natural property that children see in their everyday lives; it also has deep mathematical connections to areas like tiling and objects like wallpaper groups. The Tucson Math Circle (TMC) presents a 7-part module on symmetry that starts with reflective symmetry and culminates in the deconstruction of wallpapers into their ‘generating tiles’. This module utilizes a scaffolded, hands-on approach to cover old and new mathematical topics with various interactive activities; all activities are made available through free web-based platforms. In this paper, we provide lesson plans for the various activities used, and discuss their online implementation with Zoom, …

Magpies: Math & Girls + Inspiration = Success: Creating And Implementing A Virtual Math Circle For Girls, Lauren L. Rose, Amanda Landi, Jazmin Zamora Flores, Cathy Zhang, Shea Roccaforte, Julia Crager

Journal of Math Circles

During the academic year 2020-2021, we ran a virtual math outreach program for upper elementary and middle school girls, MAGPIES: Math & Girls + Inspiration = Success. Monthly sessions were held over Zoom, beginning with a short introduction by a guest presenter, followed by breakout rooms led by undergraduates paired with more experienced facilitators (upper division and graduated math majors and volunteer math educators). The online community was created purposefully to be an inclusive and collaborative environment for the attending girls, and the lessons were designed to provide a learning experience for all levels of participants. Examples of sessions include …

Revisiting Prejudiced Polygons: Adapting A Familiar Activity During A Time Of Unknowns, Anne M. Ho, Jaime J. Mccauley, Tara T. Craig

Journal of Math Circles

This article describes the design process behind various iterations of Prejudiced Polygons, a Math Circles activity about segregation. In particular, we frame our discussion around two guiding principles from User Experience (UX) Design in thinking about the interconnected components of a Math Circles session, which includes all the people, the physical or virtual setting, the technology, and the world context. Additionally, we describe how we think about developing a “low floor" and “high ceiling" for math content, social issues content, as well as technology and access.

An Integration Of Art And Mathematics, Henry Jaakola

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Mathematics and art are seemingly unrelated fields, requiring different skills and mindsets. Indeed, these disciplines may be difficult to understand for those not immersed in the field. Through art, math can be more relatable and understandable, and with math, art can be imbued with a different kind of order and structure. This project explores the intersection and integration of math and art, and culminates in a physical interdisciplinary product. Using the Padovan Sequence of numbers as a theoretical basis, two artworks are created with different media and designs, yielding unique results. Through these pieces, the order and beauty of number …

Domino Circles, Lauren L. Rose, A. Gwinn Royal, Amanda Serenevy, Anna Varvak

Journal of Math Circles

Creating a circle with domino pieces has a connection with complete graphs in Graph Theory. We present a hands-on activity for all ages, using dominoes to explore problem solving, pattern recognition, parity, graph theory, and combinatorics. The activities are suitable for elementary school students, the graph theory interpretations are suitable for middle and high school students, and the underlying mathematical structures will be of interest to college students and beyond.

A Math Without Words Puzzle, Jane H. Long, Clint Richardson

Journal of Math Circles

A visual puzzle by James Tanton forms the basis for a session that has been successfully implemented with various audiences. Designed to be presented with no directions or description, the puzzle requires participants to discover the goals themselves and to generate their own questions for investigation. Solutions, significant facilitation suggestions, and possibilities for deep mathematical extensions are discussed; extensive illustrations are included.

Math Escape Rooms: A Novel Approach For Engaging Learners In Math Circles, Janice F. Rech, Paula Jakopovic, Hannah Seidl, Greg Lawson, Rachel Pugh

Journal of Math Circles

Engaging middle and high school students in Math Circles requires time, planning and creativity. Finding novel approaches to maintain the interest of a variety of learners can be challenging. This paper outlines a model for developing and implementing math escape rooms as a unique structure for facilitating collaborative problem solving in a Math Circle. These escape rooms were designed and hosted by undergraduate secondary mathematics education majors. We provide possible structures for hosting escape rooms that could translate to a range of settings, as well as reflections and lessons learned through our experiences that could inform practitioners in other settings.

Mathematical Zendo: A Game Of Patterns And Logic, Philip Deorsey, Corey Pooler, Michael Ferrara

Journal of Math Circles

Mathematical Zendo is a logic game that actively engages participants in pattern recognition, problem solving, and critical thinking while providing a fun opportunity to explore all manner of mathematical objects. Based upon the popular game of Zendo, created by Looney Labs, Mathematical Zendo centers on a secret rule, chosen by the leader, that must be guessed by teams of players. In each round of the game, teams provide examples of the mathematical object of interest (e.g. functions, numbers, sets) and receive information about whether their guesses do or do not satisfy the secret rule. In this paper, we introduce Mathematical …

A Gentle Introduction To Inequalities: A Casebook From The Fullerton Mathematical Circle, Adam Glesser, Matt Rathbun, Bogdan Suceavă

Journal of Math Circles

Run for nearly a decade, the Fullerton Mathematical Circle at California State University, Fullerton prepares middle and high school students for mathematical research by exposing them to difficult problems whose solutions require only age-appropriate techniques and background. This work highlights one of the avenues of study, namely inequalities. We cover Engel's lemma, the Cauchy--Schwartz inequality, and the AM-GM inequality, as well as providing a wealth of problems where these results can be applied. Full solutions or hints, several written by Math Circle students, are given for all of the problems, as well as some commentary on how or when to …

Mathamigos: A Community Mathematics Initiative, James C. Taylor, Delara Sharma, Shannon Rogers

Journal of Math Circles

We present a broad, and we think novel, community mathematics initiative in its early stages in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At every level, the program embraces community-wide collaboration—from the leadership team, to the elements of the mathematics being implemented (primarily math circles and the Global Math Project’s Exploding Dots), to the funding model. Our MathAmigos program falls within two categories of math circle-related programs: outreach and professional development (PD). In outreach, we work with the Santa Fe Public School district (administration, teachers, students, and parents) and the City of Santa Fe government (our funders via a two-year contract) in …

Connecting Mathematics And Community: Challenges, Successes, And Different Perspectives, Ariel Azbel, Margarita Azbel, Isabella F. Delbakhsh, Tami E. Heletz, Zeynep Teymuroglu

Journal of Math Circles

In this article, we summarize our personal journey to establish a successful math circle in a community that is not very familiar with such mathematics enrichment programs. We share the story of how our math circle began three years ago, as well as the lessons we learned and our organizational challenges and successes. Additionally, we outline three primary perspectives: the founder perspective, the student volunteer perspective, and the faculty volunteer perspective.

The Signaling Problem: Using Exploding Dots To Solve An Accessible Mystery In An Elementary-Aged Math Circle, Rodi Steinig

Journal of Math Circles

Many people want to facilitate Math Circles for younger students but don’t know how. This article provides a model for how to create an engaging Math Circle for students aged 8-10 to explore different number bases and gives a detailed narrative to guide prospective instructors through the class. The narrative follows a group of eight students spending six weeks joyfully discovering underlying mathematical structure without being told what to do.

Exploding Dots At The Msu-Billings Math Circle, Tien Chih

Journal of Math Circles

Global Math Week is an annual event started by Dr. James Tanton and the Global Math Project, connecting students around the world with the mathematics of Exploding Dots. Exploding Dots is a reconceptualization of the mechanics of arithmetic, which allows for a visually intuitive and accessible representation of a variety of mathematical topics ranging from different base representations to the arithmetic of polynomials and series. In this manuscript, we describe the first implementation of Exploding Dots at the MSU-Billings Math Circle. The actual itemized agenda of the session is described, followed by highlights of the session and observations by the …

Commentary From The Field: Elimu Haina Mwisho “Education Has No Limits”, Erick Mathew

Journal of Math Circles

Commentary From the Field: ELIMU HAINA MWISHO “Education has no Limits”

Editorial Introduction To The Journal Of Math Circles, Emilie Hancock, Brandy Wiegers

Journal of Math Circles

Editorial Introduction to the Journal of Math Circles.

A Message From The Global Math Project Team, James Tanton

Journal of Math Circles

A Message From the Global Math Project Team

Estimating The Density Of The Abundant Numbers, Dominic Klyve, Melissa Pidde, Kathryn E. Temple

Mathematics Faculty Scholarship

Mathematicians have been interested in properties of abundant numbers – those which are smaller than the sum of their proper factors – for over 2,000 years. During the last century, one line of research has focused in particular on determining the density of abundant numbers in the integers. Current estimates have brought the upper and lower bounds on this density to within about 10−4, with a value of K ≈ 0.2476, but more precise values seem difficult to obtain. In this paper, we employ computational data and tools from inferential statistics to get more insight into this value. We also …

Numerical Ruin Probability In The Dual Risk Model With Risk-Free Investments, Sooie-Hoe Loke, Enrique Thomann

Mathematics Faculty Scholarship

In this paper, a dual risk model under constant force of interest is considered. The ruin probability in this model is shown to satisfy an integro-differential equation, which can then be written as an integral equation. Using the collocation method, the ruin probability can be well approximated for any gain distributions. Examples involving exponential, uniform, Pareto and discrete gains are considered. Finally, the same numerical method is applied to the Laplace transform of the time of ruin.

On Central Branch/Reinsurance Risk Networks: Exact Results And Heuristics, Florin Avram, Sooie-Hoe Loke

Mathematics Faculty Scholarship

Modeling the interactions between a reinsurer and several insurers, or between a central management branch (CB) and several subsidiary business branches, or between a coalition and its members, are fascinating problems, which suggest many interesting questions. Beyond two dimensions, one cannot expect exact answers. Occasionally, reductions to one dimension or heuristic simplifications yield explicit approximations, which may be useful for getting qualitative insights. In this paper, we study two such problems: the ruin problem for a two-dimensional CB network under a new mathematical model, and the problem of valuation of two-dimensional CB networks by optimal dividends. A common thread between …

How To Calculate Π: Machin's Inverse Tangents, A Mini-Primary Source Project For Calculus Ii Students, Dominic Klyve

Mathematics Faculty Scholarship

Almost every mathematical culture through history seems to have proved, trusted, or suspected that the area of a circle is a fixed constant times the square of its radius. It is maybe not surprising, then, that the last two millennia have seen a seemingly endless array of attempts to calculate this constant (today usually called π" role="presentation">π) with increasing precision.

The Derivatives Of The Sine And Cosine Functions: A Mini_Primary Source Project For Calculus I Students, Dominic Klyve

Mathematics Faculty Scholarship

This curricular modular guides students through a method of calculating the derivative of the sine and cosine functions using differentials. It is based on one primary source: Leonhard Euler's Institutiones calculi differentialis (Foundations of Differential Calculus) [2], published in 1755.

Mountain Passes And Saddle Points, James Bisgard

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Variational methods find solutions of equations by considering a solution as a critical point of an appropriately chosen function. Local minima and maxima are well-known types of critical points. We explore methods for finding critical points that are neither local maxima or minima, but instead are mountain passes or saddle points. Criteria for the existence of minima or maxima are well known, but those for mountain passes or saddle points are less well known. We give an accessible treatment of some criteria for the existence of such points (including the mountain pass lemma), as well as describe a method that …

On Mountain Pass Type Algorithms, James Bisgard

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

We consider constructive proofs of the mountain pass lemma, the saddle point theorem and a linking type theorem. In each, an initial “path” is deformed by pushing it downhill using a (pseudo) gradient flow, and, at each step, a high point on the deformed path is selected. Using these high points, a Palais–Smale sequence is constructed, and the classical minimax theorems are recovered. Because the sequence of high points is more accessible from a numerical point of view, we investigate the behavior of this sequence in the final two sections. We show that if the functional satisfies the Palais–Smale condition …

New Bounds And Computations On Prime-Indexed Primes, Jonathan Bayless, Dominic Klyve, Tomas Oliveira E Silva

Mathematics Faculty Scholarship

In a 2009 article, Barnett and Broughan considered the set of prime-index primes. If the prime numbers are listed in increasing order (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, . . .), then the prime-index primes are those which occur in a prime-numbered position in the list (3, 5, 11, 17, . . .). Barnett and Broughan established a prime-indexed prime number theorem analogous to the standard prime number theorem and gave an asymptotic for the size of the n-th prime-indexed prime.

We give explicit upper and lower bounds for π²(x), the number of prime-indexed primes up to …

Modeling Spatial Uncertainties In Geospatial Data Fusion And Mining, Boris Kovalerchuk, Leonid Perlovsky, Michael Kovalerchuk

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Geospatial data analysis relies on Spatial Data Fusion and Mining (SDFM), which heavily depend on topology and geometry of spatial objects. Capturing and representing geometric characteristics such as orientation, shape, proximity, similarity, and their measurement are of the highest interest in SDFM. Representation of uncertain and dynamically changing topological structure of spatial objects including social and communication networks, roads and waterways under the influence of noise, obstacles, temporary loss of communication, and other factors. is another challenge. Spatial distribution of the dynamic network is a complex and dynamic mixture of its topology and geometry. Historically, separation of topology and geometry …

A Zeta Function For Juggling Sequences, Carsten Elsner, Dominic Klyve, Erik R. Tou

Mathematics Faculty Scholarship

We give a new generalization of the Riemann zeta function to the set of b-ball juggling sequences. We develop several properties of this zeta function, noting among other things that it is rational in b^−s. We provide a meromorphic continuation of the juggling zeta function to the entire complex plane (except for a countable set of singularities) and completely enumerate its zeroes. For most values of b, we are able to show that the zeroes of the b-ball zeta function are located within a critical strip, which is closely analogous to that of the Riemann zeta function.

On The Sum Of Reciprocals Of Amicable Numbers, Jonathan Bayless, Dominic Klyve

Mathematics Faculty Scholarship

Two numbers m and n are considered amicable if the sum of their proper divisors,
s(n) and s(m), satisfy s(n) = m and s(m) = n. In 1981, Pomerance showed that
the sum of the reciprocals of all such numbers, P, is a constant. We obtain both a
lower and an upper bound on the value of P.

Writing Representations Over Proper Division Subrings, Stephen P. Glasby

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Let �� be a division ring, and G a finite group of automorphisms of E whose elements are distinct modulo inner automorphisms of ��. Let �� = ��^G be the division subring of elements of �� fixed by G. Given a representation p : �� →��^d×d of an �� -algebra ��, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for p to be writable over ��. (Here ��^d×d denotes the algebra of d×d matrices over ��, and a matrix A writes p over �� if A⁻¹p(��)A ⊆ F^d×d.) We give an algorithm for constructing an …

Writing Projective Representations Over Subfields, Stephen P. Glasby, C. R. Leedham-Green, E. A. O'Brien

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Let G=〈X〉be an absolutely irreducible subgroup of GL(d, K), and let F be a proper subfield of the finite field K. We present a practical algorithm to decide constructively whether or not G is conjugate to a subgroup of GL(d, F).K×, where K× denotes the centre of GL(d, K). If the derived group of G also acts absolutely irreducibly, then the algorithm is Las Vegas and costs O(|X|d³+d²log|F|) arithmetic operations in K. This work forms part of a recognition project based on Aschbacher’s classification of maximal subgroups of GL(d, K).

Some Analogs Of Zariski's Theorem On Nodal Line Arrangements, A.D. Raza Choudary, Alexandru Dimca, Ştefan Papadima

Mathematics Faculty Scholarship

For line arrangements in P² with nice combinatorics (in particular, for those which are nodal away the line at infinity), we prove that the combinatorics contains the same information as the fundamental group together with the meridianal basis of the abelianization. We consider higher dimensional analogs of the above situation. For these analogs, we give purely combinatorial complete descriptions of the following topological invariants (over an arbitrary field): the twisted homology of the complement, with arbitrary rank one coefficients; the homology of the associated Milnor fiber and Alexander cover, including monodromy actions; the coinvariants of the first higher non-trivial …