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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™
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Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Social Justice And Exponential Functions: Using Pandemic Data To Increase Student Understanding, Jane Friedman
Social Justice And Exponential Functions: Using Pandemic Data To Increase Student Understanding, Jane Friedman
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
This paper describes a class activity based on real data about COVID-19 death rates in California. The activity helps students learn about exponential functions while providing an opportunity to integrate social justice concerns into the mathematics classroom.
Mathematics For The Masses: Door-To-Door Missionaries Of Math And Twelve-Step Recovery Programs, Daniel S. Helman
Mathematics For The Masses: Door-To-Door Missionaries Of Math And Twelve-Step Recovery Programs, Daniel S. Helman
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Conversion of strangers, or proselytizing, is a feature of a range of groups for religious, organizational and other aims. In twelve-step recovery programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, belief in a higher power is a requirement for working the steps to recovery. People are encouraged to find a higher power of their own understanding. This paper presents a model for using mathematics as a higher power, and shows how recovery works with mathematics in that role instead of a more traditional higher power such as God. A contemplative definition of math is given along with a description of a three-categoried epistemology: …
Comforting With Mathematics: A Case Study, Michael J. Goldstein
Comforting With Mathematics: A Case Study, Michael J. Goldstein
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Death by suicide often leaves behind grieving family members with unanswered questions. Of these concerns, fear that their loved one suffered or felt regret is common. When the method of suicide was jumping from height, that answer can easily be determined using basic kinematics. Despite the perception that mathematics is a cold, calculating field, it can provide a clear, definitive answer and comfort those left behind.
Descartes Comes Out Of The Closet, Nora E. Culik
Descartes Comes Out Of The Closet, Nora E. Culik
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
While “Descartes Comes Out of the Closet” is ostensibly about a young woman’s journey to Paris, the descriptive detail borrows language and images from Cartesian coordinate geometry, dualistic philosophy, neuroanatomy (the pineal), and projections of three dimensions onto planes. This mathematical universe is counterpointed in the natural language of the suppressed love story that locates the real in the human. Thus, at the heart of the story is the tension between competing notions of mathematics, i.e., as either an independent realm apart from history or as a culturally produced and historical set of practices. Of course, the central character proves …
The Battle Against Malaria: A Teachable Moment, Randy K. Schwartz
The Battle Against Malaria: A Teachable Moment, Randy K. Schwartz
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Malaria has been humanity’s worst public health problem throughout recorded history. Mathematical methods are needed to understand which factors are relevant to the disease and to develop counter-measures against it. This article and the accompanying exercises provide examples of those methods for use in lower- or upper-level courses dealing with probability, statistics, or population modeling. These can be used to illustrate such concepts as correlation, causation, conditional probability, and independence. The article explains how the apparent link between sickle cell trait and resistance to malaria was first verified in Uganda using the chi-squared probability distribution. It goes on to explain …
Fuzzy Logic In Health Care Settings: Moral Math For Value-Laden Choices, Sarah Voss
Fuzzy Logic In Health Care Settings: Moral Math For Value-Laden Choices, Sarah Voss
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
This essay is intended as an example of “moral math”, i.e., ideas culled from mathematics which can positively impact social behavior. Specifically, it combines fuzzy logic with the ethical decisions which hospital staff and others are sometimes forced to make about health care (e.g., euthanasia issues following Hurricane Katrina). The assumption is that such decisions involve value-laden choices which lend themselves to “fuzzy” or “smart” protocols. The article discusses the history of fuzzy logic – what it is, how it is used, and how it might be even better-used as a support basis for making difficult choices …