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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Counting The Classes Of Projectively-Equivalent Pentagons On Finite Projective Planes Of Prime Order, Maxwell Hosler Oct 2024

Counting The Classes Of Projectively-Equivalent Pentagons On Finite Projective Planes Of Prime Order, Maxwell Hosler

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

In this paper, we examine the number of equivalence classes of pentagons on finite projective planes of prime order under projective transformations. We are interested in those pentagons in general position, meaning that no three vertices are collinear. We consider those planes which can be constructed from finite fields of prime order, and use algebraic techniques to characterize them by their symmetries. We are able to construct a unique representative for each pentagon class with nontrivial symmetries. We can then leverage this fact to count classes of pentagons in general. We discover that there are (1/10)((p+3)(p-3)+4 …


Relative Equilibria Of Pinwheel Point Mass Systems In A Planar Gravitational Field, Ritwik Gaur Sep 2024

Relative Equilibria Of Pinwheel Point Mass Systems In A Planar Gravitational Field, Ritwik Gaur

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

In this paper, we consider a planar case of the full two-body problem (F2BP) where one body is a pinwheel (four point masses connected via two perpendicular massless rods) and the other is a point mass. Relative equilibria (RE) are defined to be ordered pairs (r, θ) such that there exists a rotating reference frame under which the two bodies are in equilibrium when the distance between the point mass and the center of the pinwheel is r and the angle of the pinwheel within its orbit is θ. We prove that relative equilibria exist for …


A Machine Learning Based Approach For The Identification Of Fake Bills, Tianyang Lu, Hongyang Pang Aug 2024

A Machine Learning Based Approach For The Identification Of Fake Bills, Tianyang Lu, Hongyang Pang

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

Fake or counterfeiting currency, which has been around as long as money has existed, is a major economic problem. Since the US dollar is the most popular form of currency globally, it is the most popular currency to counterfeit. The United States Department of Treasury estimates that between $70 million and $200 million in fake bills are in circulation. The Federal Reserve Bank uses special banknote processing systems to count each bill deposited by the bank and examine them for the possibility of counterfeits. These machines have sensors designed to detect general quality of the bills, including paper type, quality …


Uniformly Distributing Points On A Sphere, Flavio Arrigoni Jul 2024

Uniformly Distributing Points On A Sphere, Flavio Arrigoni

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

In this paper, we are going to present and discuss different procedures for distributing points on a sphere's surface. Furthermore, we will assess their quality with three different distribution tests. The MATHEMATICA package that we created for testing and plotting the points is publicly available.


Modeling Virus Diffusion On Social Media Networks With The Smirq Model, Justin Browning, Arnav Mazumder, Gowri Nanda Jul 2024

Modeling Virus Diffusion On Social Media Networks With The Smirq Model, Justin Browning, Arnav Mazumder, Gowri Nanda

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

As social networking services become more complex and widespread, users become increasingly susceptible to becoming infected with malware and risk their data being compromised. In the United States, it costs the government billions of dollars annually to handle malware attacks. Additionally, computer viruses can be spread through schools, businesses, and individuals’ personal devices and accounts. Malware affecting larger groups of people causes problems with privacy, personal files, and financial security. Thus, we developed the probabilistic SMIRQ (pSMIRQ) model that shows how a virus spreads through a generated network as a way to track and prevent future viruses. Our model is …


Approximating Equilibria In Restricted Games, Jack W. Doyle Jul 2024

Approximating Equilibria In Restricted Games, Jack W. Doyle

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

We consider optimal play in restricted games with linear constraints, and use ϵ-equilibria to find near-equilibrium states in these games. We present three mathematical optimization formulations -- a mixed-integer linear program (MILP), a quadratic program with linear constraints (QP), and a quadratically constrained program (QCP) -- to both approximate and identify these states. The MILP has a short runtime relative to the QP and QCP for large games (a factor 100 faster for |S|=9) and exhibits linear growth in run time, but provides only relatively weak upper bound. The QP and QCP provide a tight bound and the precise value …


Are All Weakly Convex And Decomposable Polyhedral Surfaces Infinitesimally Rigid?, Jilly Kevo Jun 2024

Are All Weakly Convex And Decomposable Polyhedral Surfaces Infinitesimally Rigid?, Jilly Kevo

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

It is conjectured that all decomposable (that is, interior can be triangulated without adding new vertices) polyhedra with vertices in convex position are infinitesimally rigid and only recently has it been shown that this is indeed true under an additional assumption of codecomposability (that is, the interior of the difference between the convex hull and the polyhedron itself can be triangulated without adding new vertices). One major set of tools for studying infinitesimal rigidity happens to be the (negative) Hessian MT of the discrete Hilbert-Einstein functional. Besides its theoretical importance, it provides the necessary machinery to tackle the problem …


Modeling An Infection Outbreak With Quarantine: The Sibkr Model, Mikenna Dew, Amanda Langosch, Theadora Baker-Wallerstein Apr 2024

Modeling An Infection Outbreak With Quarantine: The Sibkr Model, Mikenna Dew, Amanda Langosch, Theadora Baker-Wallerstein

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

Influenza is a respiratory infection that places a substantial burden in the world population each year. In this project, we study and interpret a data set from a flu outbreak in a British boarding school in 1978 with mathematical modeling. First, we propose a generalization of the SIR model based on the quarantine measure in place and establish the long-time behavior of the model. By analyzing the model mathematically, we determine the analytic formulas of the basic reproduction number, the long-time limit of solutions, and the maximum number of infection population. Moreover, we estimate the parameters of the model based …


The Basel Problem And Summing Rational Functions Over Integers, Pranjal Jain Mar 2024

The Basel Problem And Summing Rational Functions Over Integers, Pranjal Jain

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

We provide a general method to evaluate convergent sums of the form ∑_{k∈Z} R(k) where R is a rational function with complex coefficients. The method is entirely elementary and does not require any calculus beyond some standard limits and convergence criteria. It is inspired by a geometric solution to the famous Basel Problem given by Wästlund (2010), so we begin by demonstrating the method on the Basel Problem to serve as a pilot application. We conclude by applying our ideas to prove Euler’s factorisation for sin x which he originally used to solve the Basel Problem.


Wang Tilings In Arbitrary Dimensions, Ian Tassin Mar 2024

Wang Tilings In Arbitrary Dimensions, Ian Tassin

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

This paper makes a new observation about arbitrary dimensional Wang Tilings,
demonstrating that any d -dimensional tile set that can tile periodically along d − 1 axes must be able to tile periodically along all axes.
This work also summarizes work on Wang Tiles up to the present day, including
definitions for various aspects of Wang Tilings such as periodicity and the validity of a tiling. Additionally, we extend the familiar 2D definitions for Wang Tiles and associated properties into arbitrary dimensional spaces. While there has been previous discussion of arbitrary dimensional Wang Tiles in other works, it has been …


Optimizing Buying Strategies In Dominion, Nikolas A. Koutroulakis Feb 2024

Optimizing Buying Strategies In Dominion, Nikolas A. Koutroulakis

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

Dominion is a deck-building card game that simulates competing lords growing their kingdoms. Here we wish to optimize a strategy called Big Money by modeling the game as a Markov chain and utilizing the associated transition matrices to simulate the game. We provide additional analysis of a variation on this strategy known as Big Money Terminal Draw. Our results show that player's should prioritize buying provinces over improving their deck. Furthermore, we derive heuristics to guide a player's decision making for a Big Money Terminal Draw Deck. In particular, we show that buying a second Smithy is always more optimal …


On The Singular Pebbling Number Of A Graph, Harmony R. Morris Jan 2024

On The Singular Pebbling Number Of A Graph, Harmony R. Morris

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

In this paper, we define a new parameter of a connected graph as a spin-off of the pebbling number (which is the smallest t such that every supply of t pebbles can satisfy every demand of one pebble). This new parameter is the singular pebbling number, the smallest t such that a player can be given any configuration of at least t pebbles and any target vertex and can successfully move pebbles so that exactly one pebble ends on the target vertex. We also prove that the singular pebbling number of any graph on 3 or more vertices is equal …