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Full-Text Articles in Mathematics

Analysis Of Sat And Isat Scores For Madison School District In Rexburg, Idaho, Holly Dawn Palmer May 2020

Analysis Of Sat And Isat Scores For Madison School District In Rexburg, Idaho, Holly Dawn Palmer

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Testing is an integral part of measuring education. If used properly SAT scores can be compared across the nation, and statewide tests can compare different school districts to each other if done properly to avoid certain pitfalls (Fetler, 1991). However, if tests do not have a significant impact on a student, their motivation to take the test will be low and test quality cannot be assumed. When the state funds two separate tests for their students but only one has a significant impact on the student, how should the scores for each test be used, and is it okay to …


The Two Types Of Society: Computationally Revealing Recurrent Social Formations And Their Evolutionary Trajectories, Lux Miranda May 2020

The Two Types Of Society: Computationally Revealing Recurrent Social Formations And Their Evolutionary Trajectories, Lux Miranda

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Comparative social science has a long history of attempts to classify societies and cultures in terms of shared characteristics. However, only recently has it become feasible to conduct quantitative analysis of large historical datasets to mathematically approach the study of social complexity and classify shared societal characteristics. Such methods have the potential to identify recurrent social formations in human societies and contribute to social evolutionary theory. However, in order to achieve this potential, repeated studies are needed to assess the robustness of results to changing methods and data sets. Using an improved derivative of the Seshat: Global History Databank, we …


Demystification Of Graph And Information Entropy, Bryce Frederickson May 2020

Demystification Of Graph And Information Entropy, Bryce Frederickson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Shannon entropy is an information-theoretic measure of unpredictability in probabilistic models. Recently, it has been used to form a tool, called the von Neumann entropy, to study quantum mechanics and network flows by appealing to algebraic properties of graph matrices. But still, little is known about what the von Neumann entropy says about the combinatorial structure of the graphs themselves. This paper gives a new formulation of the von Neumann entropy that describes it as a rate at which random movement settles down in a graph. At the same time, this new perspective gives rise to a generalization of von …