Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Development (2)
- Mathematics (2)
- Accessed (1)
- Activism (1)
- Applications (1)
-
- Aritmetic triangle (1)
- Calcululs (1)
- Cellular automation (1)
- China (1)
- Classics (1)
- Climate change (1)
- Cliodynamics (1)
- Composition (1)
- Computer modeling (1)
- Contamination (1)
- Cubic (1)
- Curie (1)
- Data mining (1)
- Design (1)
- Effects (1)
- End (1)
- Energiewende (1)
- Energy (1)
- Energy subsidies (1)
- Enlightenment (1)
- Equations (1)
- Existential threats (1)
- French (1)
- Fun (1)
- Functions (1)
Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Impact Of The Nuclear Phase-Out In Germany: Examining The Costs And Benefits Of Aggresive Energy Policy In Relation To A Sustainable Future, David M. Olio
Honors Theses
The German nuclear phase-out legislation of 2011 will cause substantial changes in the country's energy mix, energy generation and electricity grid demands. The phase-out exists as part of the Energiewende, or energy transition, occurring in Germany where renewable energy has been subsidized to replace the share of nuclear energy, which is decreasing annually and moving towards a complete phase-out in 2022. This paper will analyze the benefits and costs of Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power. First, it will explore the dynamic history of German energy policy and discuss how a history of anti-nuclear sentiments led to the nuclear …
Accurately Simulating The Battle Of Thermopylae To Analyze "What If" Scenarios, Josh Wasserman
Accurately Simulating The Battle Of Thermopylae To Analyze "What If" Scenarios, Josh Wasserman
Honors Theses
The Battle of Thermopylae (480 BCE) was a last ditch effort to stall the Persian army as it marched south toward Athens. Led by Leonidas and his personal guard of 300 Spartans, a citizen army of Greeks was able to delay a Persian army of over 100,000 soldiers at the town of Thermopylae for several days. Although the Greeks were ultimately defeated at Thermopylae, the battle provided enough time for the Greek states to regroup and plan a counter attack, eventually defeating the invading Persians. This battle was crucial not only for the preservation of Greek independence, but also the …
Multi-Agent Simulation Of The Battle Of Ankara, 1402, Ruili Tang
Multi-Agent Simulation Of The Battle Of Ankara, 1402, Ruili Tang
Honors Theses
In 1402, at the north of city Ankara, Turkey, a battle between Ottoman Empire and Tamerlane Empire decided the fate of Europe and Asia. Although historians largely agree on the general battle procedure, the details are still open to dispute. Several factors may have contributed to the Ottoman defeat, such as the overwhelming size of Tamerlanes army, poisoned water, the tactical formations of the military units, and betrayal by the Tartar cavalry in the Ottoman left wing. The approach is divided into two stages: the simulation stage, which provides data to analyze the complex interactions of autonomous agents, and the …
Primality Proving Based On Eisenstein Integers, Miaoqing Jia
Primality Proving Based On Eisenstein Integers, Miaoqing Jia
Honors Theses
According to the Berrizbeitia theorem, a highly efficient method for certifying the primality of an integer N ≡ 1 (mod 3) can be created based on pseudocubes in the ordinary integers Z. In 2010, Williams and Wooding moved this method into the Eisenstein integers Z[ω] and defined a new term, Eisenstein pseudocubes. By using a precomputed table of Eisenstein pseudocubes, they created a new algorithm in this context to prove primality of integers N ≡ 1 (mod 3) in a shorter period of time. We will look at the Eisenstein pseudocubes and analyze how this new algorithm works with the …
Reading Between The Lines: Verifying Mathematical Language, Tristan Johnson
Reading Between The Lines: Verifying Mathematical Language, Tristan Johnson
Honors Theses
A great deal of work has been done on automatically generating automated proofs of formal statements. However, these systems tend to focus on logic-oriented statements and tactics as well as generating proofs in formal language. This project examines proofs written in natural language under a more general scope of mathematics. Furthermore, rather than attempting to generate natural language proofs for the purpose of solving problems, we automatically verify human-written proofs in natural language. To accomplish this, elements of discourse parsing, semantic interpretation, and application of an automated theorem prover are implemented.
Blending Two Automatic Playlist Generation Algorithms, James Curbow
Blending Two Automatic Playlist Generation Algorithms, James Curbow
Honors Theses
We blend two existing automatic playlist generation algorithms. One algorithm is built to smoothly transition between a start song and an end song (Start-End). The other infers song similarity based on adjacent occurrences in expertly authored streams (EAS). First, we seek to establish the effectiveness of the Start-End algorithm using the EAS algorithm to determine song similarity, then we propose two playlist generation algorithms of our own: the Unbiased Random Walk (URW) and the Biased Random Walk (BRW). Like the Start-End algorithm, both the URW algorithm and BRW algorithm transition between a start song and an end song; however, issues …
Computing The (Un)Computable: A Computationally-Augmented Perspective On The Yasukuni Shrine Controversy, Ryan Muther
Computing The (Un)Computable: A Computationally-Augmented Perspective On The Yasukuni Shrine Controversy, Ryan Muther
Honors Theses
Computational methods have been used with increasing frequency in the social sciences and humanities, due to the availability of digital sources and computing power to study everything from changes in the meanings of words in Latin texts to how knowledge was categorized in eighteen century encyclopedias. Recent trends in the fields of digital humanities and computational social science include statistical methods like machine learning, requiring large pre-tagged and annotated sets of documents which in turn necessitates a great deal of prior work to create data to use with such methods. This reliance on large corpora of annotated data limits the …
La Vie De Blaise Pascal Et Son Heritage Mathématique Et Philosophique, Katherine Weeks
La Vie De Blaise Pascal Et Son Heritage Mathématique Et Philosophique, Katherine Weeks
Honors Theses
This paper will discuss the life of Blaise Pascal, his philosophy and mathematics. We will first study the life of Pascal, by looking at his family, the success of his family, and how he was educated. We will then move onto study the history of the arithmetic triangle, which eventually becomes known as Pascal’s Triangle. Finally we will look at Pascal’s Pensées. Finally we will conclude that Pascal is not only known for Pascal’s Triangle but also his legacy in the Philosophic world. It becomes clear that Pascal would not have been the mathematician he was without the philosophy, and …
Cellular Automata And Music: A New Representation, Richard French
Cellular Automata And Music: A New Representation, Richard French
Honors Theses
For millenia, we’ve thought of musical composition as a purely human activity. However, we once also thought of an activity like chess to be purely human, but Deep Blue was able to defeat Kasparov in 1995 all the same. Could there perhaps be some tool or algorithm for musical composition that can replicate to some extent what human beings can do with music? This project explores this idea through the use of a tool called a cellular automaton. A cellular automaton is a grid space with a finite number of states for each of the ”cells” or ”squares” where a …
Anti-Nuclear Activism And The Past, Present And Future Of United States Nuclear Energy Policy, Isabel C. Zellweger
Anti-Nuclear Activism And The Past, Present And Future Of United States Nuclear Energy Policy, Isabel C. Zellweger
Honors Theses
Nuclear power has had a long and controversial history leading people to have many different views on the topic. Even though nuclear power does provide the nation with a significant portion of its electricity, many still fear its risks, especially after the events at Fukushima last spring. This thesis explores how public opinion, current events, and anti-nuclear activism have shaped nuclear power in America today. After reviewing the literature on nuclear energy in the United States, I discuss the past and current state of United States nuclear energy policy, and then describe changing American attitudes toward nuclear power over time. …
The Calculus Of Variations, Erin Whitney
The Calculus Of Variations, Erin Whitney
Honors Theses
The Calculus of Variations is a highly applicable and advancing field. My thesis has only scraped the top of the applications and theoretical work that is possible within this branch of mathematics. To summarize, we began by exploring a general problem common to this field, finding the geodesic be-tween two given points. We then went on to define and explore terms and concepts needed to further delve into the subject matter. In Chapter 2, we examined a special set of smooth functions, inspired by the Calabi extremal metric, and used some general theory of convex functions in order to de-termine …
Gaming Classics: The Bard, Thomas Defina
Gaming Classics: The Bard, Thomas Defina
Honors Theses
Technological advancement is a driving influence in the development of today’s culture. Upon the creation of electronic videogames, gaming has allowed players to not only experience new ideas previously unheard of in a gaming medium, but gaming is easily accessible to people throughout the world. Academia has begun studying games, checking the positive and negative effects videogames have on people. Might one of these positive effects be educational? If it was, college professors might use the game to help supplement their classes. The question this paper will be focused on is as follows: using the classics as our field of …
The History Of Mining In Cerro De Pasco And Heavy Metal Deposition In Lake Junin Peru, Erin M. Delman
The History Of Mining In Cerro De Pasco And Heavy Metal Deposition In Lake Junin Peru, Erin M. Delman
Honors Theses
Lake Junín covers 530-km2 and is located at 4,430-m in an intermontane basin between the eastern and western cordillera of the central Peruvian Andes. The lake sits between the large sulfide mining districts of La Oroya and Cerro de Pasco. Designated a National Reserve in 1974, Lake Junín drains northward to the Río San Juan, which joins the Río Mantaro within several kilometers of the lake. Dam construction by the Cerro de Pasco Copper Corporation on the Río Mantaro in 1932 caused the Río San Juan, the principal river draining Cerro de Pasco, to back up into the lake. Using …
Trop Belles Pour La Science: A Brief Account Of French Female Scientists, Ramsey Steiner
Trop Belles Pour La Science: A Brief Account Of French Female Scientists, Ramsey Steiner
Honors Theses
France has a unique history of French women scientists dating all the way back to the antiquity. This account of French women scientists focuses on celebrated individuals and their impact on French culture and the Western world. The contributions of Madame du Châtelet, Madame Lavoisier, Marie Curie and Irène Joliot-Curie will be discussed by beginning with femmes savantes of the Enlightenment and finishing with France’s most famous scientific family, the Curie. This account will conclude with a discussion of French women scientists today and the struggles they continue to face.
Evolution Of Flow In Games, Paul J. Tunison
Evolution Of Flow In Games, Paul J. Tunison
Honors Theses
Every one wants to play a fun game, but ”fun” is a subjective quality. Flow, a psychological theory to define what ”fun” is, states that, for an activity to be considered fun, the chal-lenge it presents must correlate with that participant’s abilities such that the activity is neither too easy or too difficult. One of the biggest problems for game designers is balancing the difficulty of its content in such a way that it appeals to the largest audience possible. In order to broaden audiences, de-velopers need to invest effort into creating numerous, discrete balances that are aligned to varying …