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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

The Calculus Of Variations, Erin Whitney Jun 2012

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 …


Book Review: Philosophy Of Science After Feminism By Janet Kourany, Gizem Karaali Feb 2012

Book Review: Philosophy Of Science After Feminism By Janet Kourany, Gizem Karaali

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

Janet Kourany’s book is a strange one: published by Oxford University Press (as a part of its Studies in Feminist Philosophy series), it is an academically oriented book, but reading it, you sense that this is not yet another theoretical monograph. For Kourany has her ax to grind, and more importantly she has a program to promote. The program is for philosophers of science and is motivated and encouraged by the amazing work done in the past few decades by feminist scientists and feminist scholars of science, technology, and society. In the following I will try to explain why I …


Prove It!, Kenny W. Moran Jan 2012

Prove It!, Kenny W. Moran

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

A dialogue between a mathematics professor, Frank, and his daughter, Sarah, a mathematical savant with a powerful mathematical intuition. Sarah's intuition allows her to stumble into some famous theorems from number theory, but her lack of academic mathematical background makes it difficult for her to understand Frank's insistence on the value of proof and formality.