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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

The Pope's Rhinoceros And Quantum Mechanics, Michael Gulas Apr 2018

The Pope's Rhinoceros And Quantum Mechanics, Michael Gulas

Honors Projects

In this project, I unravel various mathematical milestones and relate them to the human experience. I show and explain the solution to the Tautochrone, a popular variation on the Brachistochrone, which details a major battle between Leibniz and Newton for the title of inventor of Calculus. One way to solve the Tautochrone is using Laplace Transforms; in this project I expound on common functions that get transformed and how those can be used to solve the Tautochrone. I then connect the solution of the Tautochrone to clock making. From this understanding of clocks, I examine mankind’s understanding of time and …


The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Mathematics, Spring 2017, Sandy Avila Apr 2018

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Mathematics, Spring 2017, Sandy Avila

Sandy Avila

No abstract provided.


Simulations And Queueing Theory: The Effects Of Randomly Bypassing Security, Emily Ortmann Apr 2018

Simulations And Queueing Theory: The Effects Of Randomly Bypassing Security, Emily Ortmann

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

We discuss queueing theory in the setting of airport security and customs. By developing queueing simulations based on mathematical models, we explore a variety of questions related to optimal queue design with respect to efficiency, feasibility, priority, and other prescribed/variable constraints.


Simulations And Queueing Theory: The Effects Of Priority And Vip Thresholds, Laura Schuck Apr 2018

Simulations And Queueing Theory: The Effects Of Priority And Vip Thresholds, Laura Schuck

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Everyone has experienced waiting in lines, whether it is at the airport, the grocery store, or somewhere in-between. By developing queueing simulations based on mathematical models of airport security and customs, we explore a variety of questions related to optimal queue design with respect to efficiency, feasibility, priority, and other prescribed/variable constraints.


A Mathematical Analysis Of The Game Of Chess, John C. White Apr 2018

A Mathematical Analysis Of The Game Of Chess, John C. White

Selected Honors Theses

This paper analyzes chess through the lens of mathematics. Chess is a complex yet easy to understand game. Can mathematics be used to perfect a player’s skills? The work of Ernst Zermelo shows that one player should be able to force a win or force a draw. The work of Shannon and Hardy demonstrates the complexities of the game. Combinatorics, probability, and some chess puzzles are used to better understand the game. A computer program is used to test a hypothesis regarding chess strategy. Through the use of this program, we see that it is detrimental to be the first …


Runs Of Identical Outcomes In A Sequence Of Bernoulli Trials, Matthew Riggle Apr 2018

Runs Of Identical Outcomes In A Sequence Of Bernoulli Trials, Matthew Riggle

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Bernoulli distribution is a basic, well-studied distribution in probability. In this thesis, we will consider repeated Bernoulli trials in order to study runs of identical outcomes. More formally, for t ∈ N, we let Xt ∼ Bernoulli(p), where p is the probability of success, q = 1 − p is the probability of failure, and all Xt are independent. Then Xt gives the outcome of the tth trial, which is 1 for success or 0 for failure. For n, m ∈ N, we define Tn to be the number of trials needed to first observe n …


Modeling Multimodal Failure Effects Of Complex Systems Using Polyweibull Distribution, Daniel A. Timme Mar 2018

Modeling Multimodal Failure Effects Of Complex Systems Using Polyweibull Distribution, Daniel A. Timme

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense (DoD) enlists multiple complex systems across each of their departments. Between the aging systems going through an overhaul and emerging new systems, quality assurance to complete the mission and secure the nation‘s objectives is an absolute necessity. The U.S. Air Force‘s increased interest in Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) and the Space Warfighting domain are current examples of complex systems that must maintain high reliability and sustainability in order to complete missions moving forward. DoD systems continue to grow in complexity with an increasing number of components and parts in more complex arrangements. Bathtub-shaped hazard functions arise …


Motion Planning For Educational Robots, Ronald I. Greenberg, Jeffery M. Karp Jan 2018

Motion Planning For Educational Robots, Ronald I. Greenberg, Jeffery M. Karp

Ronald Greenberg

This paper considers various simple ways of navigating in a 2-dimensional territory with a two-wheeled robot of a type typical in educational robotics. We determine shortest paths under various modes of operation and compare.


Sports Analytics With Computer Vision, Colby T. Jeffries Jan 2018

Sports Analytics With Computer Vision, Colby T. Jeffries

Senior Independent Study Theses

Computer vision in sports analytics is a relatively new development. With multi-million dollar systems like STATS’s SportVu, professional basketball teams are able to collect extremely fine-detailed data better than ever before. This concept can be scaled down to provide similar statistics collection to college and high school basketball teams. Here we investigate the creation of such a system using open-source technologies and less expensive hardware. In addition, using a similar technology, we examine basketball free throws to see whether a shooter’s form has a specific relationship to a shot’s outcome. A system that learns this relationship could be used to …


Inclusion Of Blocking Power For A Complete Voting Power Analysis In The Imf, Shiwani Varal Jan 2018

Inclusion Of Blocking Power For A Complete Voting Power Analysis In The Imf, Shiwani Varal

Senior Independent Study Theses

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) calculates the voting power of a country by dividing the total of one member's votes by the total of all members' votes. This method of calculating the power of a state judges power as voting weight. However, voting weights are the total number of votes a country has in an institution, while voting power is the influence a country has on a policy decision. A better approach to calculate this voting power within an institution is by using voting power indices. However, literature only calculates the winning power, while voting power is defined as the …


New Trends In Neutrosophic Theory And Applications Volume Ii, Florentin Smarandache, Surapati Pramanik Jan 2018

New Trends In Neutrosophic Theory And Applications Volume Ii, Florentin Smarandache, Surapati Pramanik

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Neutrosophic set has been derived from a new branch of philosophy, namely Neutrosophy. Neutrosophic set is capable of dealing with uncertainty, indeterminacy and inconsistent information. Neutrosophic set approaches are suitable to modeling problems with uncertainty, indeterminacy and inconsistent information in which human knowledge is necessary, and human evaluation is needed. Neutrosophic set theory was proposed in 1998 by Florentin Smarandache, who also developed the concept of single valued neutrosophic set, oriented towards real world scientific and engineering applications. Since then, the single valued neutrosophic set theory has been extensively studied in books and monographs introducing neutrosophic sets and its applications, …