Mathematics Commons^™

Joanne Growney's Poetry-With-Mathematics Blog -- An Appreciation, Gregory E. Coxson

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Now is a good time to work on the boundaries of practice and theory, of art and science. We are seeing a rising tide of interest in these boundaries. Witness the growing Bridges movement, which has been exploring the connections between mathematics and the arts. Similarly, JoAnne Growney's blog, Intersections -- Poetry with Mathematics, explores the connections between mathematics and poetry. Through this review, I aim to give readers a taste of what can be found in Intersections as a way of encouraging others, be they mathematicians, poets, or neither, to visit the blog.

A Definition Of Mathematical Beauty And Its History, Viktor Blåsjö

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

I define mathematical beauty as cognisability and trace the import of this notion through several episodes from the history of mathematics.

Report Supplement: Poetry Folder -- Selections From The Poetry Reading At Joint Mathematics Meetings 2012

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Raphael's School Of Athens: A Theorem In A Painting?, Robert Haas

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Raphael's famous painting The School of Athens includes a geometer, presumably Euclid himself, demonstrating a construction to his fascinated students. But what theorem are they all studying? This article first introduces the painting, and describes Raphael's lifelong friendship with the eminent mathematician Paulus of Middelburg. It then presents several conjectured explanations, notably a theorem about a hexagram (Fichtner), or alternatively that the construction may be architecturally symbolic (Valtieri). The author finally offers his own "null hypothesis": that the scene does not show any actual mathematics, but simply the fascination, excitement, and joy of mathematicians at their work.

Front Matter

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Clark, William B., B. 1797? (Sc 632), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and one scanned page (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 632. Ciphering book kept by William B. Clark of Christian County, Kentucky, 25 August 1813 to 22 August 1814, and intermittently by others to 1819. Other entries include business accounts of Clark, a blacksmith, and family genealogy. The book was bound
with sheets from the Western Eagle, a newspaper printed in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and dated 12 February 1813. It was removed and added to the Special Collections Library. A loose item found in the book, 1834-1846, contains accounts of Clark.

Cearnal, Elijah (Sc 588), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 588. A ciphering book kept by Elijah Cearnal as a student. The name "Patrick Carnall" is also written in the book.

Wilkerson, Brice W. (Sc 586), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 586. A ciphering book kept by Brice W. Wilkerson, of either Simpson County of Logan County, Kentucky, as a student. The name “Stanley Wilkerson” is also noted in the book.

Sutherland, Daniel, 1797-1835 (Sc 589), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 589. Ciphering book of Daniel Sutherland, probably of Casey County, Kentucky, dated 31 March 1825 to 2 December 1825. It was also used for the period from 16 July 1828 to 9 October 1828, and indications are that this record was the work of Uriah S. Sutherland.

Motley, Matthew, 1786-1845 (Sc 591), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 591. Ciphering book, 1800-1801, kept by Matthew Motley of Allen County, Kentucky. Business accounts,1807-1811, of John Motley, father of Matthew, and business accounts, 1805-1823, of Matthew, who was a cabinetmaker, are documented in the back of the book; other notations record the hiring out of enslaved persons, medicinal remedies, and a poetic reaction to the New Madrid earthquake, 1811.

Smith, Alexander (Sc 596), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 596. Ciphering book, 1799, made by Alexander Smith, who was a school master in Prince George County, Virginia. Henry Oiler? states that it is his ciphering book, so perhaps he was a student of
Smith’s. A few business accounts of Oiler’s are recorded.

Perry, Minerva W. (Martin), 1820-1906 (Sc 592), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 592. Ciphering book kept by Minerva W. (Martin) Perry of Clarksville, Johnson County, Arkansas, with the only date noted being that of 28 June 1830. Other names are written in the book, and
birth and death dates of members of a Martin family are listed.

Hamilton, William D. (Sc 590), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 590. Ciphering book, writer unknown, possibly kept during the 1830s. W.D. Hamilton’s name with notes dated in the 1870s appears on several pages of the book and his address is listed as Hamilton, Ohio County, Kentucky.

Halcomb, Warren G. (Sc 587), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 587. Ciphering book of Warren G. Halcomb’s of Caswell County, North Carolina, which he kept from 11 September 1809 to 15 July 1815. Other entries in the book include a few family names and dates, personal business notes, and a recipe for the cure of rheumatism. Loose items, 1840-1854, found in the book concern the slave trade, 1840 and 1849.

The Intersection Between Science And Computer Science Is Almost Empty, Dick Hamlet

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Traditionally, a science such as physics overlaps with mathematics and engineering in a way that has been astonishingly productive. The math provides precise expression for the science, which in turn supplies the engineering with the information it needs to exploit physical phenomena. Computer science naturally wishes to put itself in the center of the traditional picture as a science. Unfortunately, it won't wash. The `science' of programming is pure and simple mathematics, not science. The distinction is more than linguistic, since science and mathematics have quite distinct goals and methods. By making the wrong choice, computer science research has been …

Mathematics And Religion: Our Languages Of Sign And Symbol (Book Review), Calvin Jongsma

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Reviewed Title: Mathematics and Religion: Our Languages of Sign and Symbol by Javier Leach. West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press, 2010, 188 pages. ISBN 9781599471495.

Quantitative Patterns Of Stylistic Influence In The Evolution Of Literature, James M. Hughes, Nicholas J. Foti, David C. Krakauer, Daniel N. Rockmore

Dartmouth Scholarship

Literature is a form of expression whose temporal structure, both in content and style, provides a historical record of the evolution of culture. In this work we take on a quantitative analysis of literary style and conduct the first large-scale temporal stylometric study of literature by using the vast holdings in the Project Gutenberg Digital Library corpus. We find temporal stylistic localization among authors through the analysis of the similarity structure in feature vectors derived from content-free word usage, nonhomogeneous decay rates of stylistic influence, and an accelerating rate of decay of influence among modern authors. Within a given time …

On Algorithmic Fractional Packings Of Hypergraphs, Jill Dizona

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Let F₀ be a fixed k-uniform hypergraph, and let H be a given k-uniform hypergraph on n vertices. An F₀-packing of H is a family F of edge-disjoint copies of F₀ which are subhypergraphs in H. Let n_F0(H) denote the maximum size |F| of an F₀-packing F of H. It is well-known that computing n_F0(H) is NP-hard for nearly any choice of F₀.

In this thesis, we consider the special case when F₀ is a linear hypergraph, that is, when no two edges …

Wronskian, Grammian And Pfaffian Solutions To Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations, Alrazi Abdeljabbar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is significantly important to search for exact soliton solutions to nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) of mathematical physics. Transforming nonlinear PDEs into bilinear forms using the Hirota differential operators enables us to apply the Wronskian and Pfaffian techniques to search for exact solutions for a (3+1)-dimensional generalized Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) equation with not only constant coefficients but also variable coefficients under a certain constraint

(u_t + α ₁(t)u_xxy + 3α ₂(t)u_xu_y)_x +α ₃ (t)u_ty -α ₄(t)u_zz + α ₅(t)(u_x + α ₃(t)u_y) = …

Pfaffian And Wronskian Solutions To Generalized Integrable Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations, Magdy Asaad

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this work is to use the Pfaffian technique, along with the Hirota bilinear method to construct different classes of exact solutions to various of generalized integrable nonlinear partial differential equations. Solitons are among the most beneficial solutions for science and technology, from ocean waves to transmission of information through optical fibers or energy transport along protein molecules. The existence of multi-solitons, especially three-soliton solutions, is essential for information technology: it makes possible undisturbed simultaneous propagation of many pulses in both directions.

The derivation and solutions of integrable nonlinear partial differential equations in two spatial dimensions have been …

Team-Teaching Experiences Of A Mathematician And A Mathematics Teacher Educator: An Interpretative Phenomenological Case Study, Sarah K. Bleiler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, experts and organizations involved in mathematics education have emphasized the importance of collaboration between mathematicians and mathematics teacher educators as a means of improving the professional preparation of mathematics teachers. While several such collaborative endeavors have been documented in the extant literature, most research reports have focused on the products, rather than the process, of collaboration. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological case study is to gain an understanding of the lived experiences of a mathematician and a mathematics teacher educator as they engaged in a team-teaching collaboration within the context of prospective secondary mathematics teacher preparation. …

Self-Assembly Of Self-Similar Structures By Active Tiles, Daria Karpenko

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The natural capacity of DNA for molecular self-assembly has already been exploited to create DNA based tiles which can self-assemble into nano-scale arrays and carry out nano-scale computation. Thus far, however, all such self-assembly has been passive, in the sense that the binding capacities of a tile are never altered throughout the assembly. The idea of active tiles, tiles that can send signals to each other and activate latent binding sites, has been proposed but never incorporated into a formal model. Here, I present an extension of the existent abstract tile assembly model by defining an active tile assembly and …

Undergraduate Students' Self-Reported Use Of Mathematics Textbooks, Aaron Weinberg, Emilie Wiesner, Bret Benesh, Timothy Boester

Mathematics Faculty Publications

Textbooks play an important role in undergraduate mathematics courses and have the potential to impact student learning. However, there have been few studies that describe students' textbook use in detail. In this study, 1156 undergraduate students in introductory mathematics classes were surveyed, and asked to describe how they used their textbook. The results indicate that students tend to use examples, instead of the expository text, to build their mathematical understanding, which instructors may view as problematic. This way of using the textbook may be the result of the textbook structure itself, as well as students' beliefs about reading and the …

From Velocities To Fluxions, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

"Though the De Methodis results, for its essential structure and content, from a re-elaboration of a previous unfinished treatise composed in the Fall of 1666—now known, after Whiteside, as The October 1666 tract on fluxions ([22], I, pp. 400-448)—, the introduction of the term ‘fluxion’ goes together with an important conceptual change concerned with Newton’s understanding of his own achievements. I shall argue that this change marks a crucial step in the origins of analysis, conceived as an autonomous mathematical theory."

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

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.

Logarithmic Spirals And Projective Geometry In M.C. Escher's "Path Of Life Iii", Heidi Burgiel, Matthew Salomone

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

M.C. Escher's use of dilation symmetry in Path of Life III gives rise to a pattern of logarithmic spirals and an oddly ambiguous sense of depth.

An Investigation Of Air Resistance On Projectile Motion From Aristotle To Euler, Michael Edward Clayton

Theses Digitization Project

From antiquity until today, mathematicians have tried to develop a theory of projectile motion. The development of a theory of projectile motion began with just a basic observation of motion by the great Greek mathematician Aristotle and has evolved to become more than conjecture or hypothesis, but a well developed science of prediciting the flight and accuracy of a projectile in motion. This thesis traces the development of the theory of projectile motion from Greek antiquity to about the mid 1700's.

Ua94/6/9 Student / Alumni Personal Papers Wku Lena Annis, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Lena Annis. Series includes term papers and subject notebooks for English, Mathematics, Geography and Education. Also included are Class of 1931 reunion materials.

Volume 04, Matt Szemborski, Phillip Van Ness, Sarah Croughwell, Sarah Mayfield, Alyssa Strackbein, Marley Kimmel, Stephanie Skipp, Jamie Yurasits, Katherine Taggart, Alex Leonhart, Kristen Rawls, Andrew Armes, Amanda Haymens, Allison Paqlowski, Erica May, Stephanie Lane, Luke Acree, Cassandra L. Wilson, Stephanie Pishock, Erica Hopson, K. Juston Osborne, Katheryn Grayson, Kyle Fowlkes, Jessica Cox, Kaity Byrum, John-Harwood Scott, Ashley Johnson, Samantha Hockman, Emily Staskiel, Nancy Macdonald, R. Kruger Bressin, Benjamin P. Bilodeau, Andrea Irby, Kristin Macquarrie, Sarah Bietsch, Elizabeth Bednar

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Please note that part of pages 92-95 are redacted, in the digital copy, due to a misprint of the original printed article.

Introduction from Dean Dr. Charles Ross

The Internal Other: Transculturation and Postcolonial Magical Realism in Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children by Matt Szemborski

Photography by Phillip Van Ness

Photography “Waterfall” by Sarah Croughwell

Romancing the Bite: Statistical Analysis of Young Adult Vampire Novels by Sarah Mayfield

Photography by Alyssa Strackbein

Photography by Marley Kimmel

Wine and Society in the Viceroyalty of Peru by Stephanie Skipp

Analysis of Claud Monet’s Impression, Sunrise by Jamie Yurasits

Exploring Meaning: The Lindisfarne Gospels by …