Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Arts and Humanities (25)
- Applied Mathematics (18)
- Education (12)
- Science and Mathematics Education (9)
- History (8)
-
- Statistics and Probability (8)
- Creative Writing (6)
- History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (6)
- Algebra (5)
- Computer Sciences (5)
- Discrete Mathematics and Combinatorics (5)
- Geometry and Topology (5)
- Other Applied Mathematics (5)
- Poetry (5)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (5)
- Analysis (4)
- Numerical Analysis and Computation (4)
- Algebraic Geometry (3)
- Applied Statistics (3)
- Physics (3)
- Teacher Education and Professional Development (3)
- Data Science (2)
- Dynamic Systems (2)
- Dynamical Systems (2)
- Gender and Sexuality (2)
- Logic and Foundations (2)
- Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing (2)
- Keyword
-
- Mathematics (13)
- Game theory (7)
- Poetry (4)
- Statistics (4)
- Games (3)
-
- Humanistic mathematics (3)
- Poem (3)
- Strategy (3)
- Archimedes (2)
- Chaos Theory (2)
- Creativity (2)
- Gender (2)
- Gerrymandering (2)
- Liberal arts mathematics (2)
- Love (2)
- Math (2)
- Mathematical Explorations (2)
- Mathematics education (2)
- Music (2)
- Social networks (2)
- Voting (2)
- 05B15 (1)
- 05C57 Games on graphs (1)
- 14C20 Divisors linear systems invertible sheaves (1)
- 14H50 (1)
- 14L30 Group actions on varieties or schemes (quotients) (1)
- 14T05 (1)
- 14T05 Tropical geometry (1)
- 31 Potential Theory (1)
- 34 Ordinary Differential Equations (1)
- Publication Year
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 31 - 60 of 91
Full-Text Articles in Other Mathematics
Mathematics Versus Statistics, Mindy B. Capaldi
Mathematics Versus Statistics, Mindy B. Capaldi
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Mathematics and statistics are both important and useful subjects, but the former has maintained prominence in the American education system. On the other hand, statistics is more prevalent in daily life and is an increasingly marketable subject to know. This article gives a personal history of one mathematician’s bumpy road to learning and teaching statistics. Additionally, arguments for how and why to include statistics in the K-12 and college curricula are provided.
Radial Solutions To Semipositone Dirichlet Problems, Ethan Sargent
Radial Solutions To Semipositone Dirichlet Problems, Ethan Sargent
HMC Senior Theses
We study a Dirichlet problem, investigating existence and uniqueness for semipositone and superlinear nonlinearities. We make use of Pohozaev identities, energy arguments, and bifurcation from a simple eigenvalue.
Don't Ask The Baby To Do Calculus: Thoughts From An Early-Career Math Mama, Caitlin Krul
Don't Ask The Baby To Do Calculus: Thoughts From An Early-Career Math Mama, Caitlin Krul
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
I very recently became a math mama. In my desperate search for patterns and structure in those first few weeks, my husband told me, "She's only three weeks old; we can't expect her to be doing calculus homework." I suppose he was right. I am working towards tenure and finding a new balance between teaching and family, all while trying to not lose sight of who I am. My personal challenges range from the logistics of being a nursing mother in a shared office to feelings of being seen as less adequate in my job if I present myself as …
Inquiry Based Learning: A Teaching And Parenting Opportunity, Aliza Steurer
Inquiry Based Learning: A Teaching And Parenting Opportunity, Aliza Steurer
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
In this paper, I discuss what appears to be a new perspective on inquiry based learning (IBL) by describing its parallels with parenting. IBL is a student-centered learning method involving collaborative work on carefully sequenced exercises, oral and written communication of solutions, and peer review. Students create their own knowledge and present their ideas, and the instructor acts as a facilitator. The parallels between IBL and parenting include a growth mindset, emphasizing process over outcome, learning from mistakes, learning how to get unstuck, and deconstructing tasks. IBL and parenting also involve similar social interactions, such as responding to difficult questions …
Gradual Homicide, Jack Ritter
Gradual Homicide, Jack Ritter
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
A mathematical poem about asymptotic treachery.
On The Landscape Of Random Tropical Polynomials, Christopher Hoyt
On The Landscape Of Random Tropical Polynomials, Christopher Hoyt
HMC Senior Theses
Tropical polynomials are similar to classical polynomials, however addition and multiplication are replaced with tropical addition (minimums) and tropical multiplication (addition). Within this new construction, polynomials become piecewise linear curves with interesting behavior. All tropical polynomials are piecewise linear curves, and each linear component uniquely corresponds to a particular monomial. In addition, certain monomial in the tropical polynomial can be trivial due to the fact that tropical addition is the minimum operator. Therefore, it makes sense to consider a graph of connectivity of the monomials for any given tropical polynomial. We investigate tropical polynomials where all coefficients are chosen from …
Decoding Book Barcode Images, Yizhou Tao
Decoding Book Barcode Images, Yizhou Tao
CMC Senior Theses
This thesis investigated a method of barcode reconstruction to address the recovery of a blurred and convoluted one-dimensional barcode. There are a lot of types of barcodes used today, such as Code 39, Code 93, Code 128, etc. Our algorithm applies to the universal barcode, EAN 13. We extend the methodologies proposed by Iwen et al. (2013) in the journal article "A Symbol-Based Algorithm for Decoding barcodes." The algorithm proposed in the paper requires a signal measured by a laser scanner as an input. The observed signal is modeled as a true signal corrupted by a Gaussian convolution, additional noises, …
Disciple, Jessica K. Sklar
Disciple, Jessica K. Sklar
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
This is a love poem for mathematics.
Discrete And Continuous: A Fundamental Dichotomy In Mathematics, James Franklin
Discrete And Continuous: A Fundamental Dichotomy In Mathematics, James Franklin
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
The distinction between the discrete and the continuous lies at the heart of mathematics. Discrete mathematics (arithmetic, algebra, combinatorics, graph theory, cryptography, logic) has a set of concepts, techniques, and application areas largely distinct from continuous mathematics (traditional geometry, calculus, most of functional analysis, differential equations, topology). The interaction between the two – for example in computer models of continuous systems such as fluid flow – is a central issue in the applicable mathematics of the last hundred years. This article explains the distinction and why it has proved to be one of the great organizing themes of mathematics.
Some Thoughts On The Epicurean Critique Of Mathematics, Michael Aristidou
Some Thoughts On The Epicurean Critique Of Mathematics, Michael Aristidou
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
In this paper, we give a comprehensive summary of the discussion on the Epicurean critique of mathematics and in particular of Euclid's geometry. We examine the methodological critique of the Epicureans on mathematics and we assess whether a 'mathematical atomism' was proposed, and its implications. Finally, we examine the Epicurean philosophical stance on mathematics and evaluate whether it was on target or not.
Some Comments On Multiple Discovery In Mathematics, Robin W. Whitty
Some Comments On Multiple Discovery In Mathematics, Robin W. Whitty
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Among perhaps many things common to Kuratowski's Theorem in graph theory, Reidemeister's Theorem in topology, and Cook's Theorem in theoretical computer science is this: all belong to the phenomenon of simultaneous discovery in mathematics. We are interested to know whether this phenomenon, and its close cousin repeated discovery, give rise to meaningful questions regarding causes, trends, categories, etc. With this in view we unearth many more examples, find some tenuous connections and draw some tentative conclusions.
Combinatorial Polynomial Hirsch Conjecture, Sam Miller
Combinatorial Polynomial Hirsch Conjecture, Sam Miller
HMC Senior Theses
The Hirsch Conjecture states that for a d-dimensional polytope with n facets, the diameter of the graph of the polytope is at most n-d. This conjecture was disproven in 2010 by Francisco Santos Leal. However, a polynomial bound in n and d on the diameter of a polytope may still exist. Finding a polynomial bound would provide a worst-case scenario runtime for the Simplex Method of Linear Programming. However working only with polytopes in higher dimensions can prove challenging, so other approaches are welcome. There are many equivalent formulations of the Hirsch Conjecture, one of which is the …
The Document Similarity Network: A Novel Technique For Visualizing Relationships In Text Corpora, Dylan Baker
The Document Similarity Network: A Novel Technique For Visualizing Relationships In Text Corpora, Dylan Baker
HMC Senior Theses
With the abundance of written information available online, it is useful to be able to automatically synthesize and extract meaningful information from text corpora. We present a unique method for visualizing relationships between documents in a text corpus. By using Latent Dirichlet Allocation to extract topics from the corpus, we create a graph whose nodes represent individual documents and whose edge weights indicate the distance between topic distributions in documents. These edge lengths are then scaled using multidimensional scaling techniques, such that more similar documents are clustered together. Applying this method to several datasets, we demonstrate that these graphs are …
Sudoku Variants On The Torus, Kira A. Wyld
Sudoku Variants On The Torus, Kira A. Wyld
HMC Senior Theses
This paper examines the mathematical properties of Sudoku puzzles defined on a Torus. We seek to answer the questions for these variants that have been explored for the traditional Sudoku. We do this process with two such embeddings. The end result of this paper is a deeper mathematical understanding of logic puzzles of this type, as well as a fun new puzzle which could be played.
Emergence And Complexity In Music, Zoe Tucker
Emergence And Complexity In Music, Zoe Tucker
HMC Senior Theses
How can we apply mathematical notions of complexity and emergence to music, and how can these mathematical ideas then inspire new musical works? Using Steve Reich's Clapping Music as a starting point, we look for emergent patterns in music by considering cases where a piece's complexity is significantly different from the total complexity of each of the individual parts. Definitions of complexity inspired by information theory, data compression, and musical practice are considered. We also consider the number of distinct musical pieces that could be composed in the same manner as Clapping Music. Finally, we present a new musical …
Triple Non-Negative Matrix Factorization Technique For Sentiment Analysis And Topic Modeling, Alexander A. Waggoner
Triple Non-Negative Matrix Factorization Technique For Sentiment Analysis And Topic Modeling, Alexander A. Waggoner
CMC Senior Theses
Topic modeling refers to the process of algorithmically sorting documents into categories based on some common relationship between the documents. This common relationship between the documents is considered the “topic” of the documents. Sentiment analysis refers to the process of algorithmically sorting a document into a positive or negative category depending whether this document expresses a positive or negative opinion on its respective topic. In this paper, I consider the open problem of document classification into a topic category, as well as a sentiment category. This has a direct application to the retail industry where companies may want to scour …
The Greatest Integer Function, Alanna Rae
The Greatest Integer Function, Alanna Rae
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
No abstract provided.
What If?: Mathematics, Creative Writing, And Play, Emily Clader
What If?: Mathematics, Creative Writing, And Play, Emily Clader
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Mathematics can inform creative writing by suggesting structures for it to follow, as well as by providing the imaginative impetus for common rules to be broken. In a workshop co-taught by the author, a class of sixth-grade students explored this interplay as they produced fractal-inspired poetry and geometry-inspired fiction. This article describes the form and results of the workshop in the context of a broader discussion of the influence of mathematics upon literature.
The Importance Of Surprise In Mathematical Beauty, V. Rani Satyam
The Importance Of Surprise In Mathematical Beauty, V. Rani Satyam
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Mathematicians, mathematics education researchers, and philosophers have written about mathematical beauty and many of the qualities commonly associated with it, such as simplicity, brevity, enlightenment, etc. One key theme that underlies many of these qualities is surprise or the unexpected. In this article, I discuss the integral role surprise plays in mathematical beauty. Through examples, I argue that simplicity alone is oftentimes not enough for a piece of mathematics to be considered beautiful, but rather it is unexpected simplicity that we seek. I propose, moreover, that surprise is necessary for enlightenment. The paper also reports results from an activity designed …
The Role Of Sequence In The Experience Of Mathematical Beauty, Leslie Dietiker
The Role Of Sequence In The Experience Of Mathematical Beauty, Leslie Dietiker
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
In this article, I analyze the aesthetic dimensions of a sequence of mathematical events found in an unusual first grade lesson in order to demonstrate how sequencing may affect an individual’s experience of mathematical beauty. By approaching aesthetic as a sense or felt quality of an experience in context (Sinclair, 2001, 2011), this analysis explains how sequence can affect the way mathematical objects or actions are experienced by an individual. Thus, rather than questioning whether or in what ways a set of mathematical objects are beautiful or not, this paper addresses under what conditions is the mathematics in play beautiful. …
Kaleidoscopes, Chessboards, And Symmetry, Tricia M. Brown
Kaleidoscopes, Chessboards, And Symmetry, Tricia M. Brown
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
This paper describes the n-queens problem on an n by n chessboard. We discuss the possible symmetries of n-queens solutions and show how solutions to this classical chess question can be used to create examples of colorful artwork.
Monte Carlo Approx. Methods For Stochastic Optimization, John Fowler
Monte Carlo Approx. Methods For Stochastic Optimization, John Fowler
Pomona Senior Theses
This thesis provides an overview of stochastic optimization (SP) problems and looks at how the Sample Average Approximation (SAA) method is used to solve them. We review several applications of this problem-solving technique that have been published in papers over the last few years. The number and variety of the examples should give an indication of the usefulness of this technique. The examples also provide opportunities to discuss important aspects of SPs and the SAA method including model assumptions, optimality gaps, the use of deterministic methods for finite sample sizes, and the accelerated Benders decomposition algorithm. We also give a …
Best Approximations, Lethargy Theorems And Smoothness, Caleb Case
Best Approximations, Lethargy Theorems And Smoothness, Caleb Case
CMC Senior Theses
In this paper we consider sequences of best approximation. We first examine the rho best approximation function and its applications, through an example in approximation theory and two new examples in calculating n-widths. We then further discuss approximation theory by examining a modern proof of Weierstrass's Theorem using Dirac sequences, and providing a new proof of Chebyshev's Equioscillation Theorem, inspired by the de La Vallee Poussin Theorem. Finally, we examine the limits of approximation theorem by looking at Bernstein Lethargy theorem, and a modern generalization to infinite-dimensional subspaces. We all note that smooth functions are bounded by Jackson's Inequalities, but …
Mathematical Double Dactyls, Tristan Miller
Mathematical Double Dactyls, Tristan Miller
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
No abstract provided.
On Mathematicians' Eccentricity, Robert Haas
On Mathematicians' Eccentricity, Robert Haas
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Eccentricity, though not inevitable, happens. Lightheartedly classifying examples, the author traces it back to factors, like creativity and absorption, essential to mathematical success, and recommends an attitude of amused tolerance towards others as well as to ourselves.
My Finite Field, Matthew Schroeder
My Finite Field, Matthew Schroeder
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
A love poem written in the language of mathematics.
Prisoner's Dilemma, Raymond N. Greenwell
Prisoner's Dilemma, Raymond N. Greenwell
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
No abstract provided.
The Symbolic And Mathematical Influence Of Diophantus's Arithmetica, Cyrus Hettle
The Symbolic And Mathematical Influence Of Diophantus's Arithmetica, Cyrus Hettle
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Though it was written in Greek in a center of ancient Greek learning, Diophantus's Arithmetica is a curious synthesis of Greek, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian mathematics. It was not only one of the first purely number-theoretic and algebraic texts, but the first to use the blend of rhetorical and symbolic exposition known as syncopated mathematics. The text was influential in the development of Arabic algebra and European number theory and notation, and its development of the theory of indeterminate, or Diophantine, equations inspired modern work in both abstract algebra and computer science. We present, in this article, a selection of problems …
Love Games: A Game-Theory Approach To Compatibility, Kerstin Bever, Julie Rowlett
Love Games: A Game-Theory Approach To Compatibility, Kerstin Bever, Julie Rowlett
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
In this note, we present a compatibility test with a rigorous mathematical foundation in game theory. The test must be taken separately by both partners, making it difficult for either partner alone to control the outcome. To introduce basic notions of game theory we investigate a scene from the film "A Beautiful Mind" based on John Nash's life and Nobel-prize-winning theorem. We recall this result and reveal the mathematics behind our test. Readers may customize and modify the test for more accurate results or to evaluate interpersonal relationships in other settings, not only romantic. Finally, we apply Dyson's and Press's …
On The Persistence And Attrition Of Women In Mathematics, Katrina Piatek-Jimenez
On The Persistence And Attrition Of Women In Mathematics, Katrina Piatek-Jimenez
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
The purpose of this study was to investigate what motivates women to choose mathematics as an undergraduate major and to further explore what shapes their future career goals, paying particular attention to their undergraduate experiences and their perceptions of the role of gender in these decisions. A series of semi-structured, individual interviews were conducted with twelve undergraduate women mathematics majors who were attending either a large public university or a small liberal arts college. This study found that strong mathematical identities and enjoyment of mathematics heavily influenced their decisions to major in mathematics. At the career selection stage, these women …