Applied Mathematics Commons^™

Leading A Successful Missions Trip In Your Discipline, Tom Nurkkala, Darci Nurkkala

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

The global missions community goes wanting for skilled workers in almost every discipline. However, even students at a Christian institution that emphasizes global engagement remain largely unaware of the impact they can make in missions by leveraging their own academic specialty. In this paper, we draw on our experience leading discipline-specific missions trips as a means to encourage students to reframe their thinking about personal involvement in missions. We discuss the need for students to experience missions firsthand, and the student outcomes we have observed in intercultural awareness and spiritual formation. A key student outcome is an increased willingness to …

Googol-Part Fugue: Another Imagination Of Divine Providence And Game Theory, Gideon Lee

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

The problem of evil presents an intellectual hurdle for some to believe in a good and omnipotent God. The emergence of open theism could be seen as an attempt to make a stronger case for the free will defense. However, in denying divine foreknowledge as traditionally understood, open theism contradicts biblical revelation not only in its direct claims, but also when its logical implications for divine providence are worked out. The open theist Alan Rhoda has sought to explain through game theory how some degree of divine providence is possible under open theism. That explanation is astonishing since the open …

Life Lessons From Leibniz, Andrew J. Simoson

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

The tri-centennial of Leibniz’s death is nigh (2016). And 2013 is not too early to begin a special celebration of this man of mathematics. Besides being the co-discoverer of calculus and the implementer of binary numbers, formal logic, and formal languages, all of which foreshadowed the computer age, Leibniz is said to be one of the last to know almost everything that was known about almost anything. Professionally, his occupation was librarian in the princely court of Hanover in oldGermany. Serving under three different princes, the last of whom became George I of England, Leibniz had to continual lyre-invent himself—somewhat …

Al-Khwārizmī: Founder Of Classical Algebra, Calvin Jongsma

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

Adopting a historically defensible definition of “algebra,” we will begin by exploring a few examples of algebra prior toal-Khwarizmi. We will then examine what algebra became through al-Khwarizmi’s work. In conclusion, we will assess thehistorical importance of al-Khwarizmi’s contributions for developments in European algebra.

Expanding Jonathan Edwards’ Typology Program: The Bell Curve As A Type Of Christ, Jason Wilson

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

Over two hundred years after his death, an unfinished notebook of Jonathan Edwards’ was published for the first time in1993. Edwards was a father of the Evangelical movement, but because his work on typology was not published until recently, it has received almost no attention. In his notebook, Edwards makes an explicit argument for extending biblical typology to nature in a biblically grounded manner. This study is an attempt to extend that research program into mathematics/statistics.We will consider the following proposition, “The normal distribution (the graph of which is the bell curve) is a biblical type of Christ.” The basic …

Delaware, Dickeson, Assessment And How You Can Help, Greg Crow, Maria Zack

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

How much release time should a chair receive? What is the cost per unit for a particular academic program? What is a student credit hour (SCH) anyway and why would anyone care? Why are so many boards enamored of Delaware, Dickeson and Assessment? The answer to these and many related questions will be presented in this talk. Analytics and various“efficiency measures” are becoming increasingly important in higher education and mathematicians and computer scientists are being regularly recruited to help university administrators make meaning from large volumes of data. Come and learn about this trend and how you can be of …

Explore Global Opportunities For Mathematics Scholarship, Teaching, And Service, Ron Benbow

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

There are numerous overseas opportunities in which to apply your knowledge and interest in mathematics. These international experiences allow you to expand your scholarship, to extend your teaching skills, to offer professional services to K-12 teachers or other university instructors, and to provide much personal enrichment as well. Examples from recent professional experiences in Liberia, Haiti, Guatemala, and Ecuador will be shared to illustrate the connections to teaching, scholarship, and service. Information regarding MAA Study Tours, Fulbright Specialist grants, and other relevant organizations will be provided.

Euler And The Ongoing Search For Odd Perfect Numbers, Brian D. Beasley

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

Leonhard Euler, after proving that every even perfect number has the form given by Euclid, turned his attention to finding odd perfect numbers. Euler established a basic factorization pattern that every odd perfect number must have, and mathematicians have expanded upon this Eulerian form ever since. This paper will present a brief summary of Euler’s result and some recent generalizations. It will also note connections between odd perfect numbers and the abundancy index (the abundancy index of a positive integer is the ratio of the sum of its positive divisors to itself). In particular, finding a positive integer with an …

Computing Foundations For The Scientist, Catherine Bareiss, Larry Vail

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

There is a need for a new style of supporting a computer course. Although it is widely recognized that computer technology provides essential tools for all current scientific work, few university curricula adequately ground science majors in the fundamentals that underlie this technology. Introducing science students to computational thinking in the areas of algorithms and data structures, data representation and accuracy, abstraction, performance issues, and database concepts can enable future scientists to become intelligent, creative and effective users of this technology. The intent of this course is not to turn scientists into computer scientists, but rather to enhance their ability …

A Different Approach, Catherine Crockett

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

This paper discusses an approach used to encourage science majors to rethink their attitudes and study habits in a first semester calculus course. Two activities were used to enhance study habits. They are outlining concepts and in-class quizzes designed for self-evaluation of skills. After using both methods in two sections of the calculus course, the students were surveyed to determine if these activities were successful. A majority of the students felt the activities were helpful and wanted to continue them.

Reading Assignments And Assessments: Are Your Students Reading Math Texts Before Class, After Class, Both, Or Neither?, David Klanderman, Mandi Maxwell, Sharon Robbert, Bill Boerman-Cornell

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

In his recent book What the Best College Students Do [Bain, 2012], Ken Bain defines a number of different types of students including “surface learners,” “strategic learners,” “routine experts,” and finally, “deep learners.” In our mathematics courses at Trinity, we have found examples of all of these student types. A major determinant of their preferred approach to learning appears to be the ways and degrees to which mathematical texts and other written materials are read prior to class sessions. Each full-time member of the department both assigns and assesses the reading of mathematical materials prior to class sessions. Assessment methods, …

Philosophy Of “Spinning Wheels”, Loredana Ciurariu

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

In this material I will speak about some well-known mechanisms studied by students and engineers emphasizing the impact which “spinning wheels” had and have in development of the society, on Christians and the church. Also the discovery of the machineries determines major changes in the people’s outlook and leads to new trends in philosophy and Christianity. Then, I will give some examples from the Bible where “spinning wheels” it seems to appear: Judges 16:21, Ezekiel 1 and Revelation. It is also interesting to see 2 Kings 2:9-12, 2 Kings 6:13-18 and maybe Daniel 7:9.

In addition, an avi file where …

An Investigation Of Hi Ho! Cherry-O Using Markov Chains, Nicholas C. Zoller

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

In the children’s board game Hi Ho! Cherry-O, players attempt to move 10 cherries from their trees to a bucket in the center of the game board. A spinner determines whether a turn includes moving cherries from tree to bucket or bucket to tree. The winner of the game is the first player to move all of her cherries from her tree to the bucket. We model the gameplay using a Markov chain and calculate the expected number of turns needed to complete one game. Then we investigate what happens when the rules are changed. We discover that rules …

The Structures Of The Actual World, Walter J. Schultz, Lisanne D’ Andrea Winslow

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

Scripture teaches that God has a plan for the universe. In this paper we argue that in order for it to function as a plan, it must have a temporal structure, a representational structure, and a proto-causal structure. This paper presents a formal model of the these three structures. As it turns out, the structures of God’s plan are best understood as the structures of a musical composition. We, then very briefly describe its implications. The first is that this model (based ultimately in the doctrine of God) grounds a metaphysics of science. Second, it grounds a structuralist philosophy of …

Perspectives On Chaos: Reflections Of A Mathematical Physicist, Kyle Spyksma

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

Chaos Theory, the mathematical media darling of the ’90s, has become less of a societal fad and research interest over the past couple of decades. However, from a mathematical physicists’ perspective, issues surrounding Chaos Theory can be valuable aides in forming views on how mathematics, science and reality relate. In this talk, I will briefly explore how Chaos Theory can shape views of these relationships, with a focus on the language we use and (perhaps unintentionally) abuse when doing science and mathematics.

Hydro-Thermal Convective Solutions For An Aquifer System Heated From Below, Dambaru Bhatta

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

We investigate the effect of hydro-thermal convection in an aquifer system. It is assumed that the aquifer is bounded below and above by impermeable boundaries and it is heated from below. The solution of the governing system is expressed in terms of the basic steady state solution and perturbed solution. We obtain the critical Rayleigh number and critical wavenumber using Runge-Kutta method in combination of shooting method and present the marginal stability curve. The amplitude equation is derived by introducing the adjoint system. After amplitude is obtained, we compute the linear solutions for super-critical and sub-critical cases. Numerical results for …

Global Dynamics Of A Water-Borne Disease Model With Multiple Transmission Pathways, Prasanta K. Mondal, T. K. Kar

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

We propose and analyze a water born disease model introducing water-to-person and person-toperson transmission and saturated incidence. The disease-free equilibrium and the existence criterion of endemic equilibrium are investigated. Trans critical bifurcation at the disease-free equilibrium is obtained when the basic reproductive number is one. The local stability of both the equilibria is shown and a Lyapunov functional approach is also applied to explore the global stability of the system around the equilibria. We display the effects of pathogen contaminated water and infection through contact on the system dynamics in the absence of person-to-person contact as well as in the …

An Exponential Matrix Method For Numerical Solutions Of Hantavirus Infection Model, Şuayip Yüzbaşi, Mehmet Sezer

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

In this paper, a new matrix method based on exponential polynomials and collocation points is proposed to obtain approximate solutions of Hantavirus infection model corresponding to a class of systems of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The method converts the model problem into a system of nonlinear algebraic equations by means of the matrix operations and the collocation points. The reliability and efficiency of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by the numerical applications and all numerical computations have been made by using a computer program written in Maple.

Stability Of Multiwavelet Frames With Different Matrix Dilations And Matrix Translations, F. A. Shah, Sunita Goyal

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

In this paper, we study the stability of multiwavelet frames with different matrix dilations and matrix translations by means of operator theory and show that these frames remain stable over some kinds of perturbations of the basic generators.

A Subdivision-Regularization Framework For Preventing Over Fitting Of Data By A Model, Ghulam Mustafa, Abdul Ghaffar, Muhammad Aslam

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

First, we explore the properties of families of odd-point odd-ary parametric approximating subdivision schemes. Then we fine-tune the parameters involved in the family of schemes to maximize the smoothness of the limit curve and error bounds for the distance between the limit curve and the kth level control polygon. After that, we present the subdivision-regularization framework for preventing over fitting of data by model. Demonstration shows that the proposed unified frame work can work well for both noise removal and overfitting prevention in subdivision as well as regularization.