Authors:Frances Rosamond Abstract: Join scientists, researchers, teachers, and artists in developing new ways of communicating mathematical and computational thinking. Welcome are contributions in art forms such as dance, graphic art, theatre, and the myriad of ways to communicate science to the public. The conference will feature keynote talks by leading researchers and communicators in the mathematical sciences, sharing their experience, new initiatives, and ideas. The conference will be held in Wellington, New Zealand, at The Learning Connexion (TLC) on 21--23 July 2018. The conference website is http://www.cmsc.nz. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:48:48 PST
Authors:Shep Steiner Abstract: Mosaic, an interdisciplinary critical journal, is pleased to announce a call for papers for a special issue on Numbers. Please submit your essay to the Editor using Mosaic’s online submission portal (http://umanitoba.ca/mosaic/submit) by March 9, 2018. The issue is currently scheduled to appear in September 2019. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:42:08 PST
Authors:Hugh C. Culik Abstract: In “Jesus & the Walnuts,” a hapless English professor invokes fragments of mathematical thought to integrate his hunger for a knowable world with his affection for the logician with whom he shares an office. While “not even wrong” and horribly clumsy, his aspirations are iterations of the drive for order and meaning that are shared across disciplinary knowledge . . . and the hungers of the heart. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:42:04 PST
Authors:Terry Trowbridge Abstract: This poem is a defiant challenge against online and app based surveillance of readers. It also questions the guesses that are used to make claims about readers using text analyses. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:42:01 PST
Abstract: In our July 2017 issue, we issued an open call for mathematical haiku, which we defined to be a three-line poem in the “5-7-5” syllabic form that expressed a mathematical idea or experience, and hopefully connected it to the human condition. In deference to traditional Japanese haiku, we encouraged poets to consider using allusions to nature or the seasons in their work, or what is known as a caesura or kire represented by punctuations, space, line-break, or other grammatical break that is intended to compare two images implicitly.We received haiku on an amazing variety of themes and subjects, from many different authors. This poetry folder contains an eclectic selection of mathematical haiku, representing the diversity of mathematical ideas and experiences.Enjoy! PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:41:45 PST
Authors:Cindia D. Stewart Abstract: This a review of Algebra in Context: Introductory Algebra from Origins to Applications, a textbook authored by Amy Shell-Gellasch and J.B. Thoo. The text presents traditional mathematics through the lens of history, allowing students to gain a rich understanding of how mathematics works and where it comes from. In addition to providing the reader with a summary of the book contents, the reviewer suggests why and how the text may be incorporated into college-level mathematics courses. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:41:41 PST
Authors:Viktor Blåsjö Abstract: Recent attempts at defining mathematical beauty fall roughly into two schools of thought. One takes its starting point in the subjective experience of the mathematician and characterises mathematical beauty in cognitive terms. The other seeks to reduce beauty to objective notions such as truth, symmetry, or simplicity. This second approach is popular among analytic philosophers, who are committed to seeing mathematics and science as prototypically rational enterprises. I criticise this stance on the grounds that this commitment makes its supporters approach beauty in mathematics not with a genuine desire to sympathetically understand it, but with the preconceived goal of explaining it away and playing it down. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:41:38 PST
Authors:Paolo Mancosu Abstract: The Group in Logic and the Methodology of Science at UC Berkeley was founded in 1957. It has been a key institutional element in carrying out Tarski’s vision for making UC Berkeley one of the most important centers of logical research in the world. In this brief history, I look at the emergence of the Group in Logic with an eye towards understanding the circumstances that made it possible. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:41:34 PST
Authors:Andres Sanchez Abstract: It was only with the application of set theory to my own personal life that I discovered my true identity and sexuality. In this exploratory, personal essay, I detail my own discovery of my sexuality through mathematics and how this math has become a lens through which I view the world. And, with new knowledge of literary criticism in hand, I can now retroactively describe the thoughts I had in this discovery process. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:41:30 PST
Authors:Johanna Hardin Abstract: For almost three years, I have spent most of my Sunday afternoons doing math with my daughters and a group of their school friends. Below I detail why and how the math club is run. Unlike my day job, which is full of (statistical) learning objectives for my college students, my math club has only the objective that the kids I work with learn to associate mathematics with having fun. My math club has its challenges, but the motivation comes from love of mathematics, which makes it fun, and worth every minute. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:41:25 PST
Authors:Hayat Rezgui Abstract: Thursday, November 8, 2018, is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of the celebrated Professor A. N. Tikhonov, one of my most favorite mathematicians. The idea of writing this paper to honor his life and scientific activities came to me as I was reading many of his works; I was impressed by his knowledge, amazing research, profound scholarship, perspicuity and eloquence of expression, painstaking accuracy, and big ideas. My aim is to be clear and evocative, for in this way I feel more in touch with my subject that is very interesting. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:41:21 PST
Authors:Robert Haas Ph.D. Abstract: This note uses easy calculus and linear algebra to analyze the situation of a line being tangent to two points of a fourth-degree polynomial curve. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:41:17 PST
Authors:Igor Pak Abstract: In this note we explain the importance of clarity and give other tips for mathematical writing. Some of it is mildly opinionated, but most is just common sense and experience. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:41:13 PST
Authors:Özgür Akas Abstract: Seen With Other Eyes (SWOE) is a community involvement project that focuses on mathematics education for the visually impaired. In this essay I describe this project, which I developed together with my students at Robert College, a private high school in Turkey, and share some of our story. In the past few years, our work was welcomed by the global mathematics education community, as a testimony to the power of social media to connect like-minded educators with one another. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:41:08 PST
Authors:Man Keung Siu Abstract: Popularization of mathematics plays a significant role in drawing more “friends of mathematics” from the public, which is important for the healthy and prosperous development of the discipline. The issue of a suitable balance between entertainment and learning is constantly on the minds of those who put effort into this task. This article discusses this issue in the context of mathematical museums and describes a simple problem involving seven light bulbs to illustrate its main points. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:41:04 PST
Authors:Susan D'Agostino Abstract: In the viral New York Times essay, “To Fall in Love with Anyone, Do This,” Mandy Len Catron details an experience she and an acquaintance had as they shared responses to psychologist Arthur Aron’s thirty-six questions intended to make participants fall in love. She notes that, “we all have a narrative of ourselves that we offer up to strangers and acquaintances, but Dr. Aron’s questions make it impossible to rely on that narrative.” In this paper, we claim that we also have narratives of our relationship to mathematics that we offer up to ourselves and others. Following, we offer a mathematical version on Aron’s thirty-six questions, designed to break out of our personal mathematical narratives and foster intimacy with mathematics. PubDate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:41:00 PST