The Buzz : Math (Real World)

3.14 = pi = March 14, 2007

For those that enjoy math don't forget that today is Pi Day. I never realized that there is also a day called Pi Approximation Day (July 22nd).

Here in the office we were wondering when e Day would be. Using the approach they did for Pi Day, we guess that would be on April 12th. We are looking forward to it!

Math Goes to Hollywood

If you've ever watched the TV show NUMB3RS then you'll know that the show revolves around a gifted mathematician who helps the FBI solve crimes using math. But how accurate is the math? Well, check this out:

On NUMB3RS, [CalTech math professor] Gary Lorden's job is to help the scripts credibly utilize bona fide mathematical techniques such as cryptography, combinatorics, number theory, and epidemiology statistics in solving crimes. Besides reviewing scripts for mathematical authenticity, he has also been asked to come up with math or physics concepts and equations to provide the mathematical background to what some of the characters are doing, saying, or thinking. The show actually uses a whole team of mathematicians from the California Institute of Technology, including Lorden, Nathan Dunfield, Dinakar Ramakrishnan, and Richard Wilson. Even students can get a share of the glory. David Grynkiewicz served as a hand double, writing the problems on a blackboard and on notepaper.

Cool. Now I like the show even more knowing it's rooted in reality. (Well, at least the math parts. It is a TV show after all).

The blurb above comes from an entertaining article called "The Academic Path to Hollywood" in the most recent Chronicle of Higher Education.

1 is the loneliest number...but not the largest

Researchers at a Missouri university have identified the largest known prime number. ... The number that the team found is 9.1 million digits long. It is a Mersenne prime known as M30402457 -- that's 2 to the 30,402,457th power minus 1. ... "We're super excited," said Boone, a chemistry professor. "We've been looking for such a number for a long time."

Read more about this exciting number!

Going to Hollywood? Learn Math!

Do you plan to head to Hollywood to become a screenwriter for shows such as the Simpsons or MadTV? If so, you had better learn a bit of math, since they actually have chic math clubs where writers get together to discuss math on television.

This NPR story had a humorous and humiliating take on the Hollywood Math Club.

Link to NPR story
Simpson's (and Futurama) Math Home Page

Math Question No Touchdown for Football Fans

From the Boston Globe, now here's a case of "math in the real world" not working out quite as expected:

On an end-of-grade test this month, seventh-graders had to calculate the average gain for a team on the game's first six plays. But the team did not gain 10 yards on the first four plays and would have lost possession before a fifth and sixth play.

The team opened with a 6-yard loss, a 3-yard gain and a 2-yard loss, which would have made it fourth down with 15 yards to go for a first down. The team's fourth play was just a 7-yard gain, yet it maintained possession for a 12-yard gain and a 4-yard gain on two additional plays.

So do the creators of math problems have an expectation to be grounded in reality or is the football example above just a variation on the old "imagine a spherical cow" or "the frictionless ice" or "the chicken and a half can lay an egg and a half every day and a half" types of fiction for the sake of example that comes with the territory in math and science problems?

Should you wear red when taking an exam?

Scientists from the University of Durham in England found that, for the competitions in the Athens Olympic Games, the athlete wearing red won 55 percent of the time.

Does red really make a difference in competition? Some mathemticians feel that since this is a small sample, it is nothing unusual from a statistical point of view.

I wonder if students wearing red perform better on exams. If anyone has any data, feel free to send it in!

I know that my favorite hockey team does pretty well wearning red, and even have red in their name: the Detroit Redwings. It is also well known that Tiger Woods always wears red on the final day of a golf tournament, and he has done rather well. Hmm...

Here are several links to news sites with the story:

• NPR: Study: Red Is the Color of Olympic Victory
• CNN: Researchers: To win in sports, wear red
• BBC: Reds have a sporting advantage

Mmm...Monday is Pi Day

Be sure to celebrate Pi Day on Monday, March 14th. Pi has been studied for thousands of years, and has an interesting history.

Did you notice that March 14th could be written as 3/14, and pi is approximately 3.14. As Mr. Spock would say, "Fascinating."

Math Challenges Students on SAT

As I was listening to NPR this morning I heard that the new SAT exam has increased the difficulty of the math questions. I hope you have all been learning a lot of math from our Gizmos!

Good luck to all on the SAT tomorrow morning. Don't forget to set the alarm clock.

Can math predict the worst day?

January 24. Monday. Can this really be the worst day of the year? A British psychologist has developed a mathematical formula to predict the worst day for people.

y = [(W + (d-d)) * TQ]/(M * NA)

What do you think of the formula? What are all those variables? Do you think the feelings of people can be predicted from equations?

Now I'm heading off to the dentist. Can you predict how I feel?

Can Math Help in Terror War

Can Math Help in Terror War? 

Wired News reports on how order theory and data mining are being used in the global war on terrorism:

Theoretically, [mathematician] Jonathan Farley [of MIT] said, abstract math could help intelligence officers figure out the most efficient way to disable a terrorist network.

Say it's cheaper or more practical to go after a terrorist cell's "middle management" rather than its leadership. How many of those lieutenants would you have to remove in order to disrupt communication between the top dogs and the field operatives? Are there one or two key individuals whose capture would completely cut off the chain of command?

Order theory is all about such questions.

Fascinating stuff. And a cool tonic to any who are inclined to label the study of mathematics as "boring" or as having no practical application to "real life."

Dip Trip for Rover?

The NASA Mars Rovers have provided a wealth of information over the past months, but will this be the final destination for Opportunity?

BBC News Story

Random Coin Toss?

National Public Radio ran a very entertaining story this evening. A professor has done research to see whether a coin toss is truly a random event. The conclusion - NO! If you have seven minutes to listen to a fun story...

Listen to The Not So Random Coin Toss on the NPR Site.

"Math Is Hard"

A recent Washington Post article discusses why learning math can be so difficult for students. More and more research suggests how important gender differences can be:

JoAnn Deak, a psychologist and author of "Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident and Courageous Daughters," said most schools approach math in the early grades "as if there is one kind of brain" -- though neuroimaging suggests that most girls develop language skills faster and most boys develop spatial and visual abilities faster. This helps explain why boys traditionally have been seen as "better at math," and why some girls have steered away from it.

Different teaching approaches early in a child's life can make up for these gender differences, Deak said, but most teachers don't try.

Have any of you who are math teachers had any success with trying different approaches to teaching math based on gender?

It'd be interesting, too, to do a study with Gizmos to see if they benefit one gender more than another in learning new math skills.

Principia Woochuckia

Yesterday the sky took on its winter look for the first time this autumn. You know what I mean? Emily Dickinson describes it perfectly in her Poem No. 258:

There's a certain Slant of light,
  Winter Afternoons--
    That oppresses, like the Heft
      Of Cathedral Tunes--

Exactly. And fittingly yesterday the arborist (also known as the guy with a pickup and chain saw) dropped off my first load of wood for the coming winter.

Which brings me to today's math topic: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

While we don't yet have a Gizmo to answer this question of the ages, this doesn't mean mathematicians haven't deeply considered the problem. If you're wondering, according to Stephen Lavelle "roughly 1*10 18 kg of wood could potentially be chucked by a woodchuck operating at maximum efficiency (this is only an approximate maximum limit)." There you have it. Heh heh …