Off on a Tangent
|
A Fortnightly Electronic
Newsletter from the Hope
College Department of Mathematics
|
It's
time for the Integration Bee!
|
- When: 4:00 p.m., Thursday,
November 29 in VWF 104
- Sign
up by: 4:00 p.m., Wednesday, November 28
Have you heard what all the buzz is
about? Hope College is hosting its first Integration Bee
tomorrow (Thursday, November 29) at 4:00 p.m. in VWF 104. This
competition will pit teams of students against each other to see which
is the
best at evaluating integrals. Prizes will be awarded to the
winners. If you want
to participate, but haven't signed up yet, you need to do so by
4:00 p.m. on Wednesday,
November 28. There is a sign-upsignup sheet on Prof.
Edwards' office door (218
VWF). If you would just like to observe this exciting competition
you are encouraged to do so. We hope to have a swarm of students
there. For more information about this exciting event go to http://math.hope.edu/sedwards/IntegrationBee/I-B-Home.htm.
It's
never too early to start thinking about summer! The mathematics
department at Hope was awarded a 5-year REU grant from the NSF.
For those untrained in acronym-speak, the Hope math department
has a grant from the National Science Foundation for Research
Experiences with Undergraduates. Faculty in the department will
be mentoring students in mathematics research this summer.
Beginning December 1, descriptions of research projects may be
found at the online application site: http://sharp.hope.edu/.
If you are interested in applying for summer research at Hope,
please talk to any of the math professors.
Elvis
knows calculus: Believe it or not!
|
It seems
that Elvis's fame has officially escaped academia and is now in
the world of the strange. In the latest edition of Ripley's Believe It or
Not there is a short article
about Prof. Pennings' dog and his ability to understand calculus.
You can find it somewhere between the article about the man who can
pull a string through his nose and out his mouth and the one about the
world's longest tapeworm.
Now that Ripley's has found Elvis, it won't be long until they find
Tim. Stay tuned!
| A New
Student Exchange Program in Science and Ethics
|
Are you interested
in studying science, ethics and public policy in Mexico or Canada?
There is a new student exchange program at Hope.
Informational
Meeting
- Wednesday, November 28
at 5:00 p.m.
With its partners in Canada and
Mexico, Hope College is excited to announce a new student
exchangeexhange program for students interested in issues in science,
ethics and public policy. Hope students may apply to study in
Canada or Mexico, and students selected to study abroad will earn
credit toward their Hope degree. We invite interested students
and faculty to join us for a short informational meeting about the
program at 5:00 p.m. on
Wednesday, November 28 in VWF 102. If you cannot attend the meeting
but would be interested in learning more about the program, please
contact Professor Mark Pearson (pearson@hope.edu).
The
Problem of the Fortnight
|
Slips of Paper:
Consider, if you will, the number 12355699. If we write each of
the digits in this number on separate slips of paper, put them in a
bowl, and draw three of the numbers at random, without replacement,
what is the probability that the sum of the numbers drawn will be even?
Write
your solution (not just the answer!) on a slip of paper and
drop it by Dr. Pearson's office (VWF 212) by noon
on Friday, December 7.
Be sure
to write your name, the name(s) of your
professor(s), and your math class(es) on your solution (e.g.
Even Steven, Profs.
Odd and Odder, Math 123 and 699).
Problem
Solvers of the Fortnight
|
Our last POTF was as follows: A
sequence of
numbers {an}
has a1 = 7 as its first term, and every
other term after the first is defined as follows:
- if
a term an is even, then the next term is an / 2
- if a term an
is odd,
then the next term is 3an
+ 1
What is the 1000th term in this
sequence?
As many of you found out, from the 15th term on this sequence has the
repeating pattern 4, 2, 1. and the 1000th term is 2. Those
correctly determining this are Adam Irrer, Chris Olds, Tiffany Day,
Tiffany West, Jeff Minkus, Devin Bonnie, Anna Brandes, Zachary
Mitchell, Joel Mulder, Heather Esfandiari, Chris Hall, Justin Hawkes,
Josh Kinder, Mark Panaggio, Jill Immink, Nicole Mulder, Laura
Smallegan, Jessica Clouse, Ashley Gruenberg, Matt Wixson, Jeff Meyers,
Luke Wendt, Lauren Steel, Ben Lewis, Dan Emmendorfer, Peter Doorn,
Benjamin Crumpler, Benjamin Kamphuis, Jason Wickstra, Eric Adamczyk,
Colin Zoellner, Danille Koetje, Chelsea Miedema, Forrest Gordon, James
Daly, Allison Pautler, Dirk VanBruggen, Matt Smith, Jordan Ritsema,
Andrew Quick, Pam Rexius, Valerie Winton, Joy Taylor, Chris Ploch,
Laura Schaedrig, Sarah Dix, Eric Lunderberg, Malllory
Chapman, Kevin
Browder, Sam Baker, Lynette Heinz, Martha Precup, and Nathan Vance.
Congratulations!
Do
or do not. There is no try.
~ Yoda