Off on a Tangent
A Fortnightly Electronic Newsletter from the Hope College Department of Mathematics
   January 16, 2008 Vol. 6, No. 7  
http://www.math.hope.edu/newsletter.html


Statistical Genetics Colloquium Tomorrow

Title:
Statistical Genetics Research at Hope College
Speakers:
Hope Students Brian McLellan and Dirk Van Bruggan along with Prof. Nathan Tintle
Time:
Thursday, January 17 at 4:00 p.m.
Place:
VWF 238

  Abstract:  This talk will cover two ongoing collaborative research projects in statistical genetics as well as provide insights into the summer research program in mathematics here at Hope.  One project involves examining a newly proposed experimental design for human genetics studies.  When doing statistical tests to determine a relationship between genotype and disease phenotype sometimes misclassifications of an individual's genotype of phenotype occur.  This reduces the power of the statistical test.  We have found that reclassifying individuals is a cost-effective way to increase statistical power.

The second project involves DNA micorarray.  This allows geneticists to measure the expression levels of each gene in an organism.  We will discuss the statistical challenges that come with simultaneously measuring thousands of genes, but only have a few replicates of your experiment.  No knowledge of genetics will be assumed in any parts of these talks.


The Irrationality of Pi Colloquium Next Week

Title:
Niven's Proof that Pi is Irrational
Speaker:
Prof. John R. Stoughton
Time:
Thursday, January 24 at 4:00 p.m.
Place:
VWF 238

Abstract:  How do people "know" that numbers like square root of 3, e, and pi are irrational?  The proof that square root of 3 is irrational has been known for well over 2000 years.  The proof that e is irrational did not come until the 1700s, but that is not surprising since logarithms (and hence the number e) were not introduced until the 1600s.

The first proof that pi is irrational was not given until 1768, which is surprising since the number pi was know to the early Greeks.  But that proof was long and difficult.  Many sought a shorter and easier proof, but none was found until Ivan Niven (1915-1999) published an elementary proof in 1947.  We will examine Professor Niven's proof.
Free Bowling + Free Pizza = Bowlizza!

Please join us at 11:00 am on Saturday, February 2, for the Math Department's annual bowling and pizza party.  We'll meet at Holland Bowling, located at the corner of 9th and Central, and after a couple games of bowling return to the VZN 247 for pizza.  Students and professors alike will engage in friendly competition for a variety of noteworthy feats (e.g. highest score, most strikes, largest standard deviation), with prizes for the winners.

Sign up sheets will be passed around in your classes.  There is also a sign up sheet on Professor Edwards' door (VWF 218).  You need to sign up for this event by Thursday January 31.  Mark your calendars and save the date!
First Math Club Meeting on Monday

The first meeting of the Hope College Math Club will be Monday, January 21 at 3:00 in the Reading Room (VWF 222).  It will be a brief informational and organizational meeting to discuss what we'd like to do this semester.  Anyone who's interested is welcome, so please join us on Monday.  If you can't make it to Monday's meeting but would like to be involved in Math Club or know more about it, please email Dr. Pearson at pearson@hope.edu.
Integration Bee Results

The mathematics department hosted its first Integration Bee on Thursday, November 29.  Twenty teams of students participated to see which was the best at evaluating integrals.  Teams tried to survive two rounds of integration and then had to show their integration speed in a lightning round.  The team to come out on top was appropriately called the Upper Limits.  This team consisted of Nate Martin, Jon Wielegna, and "Some guy in Calc I."  The second place team was Domination by Parts (Kristian Cunningham, Eric O'Brien, and Jeff Glupker) and third place went to Decepticons (Dan "Megatron" Lithio, Mark "Star Scream" Panaggio, and Forrest "Frenzy" Gordon).  



Two Hope teams are among the top ten in the recent MATH Challenge

Thirty-three students from Hope took part in the 2007 Michigan Autumn take-home Challenge (MATH Challenge) this past November.  The competition was won by a team from Saginaw Valley State University.  Two teams from Hope were in the top ten.  Coming in 6th place was a team consisting of Wenfei Xue, Jake van den Berg, and Eric Lunderberg.  Taking 8th place was Andrew Lee, Brandon Bacon, and Zachary Mitchell.  Congratulations to these two teams and to all that participated in the contest.
    

James Daly wins award at MUMC

James Daly was one of four students to receive awards for outstanding presentations at the tenth annual Michigan Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (MUMC) on Saturday, October 27 at Michigan State University.  The title of the talk James gave was "Graph Pebbling and Parallel Computing."  The talk was based on research that he conducted last summer with Professors Airat Bekmetjev and Chuck Cusak.  





Summer Research

It is time 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.  Descriptions of research projects can be currently 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.  

The Problem of the Fortnight

Parallelogram ABCD has been "sliced" by diagonal AC and the segment BM, with M as the midpoint of CD.  The point E is the intersection of AC and BM.  If the entire parallelogram has an area of X square units, find the areas of the four pieces.  Justify your answer.


Write your solution on a parallelogram and drop it by Dr. Pearson's office (VWF 212) by noon on Friday, January 25.  Be sure to write your name, the name(s) of your professor(s), and your math class(es) on your solution (e.g. Mario Quadratini, Profs. Square and Squarer, Math 121 and 225).
Problem Solvers of the Fortnight

Our last POTF was as follows:  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?

The sum of three numbers will be even if and only if the three numbers are all even or one is even and the other two are odd.  Since we don't have three even numbers from which to choose, the only way this can occur is if we have two odds and one even.  This can occur (6C2)(2C1) = (15)(2) = 30 ways.  Since the total number of ways to draw three numbers is 8C3 = 56, the probability of drawing an even sum is 30/56 or 15/28. 

Our correct problem solvers were Daniel Gruben, Steven Thompkins, Eric Lunderberg, Sarah VanArendonk, Mark Brown, Jeff Minkus, Laura Schaedig, Chris Hall, Justin Hawkes, Bri Oconnell, Nate Bowerman, Abby Phillips, Eileen Sanderson, Matt Borst, Allison Pautler, Ben Crumpler, Dan Emmendorfer, Jon Wielenga, Kyndra Sluiter, Sam Baker, Mark Panaggio, Matt Wilson, Clint Jepkema, Peter Doorn, Luke Wendt, Ricky Kelley, Curtis Merrick, Tim Boman, James Daly, Spencer Ward, Ashten Wallace, Ben Onken, Matt Smith, Austin Jule, and Zach Mitchell.  Congratulations!
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme.
~ Jiminy Cricket

Off on a Tangent