A Fortnightly Electronic Newsletter
from the Hope College Department of Mathematics
April 23, 2003
Vol. 1, No.
13
Pi Mu Epsilon/Senior luncheon deadline today
Applications are due today, April
23, for membership in Pi Mu Epsilon, the national mathematics honor society.
Applications forms and criteria for joining are available on the mathematics
department web site located at http://www.math.hope.edu/.
If you are a current member or joining Pi Mu Epsilon or if you are
a graduating senior, you are invited to a luncheon held this Saturday,
April 26 at 1 PM at Pietro's Restaurant. At this time
we will induct new members into Pi Mu Epsilon and recognize our graduating
seniors. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Professor Lalani no
later than today, Wednesday, April 23.
A sign up sheet is posted on her door (VWF 214) or you can RSVP via email
at lalani@hope.edu. The department will be charged for your lunch if
you RSVP but do not attend. We will gladly pay for the lunch of all attendees,
but we expect you to reimburse us if you RSVP and do not attend.
Congratulations to our graduating seniors
Thirteen mathematics majors are graduating this year. Their names
and their plans after graduation are as follows. Congratulations go
out to all of them as well as best wishes in their future endeavors.
Amy Baltmanis will be teaching mathematics in the area.
Clay Cressler is going to graduate school at the University of Tennessee
to pursue a Ph.D. in mathematical ecology.
Caleb Gleason has elected to work in a non-science field.
Leticia Grandia would possibly like to work in actuarial science.
Kelli Fisher graduated in December 2002 and is currently attending
the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics in Dallas, TX. She is studying
applied linguistics in Bible translation.
Kenny Papes will pursue a masters degree in mathematics at either the
University of Montana or the University of Northern Colorado.
Rebekah Thomas would like to tutor school-aged students in mathematics.
Jacob Underhill will be teaching mathematics at the secondary level.
Maria VanWieren would like to teach high school mathematics in Michigan.
Brian Yurk will attend Utah State pursuing his Ph.D., studying population
dynamics.
Lee Kiessel is going to graduate school in medical physics at the University
of Wisconsin.
Katie Sherron is going to graduate school in economics at the University
of Florida.
Jenna Wassink would like to be an actuary with an insurance or consulting
company.
Mathematics students receive awards
Congratulations go out to our majors who have received awards this year.
Lee Kiessel was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest scholastic
honorary society. Clayton Cressler, Caleb Gleason, Lee Kiessel, Kenneth
Papes, Rebekah Thomas and Brian Yurk each received a Sigma Xi research award.
Clayton Cressler and Brian Yurk will receive the senior Lampen Award in mathematics.
Michael Cortez, Kurt Pyle and Abby Rockwood will receive the sophomore Kleinheksel
Award in mathematics.
Hope repeats as winners in the Lower Michigan Mathematics Competition
Eleven Hope students braved the icy roads on Saturday, April 5 to participate
in the Lower Michigan Mathematics Competition. The annual contest was
hosted by Saginaw Valley State University with 17 teams participating (two
or three members each) from all across lower Michigan. Hope College,
the defending champions, sent four teams to defend the Klein Bottle Trophy.
Congratulations to the team of Daniela Banu, Stefan Coltisor and Caleb Gleason
who took first place despite being an hour late due to the bad roads.
This is the tenth time Hope has won the competition in its 27-year history.
Mathematics tutors are needed for next year
The Academic Support Center is in need of tutors for next academic year.
The tutors can work in the mathematics lab or tutor students individually.
If interested, contact Professor Janet Andersen at jandersen@hope.edu
as soon as possible.
The final colloquium of the year is set for tomorrow
What do the continental divide, the flap of a butterfly's wings, and a straw
on a camel's back have in common? Why are tree branches, mountain ranges,
and your circulatory system "self-similar"? How can simple mathematical
formulas command computers to generate incredibly complex and intricate pictures?
The answers to these questions will be given in the mathematics department's
final colloquium of the year. The colloquium, titled "Chaos: New Mathematics
Reveals the Inner Workings of Nature" will be presented by Tim Pennings on
Thursday, April 24 at 11:00 AM in VWF 102. As Tim explores
the world of chaos and fractals, he will explain how the study of mathematical
dynamical systems answers the earlier questions and leads to a better understanding
of natural forms and processes.
Poincaré Conjecture Solved?
Russian mathematician Dr. Grigori Perelman of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics
recently gave a series of lectures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
where he revealed a proof of Thurston's conjecture which is an extension
of the famous Poincaré conjecture. Since Poincaré's conjecture
is a special case of Thurston's conjecture, a proof of Thurston's conjecture
proves Poincaré's.
Originally proposed by Henri Poincaré in 1904, the Poincaré
conjecture stated that in the field of topology a three-sphere is the only
type of bounded three-dimensional space possible that contains no holes.
In 2000 the Poincaré conjecture was included in the list
of million dollar prize problems by the Clay Mathematics Institute. According
to the rules of the Clay Institute, any purported proof must survive two
years of academic scrutiny before the prize can be collected. A recent example
of a proof that did not survive even this long was a five-page paper presented
by M. J. Dunwoody in April 2002 which was quickly found to be fundamentally
flawed.
To keep your mathematical minds working over the summer, I am spotlighting
Nick's Mathematical Puzzles located at http://www.qbyte.org/puzzles/.
Nick Hobson is the web master (or puzzle master) at this site. He
states that, "The puzzles presented here are selected for the deceptive simplicity
of their statement, or the elegance of their solution. They range over
geometry, probability, number theory, algebra, calculus, and logic.
All require a certain ingenuity, but only pre-college math." He also
provides hints, answers, and solutions to the puzzles presented. Hopefully
you can find something here that is of interest.