Did you miss our last issue?

If you happened to miss the last issue of Off on a Tangent, you can still read it.  Past issues can be found on the mathematics department web site at http://www.math.hope.edu (click on newsletter).  Even if you did not miss our last issue, check out the department web site for all kinds of interesting information.  You can find information on upcoming colloquia and competitions.  You can also find links to your favorite professor's web page.  Check it out!
 

Count down to Math Week

It is just five short weeks until Math Week or as some call it Week-O-Math!  Mark your calendars for the week of October 28 - November 2.  Many exciting events are planned including dinner and a movie, trivia contest, problems - puzzles - pizza, and a book sale.  A new event slated for this year is a mathematical poetry contest.  Whether you like sonnets, odes, or Dr. Suess, this is the contest for you.  A more poetic description of the contest follows.
 

A mathematical poetry contest is slated for Math Week

If you like to rhyme mathematical words
Like algebra, sine, or two and two thirds
Then we have the greatest contest for you
That uses your math and poetry too.

You can write about pi, sigma, or e
Or your favorite unknowns x, y, and z.
How about tangent or secant or sine,
A circle, a square, or just a straight line?

Whatever you want, it's all up to you
Just jot it all down, and when you are through
Turn in your math poem and you just might see
You could be famous as famous can be.

The judging takes place sometime in math week
Your entries we want, we desire, we seek.
So don't put this off and please do not wait
We hope you will try, we're sure you'll do great!
 

Sign up now for the Michigan Autumn Take Home Challenge

The final event for Week-O-Math is the 2002 Michigan Autumn Take Home Challenge (or MATH Challenge).  This team oriented math competition for undergraduates is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 2.  Teams of two or three students take a three-hour exam consisting of ten interesting problems dealing with topics and concepts found in the undergraduate mathematics curriculum.  Each team takes the exam at their home campus under the supervision of a faculty advisor.

Each year 20-30 teams compete in this competition with teams from Hope regularly placing in the top three.  Last year, one of our teams placed third behind Calvin and Albion.  Let's make this the year that Calvin and Albion finish behind Hope!

If you are interested in signing up for the competition, send an email to Professor Harrelson (harrelson@hope.edu).  To get more information and copies of previous exams, check out the MATH Challenge web site at http://www.mcs.alma.edu/mathchallenge/.
 

Professor Pennings to speak on chaos

Professor Tim Pennings will come out of sabbatical for a brief time to speak at the Mathematics Colloquium.  His talk titled, "Competing Definitions of Chaos," will be given Thursday, September 26 at 4:00 p.m. in Vanderwerf 104.  In his talk, Tim will look at two different definitions of chaos.  Since this area of mathematics is relatively new, the basic definition of chaos is still yet to be decided.  Some authors of textbooks imply that these two definitions are equivalent, while some do not explore the relationship between them at all.  Professor Pennings will show that the two definitions are totally different and the neither implies the other.  He will also discuss which is better and make a bold prediction as to which one will win out in the end.  (You won't want to miss this exciting conclusion!)

Professor Pennings warns, "Although no background beyond Math 131 is need to understand this talk, those with more mathematical maturity (at least having gone through Math 231) will get more out of it."  (This means the talk is rated PG-231.)
 

Tales from the Crypt: The Mathematics of Secret Messages

Due to the growing popularity of online shopping, ATM and credit card transactions, and e-mail, the need for secure communication has become more apparent.  However, the desire to transmit sensitive information from place to place privately dates back many centuries.  This need for security has resulted in the development of cryptography, a field that relies heavily on computational abstract algebra and number theory.

In next week's colloquium, "Tales from the Crypt: The Mathematics of Secret Messages," Professor Darin Stephenson will discuss some of the mathematics behind cryptography.  The talk is scheduled for Thursday, October 3 at 3:00 p.m. in VWF 104.  (Note the this colloquium is at 3:00 and not the usual 4:00 time slot.)

In this talk, he will discuss the basic goals involved in cryptography, as well as the mathematics involved in creating simple cryptosystems.  Primary examples include affine cryptosystems, block ciphers and rotating key ciphers.  He will give historical information relating to the development of cryptography and indications as to what new directions this field has taken since the invention of public-key cryptography nearly 30 years ago.  This talk will be accessible to all students.
 

What I did (am doing) on my sabbatical
by Tim Pennings

Ya know like how when ya got like lots of homework in all your classes, and there is always this one class which gets skipped cause you don't have time to do it?  It's the same way when you're a professor.  I've had all these neat ideas piling up for 4-5 years, but I just can't get to 'em cause I gotta grade papers and make up tests and prepare lectures and help students with boat loads of questions.

So now I'm gettin' to them.  Right now I'm finishing up a paper on competing definitions of Chaos.  It's sounds boring, but it's really - well, I like it anyway.  I'm also going to write a paper entitled, "Do Dogs Know Calculus?"  It is based on the paths that Elvis (my dog) takes when he retrieves sticks from Lake Michigan.  I think he chooses the route that minimizes the time.  If so, how does he know?  Does he know calculus by instinct?  He does not do well on any actual calculus test, which I have given him. He has trouble even with simple derivatives.

I also wrote a grant proposal for four more years of NSF funded undergraduate research.  Students will get paid big bucks for diving head-first into mathematics for 8 weeks.  It's awesome.
 

Professor DeYoung's sabbatical plans involve technology

Professor Mary DeYoung's sabbatical plans revolve around technology.  She is working with the Problem of the Week portion of the Math Forum web site.  (You can check out the Math Forum web site at http://www.mathforum.com/.)  In particular, she is trouble-shooting the web site as it makes a major transitions in how it is used to mentor K-12 problem solvers.  She will be serving as a mentor by responding by email to kids who send in solutions, making presentations at two meetings (NCTM regional and AMTE) about how other college professors can involve their pre-service teachers in mentoring, and writing a "guidelines for other professors" article to be posted on Math Forum's web site.

She also plans to upgrade her own general technology skills by creating some web pages related to her presentations, learning some Dreamweaver (a web site building software program, not the 1975 hit song by Gary Wright), searching the web for activities to coordinate with class content in Math 205-206, doing more with power point & publisher, and finding more resources for Math 207 (which may be taught during May term).

Besides math and technology related work, Mary also plans to read, relax, and rejuvenate.  She plans to travel somewhere fun with her husband Steve, read more books than usual, improve her tennis backhand stroke, dejunk the closets in her house, and write more in her journal.
 

Kate Vance joins the mathematics faculty

After graduating from Hope in 1990, Kate Vance has returned to teach.  She is taking over the courses usually taught by Mary DeYoung this year.  She and her husband Pete, also a 1990 Hope graduate, returned to Holland a little more then a year ago from Biloxi, Mississippi.  They have two children, Nathan (7 and in second grade) and Veronica (4 and in preschool), both at Southside Christian.

After graduating from Hope, Kate taught 7th and 8th grade math and science in South Redford, Michigan from '90-'93 while working on a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan.  She completed her master's degree at the same time her husband completed medical school.  From there they moved to Lynchburg, Virginia where she taught various courses at Central Virginia Community College; basic math through precalculus.  While there, her favorite course that she taught was called "Math for the Machinist."  She taught this course on location at a factory called Babcock and Wilcox.  This company is a subcontractor for the government that makes parts for nuclear submarines.  To get in, she had to go through four different detectors, be searched, and be escorted by guards with machine guns to the classroom.  The students, all in their 50s, were required to take and pass this class to keep their jobs.  (That's one way to motivate students!)  About this experience Kate stated, "The students were great, I loved them!"

Kate says, "It's fun being a prof here, although it took me awhile to get used to calling some of my former professors by their first names (except Tim!)!"  She is even sharing an office with one of her former professors, Rick Vandervelde, who was called out of retirement to teach a class this semester.

Most of Kate's free time is spent with her kids.  Besides that, however, she and her husband are finishing their basement.   They also like to water ski in Lake Mac (which she says is much cleaner than Biloxi Bay!)

An interesting and timely note, Kate's husband Pete (a family practice doctor at South Washington Family Medicine who is still accepting new patients -just a little plug there!) was asked by Dean Frost to provide physicals for the pullers this year.  Pete was happy to do so since he is a former puller himself.  In fact, that is how Kate and Pete met in 1986 -- she was his morale girl (now know as a moraler).  She says that she will be at the pull on September 28 rooting for the freshmen!
 

Internships in cyberspace

If you think you might be interested in some sort of internship while you are a student, you don't have to look any farther than the web.  Information for government jobs, including internships, can be found at http://www.usajobs.opm.gov.  Information about internships in general can be found at http://www.ams.org/employment/undergrad.html.  Links to more information about careers and internships in mathematics can be found on the mathematics department web site at http://www.math.hope.edu.
(Click on Links.)