Good News Everyone! Mathematical Morsels from The Simpsons and Futurama
Did you know that The Simpsons and Futurama contain hundreds of humorous mathematical and scientific references? What curious mathematical object is used as a bottle for beer in the 31st century? What happens when Homer tries to emulate Thomas Edison? What is the significance of the number 1729? The only prerequisite for this talk is an open mind, so come find out!We'll explore the mathematical content and educational value of some favorite moments along with the motivations and backgrounds of the writers during an interactive talk. Popular culture can reveal, reflect, and even shape how society views mathematics, and with careful consideration of the benefits and challenges, these programs can be an ideal source of fun ways to introduce important concepts and to reduce math anxiety. In the process we'll look at related, recent work in geometry and computational number theory so a calculator and writing utensil will be useful. For more information, check out SimpsonsMath.com.
Bender's Big Score: Greenwaldian Theorem
Pi-day with The Simpsons and Futurama
What can you do with a degree in mathematics? An easier question might be to ask what can't you do? Did you know that The Simpsons and Futurama contain hundreds of humorous mathematical and scientific references? Come celebrate pi-day with The Simpsons and Futurama as we explore the mathematical content and educational value of some favorite pi moments along with the motivations and backgrounds of the writers during an interactive talk. Popular culture can reveal, reflect, and even shape how society views mathematics, and with careful consideration of the benefits and challenges, these programs can be an ideal source of fun ways to introduce important concepts and to reduce math anxiety.Popular Culture and Mathematics: Gender, Race, and more
Mathematics is pervasive in modern society, and on some level we all use mathematics in our daily lives. Have you ever known anyone who asserted that they do not have the "math gene"? Where do those messages come from? Popular culture can reveal, reflect, and even shape how society views mathematics and mathematicians, and we'll analyze examples from a variety of shows and films and consider the intersections of gender, race, class, and ability. For example, The Simpsons and Futurama contain hundreds of humorous mathematical and scientific references. We'll also discuss ways to counter stereotypes and to contribute to research in this area. At the same time we'll reflect more broadly on what mathematics has to offer, and the diverse ways that people can succeed to make an impact, including you!Mathematical Identities: Representing the Underrepresented
Known stereotypes of mathematicians conflict with a variety of identities, including cultural, ethnic, gender, and sexual identities. We'll look at some of the literature on mathematical identity and give practical suggestions to counter common stereotypes and reinforce the idea that everyone belongs in mathematics.Promoting Women in Mathematics
We'll highlight ways people study and understand the climate for underrepresented mathematicians and will then turn our attention to how people have made and can make a difference, focusing specifically on promoting women in mathematics. This is planned partly as a talk and partly as an exchange of ideas.How and Why AWM was Founded, and Why It's Still Needed in the 21st Century
The Fields Medal, Girl Scouts, GoldieBlox, Wikipedia and more? We'll explore how these relate to the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) and why AWM is needed today. AWM is a non-profit organization that supports and promotes female students, teachers and researchers. With more than 3000 members (women and men), AWM represents a broad spectrum of the mathematical community - from the United States and around the world. While AWM was celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2011, I was beginning to research the history of the organization. We'll look back at how and why AWM was formed as we learn about the active role it continues to play in the lives and work of girls and women.
Geometry of the Earth and Universe
The quest to understand the precise geometry and shape of our universe began thousands of years ago, when mathematicians and astronomers used mathematical models to try and explain their observations. We'll explore historical and current theories related to the geometry of the earth and universe during an interactive talk. A globe or child's ball will be useful.
Rubik's Cube Games on Spheres: Geometry of Spherical Orbifolds
We'll slice up basketballs in order to form new spaces like footballs and triangular pillows, and then look at the geometry of the resulting spaces, called orbifolds. Orbifolds furnish a natural starting point for the study of singular spaces and they are especially of interest to mathematicians and physicists. Diverse applications of orbifolds include connections to crystallography, string theory and music theory. Many results, such as those requiring local analysis, generalize easily to the orbifold setting, but most global results do not. Imagine a spherical Rubik's game where you can rotate spherical triangles on the surface of the sphere. This game exists and is called the Impossiball and we'll use it to help understand orbifolds, as we look at lots of examples and results related to the diameter, Euler characteristic, and spectrum. This talk is aimed at students interested in mathematics or physics who have taken linear algebra or multivariable calculus.
Impossiball
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