Dr. Sarah's Math 1010 Class Highlights

Dr. Sarah's Math 1010 Class Highlights
The following is NOT HOMEWORK unless you miss part or all of the class. See the Main Class Web Page for ALL homework and due dates.

  • Sat May 1 Final project presentations 12-2:30.
  • Tues Apr 27 Oral abstracts. Pants activity. Finish up What is Mathematics theme. Evaluations.
  • Mon Apr 26 Class Stats
  • Thur Apr 22 Review and discuss project 5 and final project.
  • Tues Apr 20 Test 2
  • Mon Apr 19 Statistics Detective
  • Thur Apr 15 Studies on classroom success. Study guide. Collect and discuss the project.
  • Tues Apr 13 Go over the Can We Predict the Future? Stocks, Class Data, and Raw Egg Regressions lab. Finish discussing Heart of Mathematics readings. Elections, including Landon and Roosevelt, Buchanan and Gore, and Bush and Obama.
    Modeling critiques for Project 4 via the theme of success in mathematics: Discuss the article exposure to A or F. Here's Good News... SAT scores are declining at a slower rate. Discuss the SAT and whether the SAT should predict college scores. Review the biased MRT instructions and relate to stereotype vulnerability. Stereotype vulnerability. Analyze and critique the items and discuss what we would like to back them up.
  • Mon Apr 12 Can We Predict the Future? Stocks, Class Data, and Raw Egg Regressions
  • Thur Apr 8 Discuss the Benjamin Franklin project and news article readings. Interactive Regression. Continue How Do You Know p. 185# 11. Discuss the actual predictor value, the estimated predictor values from a graph or via a line fit by eye, and related issues. Discuss the youth vote and project 4. Discuss Heart of mathematics readings. Predicting height and solving a crime. Begin searching for references related to project 4, such as regression analysis, unintended consequence environment.
  • Thur Apr 1 Discuss the average of the Nielsen Ratings. Review the Vietnam lottery from 1969 and relate to Jeff Weeks and breaking it up into smaller pieces / and shifting viewpoints from Andrew Wiles. Volume median and mean. Does Volume predict high from stock graph. Discuss linear regression and r2 value. Do How Do You Know p. 185# 11.
  • Tues Mar 30 Go over the lab. Discuss the measures of centers homework and share from Chapter 3 Section 1 of How Do You Know. Nielsen Ratings and advertising spins. Music choices and compatibility issues (measuring "difference" in music tastes via looking at vertical distance between points) music 1, music 2. 1969 Vietnam draft data, introduction to scatterplot, line of best fit, and boxplots via Starr [relate to the theme of breaking it up into smaller pieces, like Jeff Weeks, and shifting viewpoints, like Andrew Wiles].
  • Mon Mar 29 Representations of Data
  • Thur Mar 25 Discuss homework readings. Distance from home bar chart. Armspan bar chart. Height box plots. Review bar chart of volume of stocks from lab including how you can tell whether the mean will be above or below the median using the idea of a scale balance. Review the statistics of nature. Histogram of the ASULearn random number from 1 to 10. experiment and Excel analyses, including expected value of 5.2 from SUM(B2:B11)/10 and briefly mention the chi test [(B2-C2)^2/C2, CHITEST(B2:B11,C2:C11)] and p-value (are the observations statistically significant or can the differences be ascribed to random variations of chance?) Discuss whether the human mind can provide a random number. Discuss sampling versus census. Discuss mathematical proof versus statistical significance. GE experiment. Worst graph intro, worst graphs, cover.
  • Tues Mar 23 Test 2.
  • Mon Mar 22 stock graph and ASULearn anonymous data collection.
  • Thur Mar 18 Review from the homework problems due on Tuesday, the ASULearn quiz, and the study guide.
  • Tues Mar 16 Review from the car portion of the lab, the Ben Franklin lab and project, and Jane and Joan. Discuss the study guide. Discuss stock symbols. Credit card statement and payday loan. If time remains, look at some of the Statistics Data Questions on ASULearn for Monday.
  • Mon Mar 15 Condo and Car Purchases: Decisions, Decisions
  • Thur Mar 4 Collect lab, and debt info. Put up $37 problems. Tuesday activities. Search for national debt. Discuss local debt. Discuss interest rates, currency, and debt in NC, the US, and the world. Richard Feynman quotation: There are 1011 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers. philosophy of loans Student loan statement. Kelly blue book.
  • Tues Mar 2 $37 problems. Go over the Jane and Joan extra credit by using goal seek to discuss what interest rate would result in equal savings for them both. Discuss the lab and finance project. March 2, 2010 Lottery Lottery Picture of Excel work, Excel work file, Picture of Excel solutions, Excel solution file. Search google for lottery winner.
  • Mon Mar 1 Ben Franklin's Will - Part 1
  • Thur Feb 25 Review Lump sum philisophy. Intro to Goal Seek and Solver in Excel via Lisa's Thrifty Savers savings account from Bart the Fink. How much will we have if we deposit $100 into an account and leave it there for 4.5 years, compounded monthly at one of the rates from the homework. How much we will end up with if $100 is deposited into an account and left alone for 25 years, compounded monthly at 5%. Compare to $100 deposited every month into an account and left alone for 25 years, compounded monthly at 5%. Work towards periodic payment understanding and compare the philosophy to the lump sum formula derivation and to Andrew Wiles and Fermat's Last Theorem (philosophy slides). Transparencies from class. $5 a month deposited each month for 12 years into an account compounding monthly at one of the rates from the homework. If time remains, Ben Franklin's Will - Part 1
  • Tues Feb 23 Quotes on taxation. Local to global taxes. Finish Homer's taxes. Search for history of taxation. History and ethics of charging interest for the use of land, animals, money.
    Plimpton Cuneiform 322 and interpreting data
    Usury is Piracy Discuss 142 years compounding monthly versus annually. Each student comes up with their own formula. Lump sum philisophy. Real-life bank situation. Past student was told that her c.d. will be compounded monthly at 8% for 8 months, and is told that this 8% will apply each and every month. Let's say that she put in $1000. How much would her c.d. be worth at the end of 8 months? What did the bank really mean? Discuss other possibilities for unknowns - the time length, the rate, or the number of times compounding per year. Intro to Goal Seek and Solver in Excel via Lisa's Thrifty Savers savings account from Bart the Fink.
  • Mon Feb 22 Finish the mathematician segment. Can I make a triangle: 5 people - no, Java game HEXI for 6 people? Notes. Review the themes of what mathematics is, examples of abstract mathematics that was useful later (ie what it is good for), and success in mathematics. Begin simple interest. Look at the IRS webpage and the 1040 form. Search for Homer's paycheck. Fill out Homer's taxes.
  • Mon Feb 15 - Thur Feb 18
  • Leonardo Fibonacci (1170-1250):
    http://www.maths.surrey.ac.uk/hosted-sites/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibnat.html pinecone   spiral 1   spiral 2   spiral 3   spiral 4   spiral 5 Mention Heart of Mathematics p. 58.
  • Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519):
    Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, Polyhedra, Vitruvian Man, Measure your forearm. Measure your hand. What is the ratio of your foreare/hand? Mention Heart of Mathematics p. 235.
  • Rene Descartes (1596-1650):
    Cartesian coordinates in 2-D and 3-D and analytic geometry
    2-D fly on the ceiling 3-D coordinates, video games, space shuttle and gimbals.
  • Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727):
    He laid the foundation for differential and integral calculus. He worked on optics and gravitation.
  • Leonhard Euler (1707-1783): Leah and Mary-Faith
    mathematical terminology and notation, including a mathematical function
    calculus, analysis, and graph theory
    experiment
  • Sophie Germain (1776-1831):
    Sophie Germain primes and her work on Fermat's Last Theorem and optics. decoding the message. p. 95 Heart of Mathematics.
  • Florence Nightingale (1820-1910):
    Polar Chart. worksheet Pie chart and polar chart of birth month.
  • Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866):
    Riemannian geometry -> Einstein's theory of relativity. Riemann integral. One of the Millenium Prize Problems worth 1,000,000 dollars: Riemann hypothesis about roots in number theory is still unsolved, although computer calculations have shown that the first 10 trillion cases work.
  • Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924-)
    Complex Numbers
    Numerical Analysis to aid in the design of missile fuses and trajectory and orbit analyses for the Vanguard, Mercury, and Apollo space projects:
    I found employment in government and private industry, where I had to study on my own areas of mathematics (mainly numerical analysis) needed to do the projects assigned to me. Whenever I speak to groups of young people I always advise them that learning never ends. The projects I worked on were in no way related to my thesis topic. (Granville, 2007)
    My favorite challenge to teachers and children is to solve the following problem using three different methods: Rabbits and chickens have been placed in a cage. You count 48 feet and seventeen heads. How many rabbits and how many chickens are in the cage? (Granville, 2007)
  • Stephen Hawking (1942-):
    What is our lived reality? Stephen Hawking's Universe
  • Bill Gates (1955):
    Flipping pancakes, Bacteria Pancakes, Article,
  • Thur Feb 11 Carolyn Gordon worksheet. Meet with groups about their mathematician project.
  • Tues Feb 9 What is mathematics quotations. Discuss video and possible answers to The Proof. Andrew Wiles worksheet. Brief intro to my own research and my mathematical style in a digital presentation that is a model for the next segment. Highlight the theme of diverse ways to succeed in mathematics and "making the material your own."
  • Mon Feb 8 the proof
  • Thur Feb 4 Test 1
  • Tues Feb 2 Collect and discuss the lab. Review using the Jeff Weeks worksheet. Portal. Flatland
  • Mon Feb 1 Universe lab
  • Thur Jan 29 Go over problems 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Highlight the theme of diverse ways to succeed in mathematics and "making the material your own." I, Roommate from Futurama universe activity. The Shape of Space Video - this 11-minute animated video produced by The Geometry Center introduces the two-dimensional space of flatland, looks at possible shapes for flatland from the perspective of three dimensions, and represents those shapes of space in two dimensions. Then the animation uses the same kind of representation to look at possible shapes for three-dimensional space. Viewers are taken on a ride across the boundless three-dimensional surface of a three-torus and a four-dimensional Klein bottle. As viewers see these imaginary universes from inside the spaceship, they experience the illusion of seeing copies of the universes. Rob Kirschner's Supernovae results related to whether brightness=1/distance2.
  • Tues Jan 27 Circumference. Discuss Monday's lab. Go over Project 2 problems 1-7, and briefly discuss problems 8-11.
  • Mon Jan 25 2D universes lab
  • Thur Jan 21 Take questions on the project. What does our universe look like, how do we know, and how do we represent it? Selections cut from PBS Life by the Numbers: Seeing is Believing Video: Modern artists and mathematicians are trying to grapple with the 4th physical dimension. Mathematics helps define space and helps present visions of our world to us. Tom Banchoff as a mathematician. Shape of the World video: Viewers see how mathematics has become a tool to explore the heavens as the cosmos is charted. Class concentrates on what our universe looks like, how we know, and how we represent it. Discuss the video. 2-D creature movements of the caterpillar turning into a 3-D movement butterfly. PacMan sequence from Futurama (Anthology of Interest II) and a tiling view versus folding up the space (where PacMan would see his back which would look like a piece of a circle or a flat line to him). Davide Cervone's Cube Projections.
  • Tues Jan 19 Collect homework. Where is North? Review activities from Thursday. Review Escher's space Sphere with Angels and Devils, 1942.. Sphere Surface with Fish. 1958 Discuss a computer model of Escher's space called hyperbolic geometry.
    Discuss the sum of the angles in a triangle as well as the Pythagorean Theorem in Hyperbolic geometry via the hyperbolic worksheet.
  • Angle sum
  • Pythagorean theorem Discuss physical models of small pieces of hyperbolic space. Crochet model of hyperbolic geometry Reef Crochet reef
    Discuss the problems in Project 2
  • Thur Jan 14 Share something from the readings on perspective drawing or class on Tuesday. Take attendance. Class Activities on Perspective Drawing and Projective Geometry
  • Tues Jan 12 Fill out index sheet. Share from the syllabus or Monday's lab. What does a space look like? How do we know? How do we represent it? Are The Simpsons 2D or 3D? M.C. Escher and the mathematical clues he left in his work: Sun and Moon.   Worksheet on Escher.   (number 2). Quotes from Escher on how he does mathematics and where it comes from. Discuss whether mathematics arises from nature or whether we impose our mathematical discoveries onto nature. Advice from last semester. Go over the webpages and ASULearn messages.
  • Mon Jan 11 Discuss How could we tell that the earth is round instead of flat without using any technology (ie if we were ancient Greeks)? Make a list of ideas on the board. Watch 10 minute video excerpts and prepare to share something to discuss: Life By the Numbers Shape of the World (maps of the earth) and Seeing is Believing (perspective). Write down something you found interesting, disagreed with, or that you wish had been shown. Highlight the questions of what our world looks like, how we know, and how we represent it. Highlight Danny Glover's discussion that the earth is finite but has no edges, that a flat map of the earth must contain some distortion, and Sam Edgerton's views that perspective -> industrial revolution, that perspective is learned - not innate, and that we must distort the work to give the illusion of depth. Julian Beever's pavement drawings:
    Butterfly
    Globe wrong view
    Globe correct view
    Accident
    I decided to get into 3D after seeing the effect of tiles being removed from the street, and later trying to recreate the sense of depth in a drawing. Once I realised you could make things go down, I realised you could make them appear to go up and I began experimenting.