Week Eleven

Discussion:
I thought the discussion was fun and interesting. I liked having a discussion on things I've often thought about like GPA and whether to take a class that you will actually learn in or a class that will get you the easy A. It was nice to hear other people's opinions on the subject too. I also would like to know the answers to a lot of the questions that were posed at the end of the discussion. That would be interesting to know.

Week Ten

-Where is the line between math and science? Is mathematics a science?
Well, what really is science too. Dictionary.com says:
Science is a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws: the mathematical sciences.

Maybe anything can be considered a science too because subjects are usually based on facts though maybe not liberal arts as they have more interpretations. Still there are computer sciences and engineering which deals with a lot of science too so where do you draw the line of whether its a pure science like biology, physics and chemistry, to where it is applying science Why is it that biology, physics and chemistry are the main sciences? Either way, you need math to do science but you don't need science to do math most of the time!

- Does training in mathematics effect your thinking in all areas of life? Do mathematicians think differently? - Do mathematicians think alike?
Yes a math background does effect the way you think in other areas but that same can be said for other subjects. A lot of people say that mathematicians think differently but everyone thinks differently. Its not like all of us think of the same things, all the time. It depends on how you learned it and everything else.

- Is mathematics independent of application meaningful?
Yes, because you never know when it can become applicable to someone else at some other point in time. A lot of time with the research, people always ask why are you doing that or how are you going to use that for anything important? And all research is important and all of it is useful for something.

- Would it be appropriate for the university to offer a course on the mathematics of gambling?
Probability is probably the closest the school is ever going to get with a course on the mathematics of gambling.

- When we write down equations to describe the real world, how do we know the success is not just coincidence?
If you can prove that the equation you wrote is true with a solid mathematical proof, it should work right?

- Some people are incapable of understanding mathematics.
It depends on the mathematics really. In some sense, everyone can understand math because you use math everyday. But its interesting to observe that it is perfectly ok for people to say that they hate math but if someone was to say they hate reading, it is really looked upon as something bad because so many people say that they dont understand math. I think it depends on the culture and if the particular culture finds that its acceptable to say that you don't like math.

Week Nine

Thoughts:
What I thought was very interesting about the talk given by the high school teacher that had done industry work for Friendly's was the project he had given his students. I probably would have really enjoying having a project of making a boomerang in high school. In my class in high school, we made polyhedrons and those were fun too. Someone had actually made a polyhedron so big that it couldn't fit through the door.

As for the research, if you feel that we aren't getting very far with the speghetti then I'm willing to change the project. I would just want to have a project that can produce results.

Week Eight

Other Questions:

I don't have a particular question that hasn't been answered with regards to the speakers and the information they presented. They gave a lot of information towards their personal expierence in becoming what they are now and I know its difficult to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life and I'm still kindof really unsure about that but I guess I'm pretty satisfied at the moment with having learned what other people have done.

Week Seven

Prof. Lazebnik's talk:

I thought it was really interesting how he was able to remember certain problems after so many years. I was also amazed on how these problems influenced him so much.

I did have a teacher that first influenced me towards math when I was younger. I was always good at math in elementary school and I was always in the advanced classes except after 5th grade because the teacher felt I was too quiet which was fine. I really didn't notice until the 7th grade when I had the teacher that no one ever wanted for math. My teacher, Mr. Scheffler, was known to be very strict. One day he had called on me for a problem. It was something really easy like conversions or something but I asked to do it on the board which I guess was the first time that happened because after that he was just always very nice, and he liked to show me as an example for other kids of what they should have been doing on their hw and such. I did practically perfect on all the hws and exams. He liked to talk about how I should seriously consider math and how I should start early so that summer he gave me a lot of work to do. It might have been the work just covered by the advanced class but I did it all and the following year skipped to the advanced classes and so I continued with those until college. From there it was just always math. I went to math camps and did some math competitions and just always enjoyed it.

Another really cool teacher I had was my calculus teacher in high school. He was a really akward guy but he had the craziest stories. Also if you dropped some coins, any coins, on the ground, he would be able to guess which coins fell and how many of each coin. He also had a quotient rule song which might have influenced me to memorize it for the rest of my life.
Other than that, these professors named Pelesko and Cook introduced me to research and I really liked that! It kindof might have influenced me to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life but who knows. :)

And I do love math too. I'm not always the best at it but I appreciate it and I honestly think its the best thing in the world to finally figure out a problem and completely understand it.

Week Six

Overview of the Speakers:

The graduate students were very interesting. I thought their talks were very useful because I don't talk to graduate students very often about how they got where they are or why. I thought Regon's talk was the most entertaining but he's always very animated so that was fun. Derek, Pam, and Todd were interesting too. I just liked listening to their stories. It was fun.

I liked L. Charles Biehl's talk about his involvement on the show Numb3rs. I thought the math was very interesting. It wasn't anything I had seen before and I think its a great way to make students more interested in math by relating it to a TV show.

Prof. Schleiniger's talk was a little bit beyond of what I understood. I don't know much about business and I kindof don't have much of an interest in business but I did understand part of it! He was also very nice and interesting.

Week Five

Course on Any Mathematical Topic:

If I could request a course on any mathematical topic that is not currently in our caralog, I would request to have a course that would explore a connection between art and math. I think there used to be one called Geometry in Art. They have some drawings in the 4th floor of Ewing and it seems really interesting. I hear a lot about math being used to construct amazing architecture and compose masterpieces with the Fibannoci numbrs in my art history classes. Also, the philosophy of math in ancient times can be seen sometimes through a civilization's art. Even a lot of modern artists explore many concepts of math to create their pieces of work.

Another possible class would be further exploring the concept of solving forensic cases with mathematics.