The 2012-2013 Math Circle season is now fully underway, with the first math circle at the Kingston Library of the season. Participants enjoyed our math circle puzzles and games, a sheet of challenging math problems at the middle school level, and especially our hands-on project, which this month involved wooden cubes and masking tape!
Please join us for the remaining 8 math circles in Kingston!
Location: Kingston Library, 55 Franklin Street, Kingston, NY
Date and Time: 2nd Saturdays, 1-3pm. Upstairs in the Community Room
Fall 2012: September 8, October 13, November 10, December 8
(No meeting in January)
Spring 2013: February 9, March 9, April 13, May 11, June 8
USA Mathematical Talent Search
This year’s problems for the USA Mathematical Talent Search are available, and the round 1 problems are due on October 22, 2012. This contest is interesting in that students send in full explanations, rather than just the numerical answers. Good luck to any Bard Math Circle students who compete!
The Mid-Hudson Math Teachers’ Circle
New this year is the Mid-Hudson Math Teachers’ Circle. Announced in the Kingston Daily Freeman, the Mid-Hudson Math Teachers’ Circle will extend the Bard Math Circle’s work with local math teachers.
Over the last year, math teachers have been able to receive continuing education credit for their participation in the Bard Math Circle library program (teachers – please check My Learning Plan). This Bard Math Circle and Ulster BOCES partnership will continue this year, and we’ll announce the first activities of the Mid-Hudson Math Teachers’ Circle here.
The New York Math Circle has also invited local teachers to participate in their Math Teachers’ Summer Workshop at Bard College, which recently completed its 4th annual program.
The text of the Daily Freeman announcement is below.
ON THE MOVE: Week of Aug. 20, 2012
Lauren Rose, associate professor of mathematics at Bard College, received funding from the American Institute of Mathematics to bring a team of educators to the institute’s intensive weeklong program, “How to Run a Math Teachers’ Circle Workshop,” in Washington, D.C., this past July. Rose’s team comprises Jeff Suzuki (former Bard math professor and mathematician from Brooklyn College); Beth Goldberg (Bard Master of Arts in Teaching alumna and middle school teacher at the Linden Avenue Middle School, Red Hook); Sheila Shaffer (middle school teacher at Bailey Middle School, Kingston) and Dana Fulmer (administrator at the Ulster County BOCES).
Experience gained through the workshop enabled Rose and her team to launch The Mid-Hudson Math Teachers’ Circle, which strives to improve mathematics education in local middle schools by hosting bimonthly Math Teachers’ Circles throughout the Mid-Hudson Valley.
Chalk Walk and Tessellations at the Kingston Library
This weekend marked the last meeting of the Bard Math Circle at the Kingston Library for the spring 2012 semester. Bard undergraduates are preparing for finals, seniors will soon be graduating, and Bardians retreat for the summer.
The circle coincided with the Kingston Library’s Chalk Walk, so we planned out a chalk tessellation activity as our hands-on project. We started by learning about symmetries and transformations using Scott Kim’s Half Words activity in pairs, and then everyone designed their own tessellation, based on a square grid.
Heading outside, we grabbed chalk and claimed sidewalk squares on Franklin Street and chalked out our designs. Here’s a gallery of the sidewalk surrounding the library, including our designs.
After tessellating, we solved the interesting problems and the Bard math majors presented solutions. I’m excited how they’re developing as teachers! They’re learning to engage the students, share multiple strategies, and connect the problems to other contexts. One Bardian is graduating, and will head off to earn her masters in teaching degree and become a math teacher. Next year looks like it will be in good hands with the Bardians who return as seniors.
Check out the last photo, as we celebrated the end of the semester at Boice Brothers Dairy for some delicious ice cream!
Mathematics in the Game of SET®
Here’s a message from Bard Math Professor Lauren Rose. Lauren is the co-founder and faculty co-advisor of the Bard Math Circle. – Japheth
___________________________________________
Dear Colleagues and friends,
The Bard Math Dept/Bard Math Circle presents two talks about the card game SET®, next Wed evening and Thursday afternoon. The first talk is for a general audience (appropriate for high school students) and the second is more geared toward math majors.
Below is a press release, followed by email announcements of the two talks. Please forward widely to students, colleagues and community members, and print out and post the attached flyer.
Thanks,
Lauren
___________________________________________
BARD COLLEGE MATH DEPARTMENT HOSTS LECTURE ON MATHEMATICS IN THE GAME OF SET®
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—On Wednesday, April 18 at 7:30 pm in the Multipurpose Room of the Bertelsmann Campus Center, Bard College’s department of mathematics hosts a talk by guest speaker Elizabeth McMahon, professor of mathematics at Lafayette College. McMahon will deliver the lecture, “Game, SET®, Math! Mathematics in the Game of SET®.” This event, intended for a general audience, is free and open to the public.
The card game SET® is a popular award-winning game played with a special deck of 81 cards. Through combinatorics, probability, linear algebra, and geometry, a player can learn a lot about the game. In this talk, McMahon will explore some of the things we can learn about the game by looking at the mathematics behind it. Furthermore, by using the game to help with visualization, this lecture also explores how the game of SET® can deepen one’s understanding of mathematics. To learn more about the game or to practice playing before the talk, go to www.setgame.com for the rules and a Daily Puzzle.
Dr. Elizabeth McMahon is Professor of Mathematics at Lafayette College. She earned an A.B. from Mount Holyoke College, an M.S. in Mathematics at the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Originally trained in non-commutative ring theory, her current research interests are in combinatorics, finite geometry, and Cayley graphs. She has held visiting positions at numerous institutions, including the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge, U.K. and the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science at Rutgers University. She has been recognized for her teaching through several awards, including the James P. Crawford EPADEL Teaching Award from the Mathematical Association of America in 2005.
Game, SET, Math!Wednesday, April 18, 20127:30 p.m., Campus Center, Multipurpose RoomA lecture by
Elizabeth McMahon Lafayette College The card game SET is an award-winning, addictive game played with a special deck of 81 cards. We can learn a lot about the game through combinatorics, probability, linear algebra and geometry. In this talk, we will explore some of the things we can learn about the game by looking at the mathematics behind it, and we’ll also see that you can learn more about mathematics using the game to help with visualization. If you would like some practice with the game before the talk, go to www.setgame.com for the rules and a Daily Puzzle. Dr. Elizabeth McMahon is Professor of Mathematics at Lafayette College. She earned an A.B. from Mount Holyoke College, an M.S. in Mathematics at the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Originally trained in non-commutative ring theory, her current research interests are in combinatorics, finite geometry, and Cayley graphs. She has held visiting positions at numerous institutions, including the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge, UK and the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science at Rutgers University. She has been recognized for her teaching through several awards, including the James P. Crawford EPADEL Teaching Award from the Mathematical Association of America in 2005. This event, intended for a general audience, is free and open to the public.
Sponsor(s): Mathematics Program and Bard Math Circle.
|
|
|
|
|
Using SET to Explore Affine GeometryThursday, April 19, 20123:30 p.m., Hegeman 308A lecture by
Elizabeth McMahon Lafayette College The cards in the game of SET are an excellent model for the finite affine geometry AG(4,3). We will explore how to use the game to visualize the structure of the geometry. We will focus on complete caps, which correspond to largest possible collections of cards with no sets. There is an interesting structure to these caps, and even more, the geometry can be partitioned into disjoint complete caps together with a single point closely related to the caps.
For more information: contact Lauren Rose rose@bard.edu.
Sponsor(s): Mathematics Program.
|
|
Problems and Solutions for Kingston Math Circle 3/10/12
Solutions
1. In the correctly worked out addition problem below, different letters represent different digits. What digit does A represent?
A4+4A=BCB
First, look at how big the sum can be, and deduce that B must be 1, since the sum of two 2-digit numbers can’t be more than 198 (which is 99+99). Second, consider the units digits. Since A + 4 ends with B = 1, A must be 7.
Check: 47 + 74 = 121.
2. What is the first year in the 21st century (2001 through 2100) that is divisible by 11?
Divide: 2000 ÷ 11 = 181 with remainder 9. Add 2 years to get the next multiple of 11, which is 2002.
Alternate solution: Find a nearby multiple of 11, for example 2200, and count back by 99. Counting backwards, 2200, 2200 – 99 and 2200 – 99 – 99 are all multiples of 11. The last one is 2200 – 99 – 99 = 2002.
3. 9 apes weigh as much as 4 bears. 8 bears weigh as much as 15 cougars. 10 cougars weigh as much as 27 deer. How many deer weigh the same as 4 apes?
Let’s scale up! If 9 apes weigh as much as 4 bears, then doubling, 18 apes weigh as much as 8 bears, and so 18 apes weigh as much as 15 cougars. Let’s double that to find that 36 apes weigh as much as 30 cougars, and so 36 apes weigh as much as 3 times 27, or 81 deer. Now scale down by a factor of 9 to find that 4 apes weigh as much as 9 deer.
Did you know you could tessellate a car?
I thought that this VW Bug was really cool when I found it on Facebook. Then I realized it was a tessellation! If you don’t know what a Tessellation is you should come to one of our upcoming Math Circles! Jeannette designed a really cool activity about tessellations.
Deltoidal Hexecontahedron
Japheth mentioned a few weeks ago MoMath’s “Math Monday” series. I was looking for activities to do this semester with our Circles, and I found this activity. There are many decks in my house that haven’t been used in years, so I decided to try one for myself.
This is my attempt a deltoidal hexecontahedron. (deltoid = kite, hexeconta = sixty). The construction turned out a little warped in some places; nevertheless, it was a good way to spend an afternoon!
MoMath Activities
For those of you who are just waiting for the Museum of Mathematics to open in Manhattan:
- The wonderful MoMath Activities are now available on their website. You’ve enjoyed building the Hyperbolic Parabola Model and the Hexatetra Flexagon at the Bard Math Circle. Now download and try them all!
- The Math Midway is at New Jersey’s Liberty Science Center through January 22, 2012.
- MoMath is sponsoring monthly Math Encounters at Baruch College in Manhattan. These are public talks that celebrate the spectacular world of mathematics. Most amazingly, these are FREE (but you must register to reserve your seat). Recommended for human beings age 12 to adult.
Problem 7: Sharing Cookies
How many ways can Jeff, Jeannette, Joy, and Jackie share 7 chocolate chip cookies? Each person should get at least one cookie.
For example:
Jeff ••
Jeannette •••
Joy •
Jackie •
Jeannette •••
Joy •
Jackie •