The 2013 Williams College SMALL Undergraduate Research Project is in full swing, many preparing for the summer meeting of the Mathematical Association of America in Hartford next week. The SMALL Undergraduate Research Project marched proudly in the Williamstown Parade, July 4,… Continue reading »
Math has finally renumbered our courses according to difficulty, with Linear Algebra moved from Math 211 to its central spot Math 250 and the core courses moved to the middle of the 300s, with the pre-core electives below and the post-core electives above. (For the full list of our offerings… Continue reading »
Humans have been investigating mathematical objects for thousands of years, and yet there is still so much more to investigate. Over 2000 years ago, Archimedes penned a letter to Diogenes describing a new method for computing areas and volumes. He performs a thought experiment whereby he weighs two shapes on… Continue reading »
You can sign up to give a 15-minute talk by March 4, 2013. On Saturday April 6, 2013 Williams College will be hosting the 20th Annual Hudson River Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (HRUMC). One of the first conferences of its kind, HRUMC was founded by four local schools: Siena… Continue reading »
What do you think? How do you think? And can you think even better? I’ve spent nearly ten years focusing on these and related questions. The result is a recently-published book, co-authored with Michael Starbird from The University of Texas at Austin, entitled The 5… Continue reading »
In what way is mathematics dangerous? This past year, the Williams College Gaudino program has been looking at the idea of danger. Hence my question, in what way is mathematics dangerous? Maybe there is emotional danger, as the media mocks the typical math professor as nerdy and… Continue reading »
I’d encourage mathematicians to look at Alain Badiou’s Being and Event and Logic of Worlds. Both are full of a lot of ideas. What mathematician cannot be thrilled by the statement in the introduction to Being and Event that “mathematics is ontology.” More directly, reading Badiou made… Continue reading »
Introductory proof writing is much like English as a Second Language. Developing written mathematical skills involves wrestling with issues of vocabulary, word choice, grammar, word order, punctuation, native expressions and (after enough experience) eventuates in fluency in the foreign language of mathematics. This analogy can provide a natural… Continue reading »
The hot hand is a term used in basketball to describe a player making a series of successful throws at the basket, i.e., getting “hot”. But it seems that we, as humans, are too fast at jumping at the conclusion that someone is “hot” just because we saw… Continue reading »
A typical professor in the science division at Williams college has three key items on the agenda: teach courses, publish research papers, and apply for grants. Teaching and research are the bread and butter of being a faculty member, but receiving funding from a grant agency (such as… Continue reading »