Recently in Mathematics Category

For all you math fans out there: today you have reason to celebrate, because today (May 7, 2009, or 5/7/9) is Odd Day. According to the official Odd Day website:

Three consecutive odd numbers make up the date only six times in a century. This day marks the half-way point in this parade of Odd Days which began with 1/3/5. The previous stretch of six dates like this started with 1/3/1905---13 months after the Wright Brothers' flight.

We are awed by this phenomenon. We would be even more awed if some of our clever S&T students, alumni or faculty came up with an especially zealous, and odd, way to commemorate this occasion. The Odd Day website folks will give away $579 to be distributed to winning entries. There's even a Facebook event for this day.

So, what are you waiting for? July 9, 2011? Get your odd on today.

We're still 10 minutes early, but before the clock strikes 1:59 p.m. CDT (or SPT, St. Pat's Time), we wanted to wish our readers a Happy Pi Day. (Pi day always occurs on March 14 -- or 3.14 -- at 1:59:26.)

Also, please remember to celebrate our beloved Patron Saint of Engineers on this, the 100th anniversary of St. Pat's.

With the Lindsay Lohans and Paris Hiltons of this world grabbing the limelight with their antics, it's a wonder girls have any good role models these days.

Thankfully, there are people like Danica McKellar (at right, better known as Winnie from the '90s TV show The Wonder Years) who bring a positive message. "Being good at math is cool," she says in the latest Newsweek. "And not only that, it can help [girls] get what they want out of life."

McKellar is the author of a new book, Math Doesn't Suck, which resonates with the same message our faculty are trying to communicate through summer programs like It's a Girl Thing. The book, according to Newsweek, "contains syrupy dollops of just-between-us-girls encouragement, three miniprofiles of drop-dead-gorgeous mathematicians, as well as practical tips for avoiding sloppy mistakes on homework, overcoming test-day brain freeze and suggestions on what to do when algebra gets you down. (Hint: don't be afraid to sound dumb in class. Go ahead and ask.)" Not necessarily our type of book (then again, neither is the Harry Potter series), but if it gets more girls more interested in math, then we're all for it.

Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane is famous for applying statistical methods (sabermetrics) to the art of running a Major League Baseball organizaiton. But he isn't the only guy out there analyzing the best way to win. A UMR Ph.D. who goes by the handle Buster1 in the online world of Protrade, a sports stock market of sorts, calculated the odds of winning an MLB game way back in 1994. He writes in a recent Protrade post:

In 1994 I completed a dissertation for my Ph.D. at the University of Missouri(Rolla): THE APPLICATION OF MARKOV STATE PROBABILITIES IN DEVELOPING ARTFICIALLY INTELLGENT MANAGERIAL STRATEGIES: A CASE STUDY BASED ON MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL (U.M.I Order Number 9507444)

The following is a sample result of the dissertation:

Top of the 3rd Inning:
Home Team leading by 2 Runs

Large groups of people don't necessarily behave like flocks of seagulls or schools of fish. But it is possible to describe the behavior patterns of large crowds using mathematical models. Earlier this year, Lori Voss used advanced mathematics and computers in an attempt to explain and predict drinking behaviors on college campuses. Working with other undergraduates at a summer institute in Pomona, Calif., Voss assigned fictional students to four subgroups: abstainers, social drinkers, binge drinkers and problem drinkers. These subgroups were then put through a series of random interactions.

Voss and the other student researchers wanted to see if students in the subgroups would change their affiliations after interacting. "If you randomly mix people from one group with people from another group, their behaviors may change," says Voss, a senior in math at UMR.

(Editor's note: They should try this with Raiders and Chiefs fans.)

During the random interactions, the group at large is always changing but always trying to gravitate toward mathematical stability, according to Voss. "The models show that it's almost impossible for one group to completely dominate a community," she says. "Eventually, in our study, the computer gives us a fairly stable environment consisting of two or three subgroups of drinkers."

When the computer finishes running the interactions, two of the drinking subgroups on a stable campus end up having the most members: Social drinkers and abstainers.

(Editor's note II: Most Raiders fans and Chiefs fans could probably be described as problem drinkers. But, while Chiefs fans are typically capable of holding respectable jobs, it would be hard to imagine any group of Raiders fans in a stable environment.)

Voss will lead her group when it presents the research during the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science Oct. 26-29 in Tampa, Fla.

Today is Pi Day, which should be a cause for much celebration.

Why today, of all days, would we celebrate this wonderful mathematical constant? Wikipedia offers this explanation: Written in the USA date format, March 14 is an unofficial celebration for Pi Day derived from the common three-digit approximation for the number π: 3.14. It is usually celebrated at 1:59 PM (in recognition of the six-digit approximation: 3.14159).

So, go on and celebrate Pi Day! Put on some Don McLean, drive your Chevy to the levy, or indulge in your favorite baked treat. (Make mine cherry, please.)

Thanks to UK blogger Richard Hall for pointing out the significance of this day.

See also: The life of pi, which points out:

A supercomputer in Tokyo once calculated pi to more than 2 billion digits. It could not, however, reach the final decimal place because as every mathematician knows, that lies somewhere beyond infinity, a place they go only in their dreams.

"The mathematics of pi is often rather pretty," explained Ian Stewart, professor of mathematics at Warwick University.

"All numbers are interesting but some are more interesting than others and pi is the most interesting of the lot," Professor Stewart said.

P.S. UK blogger Richard Hall is not to be confused with videoblogger/UMR professor Richard Hall. Nor is today to be confused with Pi Approximation Day, which occurs on July 22 (7/22).