Happy European Palindrome Day!
Expressing today’s date in the typical European style [ Day / Month / Year ] gives us a palindromic date! Definitely a cause for mathematical celebration. Or at least mathematical appreciation.
I admit that, as an American, this doesn’t resonate with me as much as another recent Palindrome Day, but it’s always nice to take a moment and appreciate a good number.
As part of its mission, Math for America creates and supports interesting and diverse math learning opportunities for both teachers and students. A recent workshop led by George Hart, Chief Content Director of the forthcoming Museum of Mathematics, did just that, inviting a group of math-enthusiasts on an adventure through the worlds of geometry, engineering, and sculpture.
Inspired by Escher’s Planaria, Professor Hart designed and manufactured a linkage-system that can be used to build a face-centered cubic lattice. After assembling the pieces, the participants in the workshop were encouraged to build away!
It’s probably only natural that we became consumed with building something tall. And as we did, conversations arose about the role of symmetry in nature, as stability and strength in our structure seemed to demand it.
A fun, engaging, and mind-opening exploration of geometry, and much more! You can see more photos from this workshop on my facebook page and Professor Hart’s website.
The fact that we were discussing concave, orthodiagonal quadrilaterals on February 14th provided some incidental amusement.
Related Posts
Here’s a nice little quiz on plotting points in the Cartesian plane:
http://www.thatquiz.org/tq/practice.html?idpoints-j8-l5-m2kc0-na-p0
After you’ve warmed up, be sure to try plotting complex numbers, or test your knowledge of the Polar plane (in both degrees and radians).
There are a number of simple little quizzes to enjoy at thatquiz.org; just be careful not to let the day slip away!
This is an interesting article about variations on the pay-what-you-wish pricing model that has gained some attention in the last few years.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/caring-with-cash-or-how-radiohead-could-have-made-more-money
The band Radiohead famously offered their album “In Rainbows” on their website and asked fans to pay whatever they wanted for the download. The actual sales numbers are well-guarded, but it appears to have been a success.
The above article details how an amusement park merged the pay-what-you-want approach with a half-goes-to-charity approach (telling the customer that half of the purchase price is donated to charity). The product in question was a picture of the customer riding a roller coaster. Let’s abbreviate with PWYW (Pay What You Wish), HGTC (Half Goes to Charity), and PWWTY (pay-what-we-tell-you):
| Percent Sales | Average Sale Price | |
| PWWTY | .5% | $12.95 |
| PWWTY & HGTC | .57% | $12.95 |
| PWYW | 8.4% | $0.92 |
| PWYW & HGTC | 4.5% | $5.33 |
When given the opportunity to pay whatever they wanted, participation increased dramatically, but revenue was still low–only 92 cents per person. But when combined with the half-goes-to-charity approach, participation was much higher and the price paid was significantly higher. Even after taking out the half for charity, revenue was still up by a factor of three!
This is a very interesting approach to pricing, and there are some cool psychological and sociological principles at work here. And it’s another set of factors to consider when that salesperson is working on you.