My latest contribution to the New York Times Learning Network is a collection of teaching and learning ideas that use New York Times resources to explore the mathematics of elections.
The ideas cover both primary and presidential elections, and involve polling, demographics, campaign finance, and even a little graph theory!
Through Math for America, I am part of an on-going collaboration with the New York Times Learning Network. My latest contribution, a Test Yourself quiz-question, can be found here:
https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/test-yourself-math-jan-25-2012/
This question is based on the rising number of weight-loss surgeries performed each year in the U.S. How many are being performed on patients under 21 years of age?
This is an amazing application of origami: a steel grocery bag that can fold flat!
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/03/paper-plastic-or-steel.html
Although you probably wouldn’t want to carry these to the store with you, this result could have real applications in industrial packaging. In addition, it’s another step towards the mathematical-origamist’s dream: designing building that can rearrange and rebuild itself as needed!
A great talk by Erik Demaine on mathematical origami opened my eyes have this amazing application of mathematics, and my students and I have been having a lot of fun with folding ever since!
Through Math for America, I am part of an on-going collaboration with the New York Times Learning Network. My latest contribution, a Test Yourself quiz-question, can be found here:
https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/test-yourself-math-jan-23-2012/
This question is related to a publicly-funded program that trains private-sector employees in North Carolina. Just how much does this program cost the government?
Today we celebrate our first Permutation Day of the new year! I call days like today permutation days because the digits of the day and month can be rearranged to form the year.
We enjoyed several Permutation Days in 2011. In addition to predicting future dates, an interesting question would be “Which year has the most Permutation Days?”
In honor of today, I recommend changing the order in which you do things!