I noticed that two recent dates had the property that the day-month combination was just a permutation of the year.
This struck me as a rare occurrence. And then I realized that we had an honest-to-goodness palindrome date coming up!
This is definitely a rare occurrence! In celebration, I recommend that you do something forwards and then backwards.
I suppose the question now is, “When is the next palindrome day?”
After producing the third-lowest home run total in the National League, the New York Mets are altering the dimensions of their home park, Citi Field.
https://www.espn.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/7174665/new-york-mets-officially-announce-citi-field-dimension-changes
Only 108 home runs were hit at Citi in 2011. The reconfigured outfield, from left to right, will have new distances from home plate of 335, 358, 385, 408, 398, 375, and 330 feet. The old distances were 335, 371, 384, 408, 415, 378, and 330.
The Mets claim that this reduces the in-play surface by 2 percent. The area of play more than 300 feet from home plate will be reduced by 5 percent.
Comparing the areas of these regions is a fun little math problem. The real question, of course, is how many more home runs will be hit at Citi Field next year?
This is an interesting article about Harvard mathematician L. Mahadevan, who studied the physics of how the artist Jackson Pollock created his work.
http://www.scimag.com/news-DA-Jackson-Pollock-Artist-and-Physicist-070511.aspx
The author contends that Pollock was essentially experimenting with, and learning, fluid dynamics as he developed his artistic technique.
The drips, drops, and coils seen in Pollack’s work are the result of careful attention to the properties of the various liquids used, and the height and angle of application.
According to the article, Pollock was experimenting with “coiling fluids” quite some time before the first scientific papers appeared on the subject!
This is a small but useful collection of classroom resources built around applications of mathematics from the Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching.
http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/resources/topical/
There are lesson plans and student handouts built around topics like Carbon Footprint, Popular Baby Names, Rankings in Sports, and Physical Fitness, among many others.
There are definitely some interesting ideas and resources here, to help bring these topics into your math classroom and to your students!
