The Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Prove It!

Kenny W. Moran — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:00:04 PST

A dialogue between a mathematics professor, Frank, and his daughter, Sarah, a mathematical savant with a powerful mathematical intuition. Sarah's intuition allows her to stumble into some famous theorems from number theory, but her lack of academic mathematical background makes it difficult for her to understand Frank's insistence on the value of proof and formality.

Excavation

Manya Raman Sundström — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:00:01 PST

Elevator Speech

Pedro Poitevin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:59 PST

A New Graph

Eva Langston — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:57 PST

Three Mathematical Lyrics

Lawrence M. Lesser — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:55 PST

The author shares three mathematical lyrics, debuted at opening banquets of MathFest, the summer national meetings of the Mathematical Association of America.

We Could All Be Having So Much More Fun! A Case For The History Of Mathematics In Education.

Louise Anderton et al. — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:53 PST

Many students experience mathematics as ahistorical and acultural. We review the philosophical roots of this experience and pose alternatives. We argue that there is evidence that the inclusion of a historical dimension into the teaching of mathematics courses at all levels, combined with an ‘active’ approach to learning, will improve motivation and achievement.

Empiricism: An Environment for Humanist Mathematics

Carl E. Behrens — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:51 PST

Humanists have extended some links between mathematics and the physical world, but most mathematicians still believe they operate in an immaterial realm of the mind, with unquestionable logic and abstract thought. By rehabilitating the empiricism of John Stuart Mill and combining it with growing knowledge of the character of the human mind, we can escape from the indefinable Platonic universe of immaterial consciousness and abandon the futile quest for certainty that has plagued philosophy since the time of the Greeks.

The Volume of a Sphere

Lisl Gaal et al. — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:49 PST

This picture (with a brief explanation) and poem are intended to show that even serious mathematics can be fun for all ages.

Mathematics in Literature

Donald A. Preece — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:48 PST

A lightly edited version of a Public Talk intended for a general audience, this essay examines significant appearances of mathematics, mathematical education, and attitudes to mathematics in, particularly, English and French literature. Both serious and light-hearted sources are considered. No attempt is made to be comprehensive.

Logarithmic Spirals and Projective Geometry in M.C. Escher's "Path of Life III"

Heidi Burgiel et al. — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:46 PST

M.C. Escher's use of dilation symmetry in Path of Life III gives rise to a pattern of logarithmic spirals and an oddly ambiguous sense of depth.

The Day Without Evening: Leo Perutz, Evariste Galois, and Augustine

Andrea Albrecht — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:44 PST

The biography and historiography of Galois abound with conterfactual imaginations of how the course of mathematics would have been altered, had he not died so young. In the little know short story „The Day Without Evening,“ published in 1924, the Jewish-Austrian writer Leo Perutz essentially reiterates the usual narrative of the events leading to Galois‘ death, masked only by changing the name of the protagonist to Durval and transposing the setting to the Vienna of the beginning of the 20^th century. But he is also wary of such counterfactual imaginations. This can be understood in the context of Augustine‘s theology, alluded to in the title of the story, which leads to an understanding of Perutz‘s reasoning on the different temporal order of artistic, scientific, and divine creations.

Mathematical Creation

Mark Huber et al. — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:42 PST

Front Matter

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:40 PST

Final Exam

Robert Dawson — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:33:36 PDT

When setting an examination, the instructor should always keep in mind who is going to be writing it!

NumenRology: A Poetic Exploration of the Lives and Work of Famous Mathematicians

Mari-Lou Rowley — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:33:34 PDT

Zeroes

Florin Diacu — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:33:33 PDT

I am a number

Sarah Glaz — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:33:32 PDT

Book Review: What’s Luck Got to Do with It? The History, Mathematics, and Psychology of the Gambler’s Illusion by Joseph Mazur

Michael Lugo — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:33:31 PDT

This review of Joseph Mazur's book on the history of gambling, for a general audience, is in three parts, paralleling the structure of the book. The first part briefly outlines Mazur's coverage of the history of probability from prehistory to the present day, with a focus on gambling. The second part examines the relationship between the mathematics of gambling and probability theory, and summarizes classical problems in probability arising from gambling such as Galileo's dice and the Pascal-Fermat problem of points. The third part, on psychology, discusses the gambler's illusion and psychological motivations for gambling.

Book Review: It Walks in Beauty: Selected Prose of Chandler Davis, Edited and with an Introduction by Josh Lukin

Marjorie L. Senechal — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:33:29 PDT

To paraphrase William Butler Yeats (with apologies), how can we knowthe edited from the editor?

A Mathematician Weighs in on the Evolution Debate

Kris H. Green — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:33:28 PDT

There are a variety of reasons underlying the lack of public acceptance for the theory of evolution in the United States. An overlooked cause is related to problems with the mathematics curriculum in the K-12 setting. In this essay, we examine this relationship and propose changes to the mathematics curriculum that could improve mathematical thinking while also providing a basis for understanding theories, like evolution, that are poorly understood.