MATH 396 Communications in Mathematics

Transcription

1 MATH 396 Communications in Mathematics About the course. Catalog description: Electronic, written and oral communication in mathematics. Prerequisite: Math 220 and junior/senior status, mathematics majors only. 1 credit hour Course Objectives: The students will be expected to: Write articles in L A TEX and produce transparency (for a projector) in L A TEX or Beamer; produce a usable resume; interview well; read and understand mathematical literature, then produce a paper on what they have learned; be able to give a presentation at an appropriate level; and write about an advanced math topic at a level comprehensible to non-mathematicians with little math background. Textbook: None. L A TEX web resources: If you want to install a L A TEX system on your own computer, then try MiKTeX on a Windows system, MacTeX on a Mac, and TEXLive on a Linux machine. If you want to work online, then try writelatex. Note: You cannot spell check on writelatex without paying and I require you to spell check. So save your document and use Kile or some other program which allows you to spell check. In class, we used Kile on the Calclab computers. You can access the Calclab computers either during the open hours in Blocker 128 or remotely from the university Open Access Labs by using the installed X2go Client. Two introductory guides are the Not So Short Introduction to L A TEX by Tobias Oetiker et al. and A beginner s introduction to typesetting with L A TEX by Peter Flynn. The User s Guide for the amsmath Package explains how to align displayed formulas and how to handle other sophisticated formatting of mathematics. The Comprehensive TEXArchive Network is the place to look for add-on packages and documentation. For experienced users, tex.stackexchange.com is a community forum. is a website on which you may draw your symbol or equation and get Latex code back. From the site: click on Web Equation Draw your equation. The rendered equation appears below it on the left, and the L A TEX code to produce the rendered equation appears to the right. Google is your friend. Instructors. Rashi Arora: Blocker 208, rashiarora15 at tamu.edu Sinjini Sengupta: Blocker 215, ssinjini at math.tamu.edu Sang Rae Lee: Blocker 510 J, srlee at math. tamu.edu 1

2 About course policies. Term Paper. Since this is a communications class, there will be a term paper in lieu of a final. You will be required to turn in two copies of a draft as well as one copy of the final paper. The term paper is worth 30 points of which 10 will be given to the rough draft. The paper should be 6-8 pages long not including references, and must be double spaced, 12 point type, spell-checked, proof-read, and done in LA TEXĖach student must pick a different topic from the other students on a first-come, first-served basis. You may not choose Cryptography if you have had or are in Math 470 or ing your request to srlee@math.tamu.edu(sang Rae Lee) as soon as you have one is encouraged. A list of possible topics is at the end of this document. Feel free to suggest another topic, but obtain approval before starting on it. The deadlines are: (1) Have your topic approved by the professor by the end of class 7 September. Remember that topics are available on a first-come, first-served basis. (2) Two copies of your first draft are due at the beginning of class 28 September. (3) One copy of your final paper is due at the beginning of class on 19 October. Lay Paper. The second paper of the term will be written for a lay audience, say something in a newspaper or non-mathematical magazine. The topic must be a college level topic, not pre-calculus and not what your term paper is on. As with the term paper, the paper should be 2-3 pages long not including references, double spaced, 12 point type, spell-checked, proofread, and done in LA TEXẎou will need to bring two copies of the rough draft and only one copy of the final paper. Homework. The homework will be due the week it appears in the assignment list. Some weeks nothing will be due so that you can work on the longer projects. You are to do your own work, consulting with the instructors only. All homework must be turned in at the beginning of the class in which it is due. Remember not to plagiarize. IMPORTANT. You must spell-check all written work or lose credit. Excessive errors due to poor proof reading are also subject to loss of credit. Using other than 12 point on papers will result in loss of credit. Other than the resume, all papers must be done in L ATEXṪhe presentation slides must be done in L A TEX slide mode or in Beamer. The resume may be done using any word processing system and may be in 11 or 12 point, but 10 point is not allowed. Grading. The grades will be based on L A TEX mathematics document preparation exercise 10 points resume 10 points rough draft of term paper 10 points interview 10 points final draft of term paper 20 points talking points or slides for the term paper presentation 10 points presentation of term paper 10 points rough draft of 1-2 page paper in L A TEX to lay audience 10 points final draft of 1-2 page paper in L A TEX to lay audience 10 points total possible 100 points 2

3 The grades will be determined by your total out of 100 points as follows: 90 total 100 = A 80 total 89 = B 70 total 79 = C 60 total 69 = D 0 total 59 = F Note: By University rules, you must pass the communications part, i.e., not including the first assignment nor the resume, in order to pass the course. Absences and late work. I expect all students to come to all classes, to turn in all assignments on time, and to meet the deadlines for the papers. If extraordinary circumstances arise that preempt your work on this course, please make arrangements with me ahead of time or as soon as you realize that you will have to miss class, a deadline, or a presentation. I reserve the right to ask for evidence of an excuse. SCHOLASTIC DISHONESTY WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA). The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact Disability Services, currently located in the Disability Services building at the Student Services at White Creek complex on west campus or call For additional information, visithttp://disability.tamu.edu. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY. For additional information please visit: An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do. COPYRIGHT. All handouts for this course are copyrighted by me, so selling them, duplicating more than one copy for personal use, giving them to others for them to use, is illegal. PLAGIARISM IS FORBIDDEN:. As commonly defined, plagiarism consists of passing off as one s own the ideas, words, writings, etc. which belong to another, even open source material on the internet. In accordance with this definition, you are committing plagiarism if you copy the work of another person or from the internet and turn it in as your own, even if you have the permission of that person. Plagiarism is one of the worst academic sins, for the plagiarist destroys the trust among colleagues necessary for the safe communication of research. Strangely enough, it is possible to self-plagiarize. For example, if you keep a blog of your work, then turning anything on the blog in as homework is technically self-plagiarism because you published it elsewhere first. If you like to do this, please credit your blog as the first place the work appears. 3

4 SYLLABUS Date Class Homework due at beginning of class 31 August exercises I L A TEX 7 September L A TEX exercises II Pick a term paper topic. 14 September Why and how the audience matters Latex a sample math paper. 21 September How to and not to do presentations 28 September Resume writing Two copies of a rough draft of your term paper in L A TEX 5 October Interview techniques Two copies of your resume using any word processor. 12 October Interviews Look up a company and prepare for an interview. 19 October Interviews One copy of the final draft of your term paper in L A TEX 26 October Interviews .pdf file of the slides for your presentation done in L A TEX or Beamer 2 November Presentations 9 November Presentations Two copies of your rough draft of paper for a lay audience in L A TEX 16 November Presentations 30 November Presentations One copy of the final draft of paper for a lay audience in L A TEX 7 December Presentations 4

5 Math 396 Term Paper Fall 2016 Instead of a final this semester, you will be doing a term paper which consists of picking a mathematical topic, researching it via the web and books and any other way you wish, then writing a paper explaining the mathematics you have learned. The best papers will also contain something you created yourself such as an example to demonstrate understanding of the topic. The level of the discussion and examples should be for college mathematics students. Instructors are happy to discuss the project with you, including helping you with the material. You must use at least one book reference and at least one web reference. Since Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at any time, it is not a reliable reference and may not be used as a reference. I like the reference style of [Ber, p. 37] in the line of text and the [Ber] Author(s), title of article or book, journal or publisher, issue (year) for journal and year for book or [Ber] Author(s), title of web article, website URL, when accessed for a web reference. However, if you prefer MLA or some other standard method, feel free. Reminder: The paper must be in L A TEX double-spaced, 12 point, and right and left justified (the default). Points will be deducted if not spell-checked or not well proof-read. The following is a list of possible topics. Feel free to choose another topic as long as you check with instructors first to be sure the topic is suitable. Each topic may be done by at most one student, so the first to ask for a topic gets to do it. Possible Topics (1) Rational election procedures (Can you set up a voting system that can t be manipulated?) (2) Tilings (e.g., the chess problem of the knights) (3) Fractals (4) Cryptography (secret codes) (May not be chosen if you have had or are in Math 470 or 471.) (5) Error-correcting codes, especially linear or matrix codes (6) The five color problem (All planar graphs can be colored using at most five colors so that no two countries with a common borderline have the same color. Actually four colors are enough but that is beyond this course.) (7) Investigate and explain a paradox The Prisoner s Dilemma (How to get the smallest sentence for both) The Surprise Examination Paradox (Can there be an announced surprise?) Newcomb s Paradox (A variant of the Monty Hall problem) The Petersburg Paradox The Exchange Paradox Braess s paradox Zeno s Paradoxes (8) P-adic numbers (9) The Koenigsburg bridge problem (or Eulerian Circuits) (10) Investigate a special function: Bessel functions elliptic functions/integrals Gamma function Hermite polynomials/functions 5

6 Hypergeometric functions Laguerre polynomials/functions Legendre polynomials/functions Riemann zeta function (11) The calculus of variations (12) Mathematical modeling of infectious disease 6