MCS-115: The Nature of Mathematics
(Spring 2009) Homepage
MCS-115 homepage
Assignments and
class schedule
Useful Links Archive
Tentative Schedule
Homework Guidelines
Project
Course description
TJ Morrison
Announcements
Office Hours
:
Morrison
(Olin 305, tjm@gustavus.edu, 507.933.7009)
Tentative Test Dates
Test 1 Wednesday Feb. 25
Test 2 Wednesday Mar. 18
Test 3 Monday Apr. 27
Test 4 (Final Test) Saturday May 23
Featured Useful Links
General links
Textbook's webpage
(requires registration)
What is mathematics?
(an article by R. Lewis, Fordham)
Chapter 1 stories
Math in the Movies
(A problem similar to Story 3 is featured in a popular movie. Which one?)
Story 7
Stick or Switch
simulation (java applet)
Another
simulation
Another
simulation
which makes it easy to do 200 trials
More Monty
Why mathematicians care about
hat color
(this is related to the "dot problem" in Story 9)
Pigeon Hole Principle (2.1)
World Population Clock
Fibonacci Numbers (2.2)
Fibonacci's
Rabbits
Fibonacci numbers
and the golden section home page
Fibonacci numbers and nature
Golden Ratio in nature
Who was
Fibonacci
Fibonacci
bio
at St. Andrew's history of math archive
Fibonacci
Nim
(java applet)
Clock Arithmetic and Check Digits (2.4)
How
UPC bar codes
work.
Check Digit Calculator
Clock Arithmetic
(applets)
Practice Clock Arithmetic
(with answers) (
More
)
Credit Card Validation
Verify check digits of UPC and ISBN codes
(select Applet 10 in Chapter 8)
Fractals and Chaos Game
Fractals in the arts
Fractal antennas
(
fractal antenna company
)
Chaos Game
(Target Practice)
Chaos Game
applet
John Conway's Game of Life (6.2)
Game of Life
at www.math.com
Article
in Scientific American by Gardner
Alan Hensel's fast, powerful
life applet
with many complex starting patterns
Alan Hensel's life applet can also be found
here
Euler Characteristic (5.3)
Polyhedral Torus
you can rotate, made from regular polygons
M�bius band and Klein bottle (5.2)
M�bius band
M�bius bands and recycling
Lego mobius bands and Klein bottles
Biography of M�bius
Klein bottles
Klein bottle you can rotate
(Mathworld)
Pictures of Klein bottle
Klein bottle image
(John Sullivan)
Another good picture of a Klein bottle
Movies of Klein bottle
(various formats)
Large Klein bottle
(from movie)
Klein bottle with grid
Klein bottle in 4D space
(Banchoff)
Klein bottle products
Torus and Klein Bottle Games