September 2009

Page 5 — Harold and the Purple Heptagon
Stephanie Cawthorne and Judy Green
The beloved creator of Harold and the Purple Crayon spent the latter part of his career creating paintings inspired by the geometrical constructions of Archimedes, Gauss, and, as it turns out, some mathematics of his own.

Page 10 — Alumni Profiles: A Conversation with Coach Chris Meidt
Stephen Abbott
A self-described “numbers guy” calculates his way from Minnesota high school football coach all the way to the National Football League.

Page 14 — A Story of Storytelling Numbers
Tanya Khovanova
Biographies, autobiographies, CVs, and complete life stories—the author spins a tale of her own about narrative number theory.

Page 18 — The View From Here: Finding Your Match Mathematically
Katharine Merow
Wondering whether you should commit to your latest suitor who woos you with lines like, “A delta for your epsilon”? Not to worry—mathematics shines its guiding light on the uncertain search for a soul mate.

Page 21 — Polishing some Visual Gems
Greg Frederickson
How much luster a visual proof possesses hinges on the pieces.

Page 26 — Automotive Number Theory
Bart Snapp and Chris Snapp
The perennial question, “What are we ever going to use this for?” gets an unexpected answer while reassembling an Italian sports car.

Page 26 — Book Reviews: Irreligion and The Book of Numbers
Reviews by Samuel Otten and Ezra Brown

Page 30 — The Playground
Derek Smith
Partial orderings, differentiating circumferences, and a titanic twist on the birthday problem challenge MH readers in this issue.