Do you remember how awful it was to be 14? Figuring out who your friends were, thinking about what and who you were
going to be when you grew up, and those many awkward social situations? Most of us would
just as soon forget. Danica McKellar couldn't forget even if she wanted to; Danica
metamorphosed through those awkward teenage years as America watched. And they still watch.
In reruns. Danica played Winnie Cooper on the hit television series about coming of age in
the sixties, The Wonder Years.
The Conquest of the Kepler Conjecture
In August 1998, a message was sent from an Internet cafe in Munich that stunned the
mathematical community. It stated that the writer had found "a solution to the Kepler
Conjecture, the oldest problem in discrete geometry... the proof relies extensively on
methods from the theory of global optimization, linear programming and interval arithmetic...
well over 250 pages... computer files require over three gigabytes of space for storage..."
A Match Made in Mathematics
Amelia Hopkins is sitting on pins and needles. She is about to graduate from the University of Connecticut's Medical School,
she desperately wants to obtain a residency in pediatric medicine, and her fate is in the
gentle hands of mathematics.
Symbols of Power
Visitors to the Centre d'Art Georges Pompidou in Paris who wander into the gallery where Bernar Venet's
paintings hang encounter something more shocking than a crucifix in a jar of urine, more
horrifying than an animal dung Madonna -- mathematical equations.
The Bridges of Konigsberg/Kaliningrad: A Tale of One City
Once upon a time, before 1736, there was a celebrated puzzle concerning the seven bridges
located in the city of Konigsberg in Prussia. In 1736, Leonhard Euler, probably the
greatest mathematician of all time, published a paper on the puzzle,...
Conics: The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But
When the White House sex scandal broke in January 1998, veteran New York Times reporter Francis X. Clines filed a story
entitled, "Washington Ellipse: Clinton's Words of Denial Are Carefully Chosen." WordWise
readers would have noticed the pun cleverly embedded in the headline. Questioned by
reporters not far from the Ellipse -- a grassy area behind the White House surrounded
by an oval drive -- Mr. Clinton had rebuffed queries about Monica Lewinsky with a certain
amount of ellipsis, or words that tiptoed around the matter.
Placing a Value on Values
"My job is extremely real world... this is not an ivory tower." Listening to Julie Hewitt
rave about her work would make anyone, especially the nervous senior economics or math major,
think it was easy. Graduate from college, think in a tank for a while, attend a prestigious grad school, profess for a few years
(at a beautiful university nonetheless) and then retrace your steps out of academia to a place
where you see your work and ideas having direct policy impact.
The 2000 Presidential Election: A Statistical Postmortem
Last year's presidential election was like none other in our nation's history. Although
comparisons have been made to the controversial 1876 election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel
Tilden, that election did not hinge upon the question of recounts and was ultimately
decided by an electoral commission appointed by the United States Congress, not (in effect)
by the Supreme Court.
Problem Section
S-51.
Proposed by R. S. Luthar, University of Wisconsin, Janesville. AD is a median of triangle ABC and l is a line
through A. E is a point on l such that CE is parallel to AD. F and G are the feet of the
perpendiculars from E and B, respectively, on AD. Prove that EG is parallel to BF.
S-52.
Proposed by K. M. Seymour, Toronto, Ontario. As in the figure, ABCD and AB'C'D' are two squares
and AE is equal and perpendicular to DD'. Prove ABEB' is a parallelogram.
S-53.
Proposed by P. Wagner, Chicago, Illinois. AB is a diameter of a circle centered at O; OB is
bisected at C; P is any point on the circumference; PA is bisected at E, and EC is bisected
at F. Prove that PF is of constant length.
S-54.
Proposed by K. S. Murray, Brooklyn, NY. Let P(x) be the polynomial (angles are in degrees)
(x - cos 36)(x - cos 84)(x - cos 156).
Prove that the coefficients of x^2 and x are rational
while that of the constant term is irrational.
The Final Exam: What's in a Name?
(To read about the winners of November's Final Exam, click here.)
What's in a name? Sometimes a lot. With a little thought, you can usually use the letters
of a name as a self-descriptive acronym. There are some famous acronyms for cars:
F(ix)O(r)R(epair)D(aily), C(ool)A(merican)M(ade)A(utomobile)R(uns)O(utstandingly). This month's
contest is to do the same thing for mathematicians.
