Four hundred years ago John Napier invented the logarithm. Five hundred years ago Albrecht Dürer created some of his most famous engravings. In this issue of Math Horizons we celebrate these anniversaries. Nathan Carter and Dan Kalman tell a humorous story of what life would be like without the logarithm. Annalisa Crannell, Marc Frantz, and Fumiko Futamura investigate the claim of one of Dürer's critics that the perspective in St. Jerome in His Study is all wrong. Also, Colm Mulcahy improves Fitch Cheney's classic five-card trick to work with three cards. Read these articles and more in the November issue of Math Horizons. —David Richeson, editor
Volume 22, Issue 2
JOURNAL SUBSCRIBERS AND MAA MEMBERS:
To read the full articles, please log in to the member portal by clicking on 'Login' in the upper right corner. Once logged in, click on 'My Profile' in the upper right corner.
Squareorama 4
Ezra Brown
Artist Darcy Meeker uses copper to illustrate the perfectly squared square.
Reverse Engineering College Rankings
Tim Chartier and Justin Peachey
Tim Chartier and Justin Peachey use linear algebra to determine how U.S. News & World Report ranks colleges.
Dürer: Disguise, Distance, Disagreements, and Diagonals!
Annalisa Crannell, Marc Frantz, and Fumiko Futamura
Was Albrecht Dürer out of his depth when engraving St. Jerome in His Study?
Math and the Mouse
Liz Bouzarth, John Harris, and Kevin Hutson
Three professors take their students to Walt Disney World to study the mathematics of the theme park.
Career Profile: Greg Coxson, Mathematical Engineer
Ximena Catepillán
A Q&A with a mathematical engineer.
It’s a Wonderful Log
Nathan Carter and Dan Kalman
What if the logarithm had never been invented?
Cryptographic Word Search
Tom Edgar and Andrew Lloyd
A word search within a word search with a cryptographic twist.
THE VIEW FROM HERE: 10 Ways to Spice Up Your Math Club
Katie Wanek
Katie Wanek suggests ways to build a large, energized math club.
DO THE MATH! Three Cards Suffice
Colm Mulcahy
The author shows that Fitch Cheney’s famous five-card magic trick can be performed with only three cards.
THE BOOKSHELF:
Rob Eby reviews Mathematical Card Magic: Fifty-Two New Effects, by Colm Mulcahy; Darren Glass
reviews The Grapes of Math: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life by Alex Bellos.
THE PLAYGROUND:
The Math Horizons problem section, edited by Gary Gordon
AFTERMATH: When Will I Use This?
Douglas Corey
Douglas Corey gives three answers to this age-old student question.