Articles
Alice in Numberland: An Informal Dramatic Presentation
Robin Wilson
Although unlikely to reach Broadway, this play, surveying Lewis Carroll’s life and works, has had several successful productions and deserves to have more. In any event, it makes good reading.
Lewis Carroll’s Amazing Number-Guessing Game
Richard F. McCoart
Speaking of C. L. Dodgson, he once constructed a number-guessing game with instructions such as “Divide by 2, and add 29, or 38, or 47, whichever you like.” It is here analyzed and the mistake that Carroll included is corrected.
An Undetermined Linear System for GPS
Dan Kalman
If we don’t know exactly where we are, triangulation can tell us, and linear algebra can be used to solve the resulting equations.
Runs in Coin Tossing: Randomness Revealed
Geoffrey C. Berresford
If you ask people to make up random sequences of Hs and Ts, they will fail; our brains have so much structure that they cannot produce chaos. Here is how to tell real randomness from the fake, human-created, kind.
Fallacies, Flaws, and Flimflam
Ed Barbeau, editor
Evaluating the determinant of a four-by-four matrix using the natural method can at times lead to correct results.
Classroom Capsules
Warren Page, editor
An Overlooked Calculus Question
Eugene Couch
There are calculus texts that graph y = ax and y = logax on the same set of axes incorrectly. When do you think the graphs intersect?
A Numerical Introduction to Partial Fractions
Eric L. McDowell
Writing 71/90 as a sum of fractions with denominators 2, 3, 9, and 5 can aid the understanding of partial fractions.
Euler’s Theorem for Generalized Quadrilaterals
Geoffrey A. Kandall
A theorem on quadrilaterals holds even if they aren’t two-dimensional.
A Generalization of the Mean Value Theorem for Integrals
Jingcheng Tong
A nice result about the sum of two integrals.
Problems and Solutions
Benjamin Klein, Irl Bivens, and L. R. King, editors
Media Highlights
Warren Page, editor
Software Review
Scientific Notebook, reviewed by Jonathan Lewin.