I have to do a small report on something related to math for my calculus class. I don't want to do something boring or basic like "vectors" or "trigonometry" so I am coming to you guys for help. What is an interesting math-related subject I could use?

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WOOSH|-----@%

NASA's inability to convert units, and the subsequent loss of satellites?

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<Professor`K> Sorry, but half-way through your logic, my head exploded

*Applications* of calculus is fairly interesting i.e. this actaully *IS* rocket science!

Most applied maths is dead interesting - I find pure maths a bore now, in fact, I have since I was 16!

If I was to choose, I'd say complex numbers is fairly interesting - imaginary numbers and how it actually applies to things - whenyou're using things that clearly can't physically exist!! Woohoo for the square root of -ve numbers!!

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If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards.

I remember seeing a project done on the fibbonacci(sp?) sequence of numbers once. 1,2,3,5,8,13,21, etc. (just add the last two numbers in the sequence to get the next number). Anyway, the interesting thing was that they went out and found elements in nature that seemed to conform to this sequence. I can't recall all the pictures, but one was how the seeds are arranged in a sunflower, among a whole bunhc of other stuff. It was pretty interesting.

Another cool topic I remember was the golden ratio.. It's supposedly the ratio between sides of a rectangle that is the most aesthetically pleasing to most people or something.. Can't remember what it IS, exactly, but it was cool because they related it to forms in architecture and stuff and tried to explain that that is why it looks good, etc.

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Have a good one,
Freelancer

Eww, math projects.

I would've went crazy trying to do some project relating calculus to some application.

Of course you could probably tie it into some physics thing really easily.

I had a guy tell me once that he made an equation for the curved surface around hit garden and integrated to find the area and then volume, so he knew how much mulch to buy, lol.

Erm...not exactly.

The golden ratio, phi, is (SQR(5)+1)/2, which is about 1.618.

The thing about this is, if you have a rectangle with side lengths A and B, and the ratio between A and B is phi, you could cut out a square of size B*B, and the remaining rectangle would have exactly the same proportions as the original. This property is unique to a golden rectangle. There's more, but you get the drift.

One interesting thing about math is the Banach-Tarski paradox. If set theory works the way mathmeticians would like it to, you could cut a sphere into pieces and then reassemble the same piecesinto a sphere twice as big.



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The Fibbionaci sequence and the Golden Ratio are awesome. THere are tons of examples. It seems almost everything in nature has something modeled on either one of those two things.

<3 Fibbionaci Sequence

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Indeed. the fibbionaci sequence is quite interesting. one good example of it is the shell sections in a hermit crab shell, i think it was.

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Prime numbers appear in groups other infinately often.

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One word: fractals

I agree with him. I loved Physics but I can't find enjoyment in a calculus or any other math course.

It is strictly math right?

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.

Use this for your math report.

Why women are evil:

women = time * money
time = money
women = money * money
women = money^2

Now we all know that money is the root of all evil.

money = sqr root evil
money^2 = evil
women = evil


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Pagewizard_YKS: "making your own lightsaber doesn't make you a nerd... "

Right, Omicron, but it is the shape of a rectangle that is supposed to be the most aesthetically pleasing to the largest amount of people, like I said earlier. I had a sneaking suspision that it was about 1.6, but I didn't wan't to give out wrong info.

And about that sphere thing, why are mathematicians so damn bright, yet they can't understand the obviousness of that never ever being able to work in a thousand years. That's the thing that's always bothered me about pure mathematicians. I mean, jeez, go cut up a beach ball and try to put your stupid theory into practice.

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Have a good one,
Freelancer

The time AND money thing has always pissed me off because it should be addition, not multiplication.

[This message has been edited by Darth (edited May 13, 2004).]

^ditto

I like a lot of these suggestions..i'm gonna have to research in order to figure out what to research.

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WOOSH|-----@%

To me, the words 'math" and "interesting" do not belong together.

Anything over basic algebra I utterly despise.



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Costas Array or the Satisfiability problem.

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[This message has been edited. Deal with it.]

I had no idea the fibonacci sequence ocurred naturally - I've learned something new today! woowoo!

Oh, and yes, the golden ratio has loads of other interesting properties when applied to shapes both in nature and euclidian geometry - it causes the "perfect" spiral amongst other things - just give it a quick google - there's probably lots of nice piccies to explan it!



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If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards.

Graph theory. It is freaking awesome! it is like the precursor to logic curcuits.

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Complex numbers are pretty cool, they're applied in Fourier Transforms, which are used for signal analysis.

But fourier transforms are crazy so perhaps you'd just like to mention them and stick to complex numbers.

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Go with the fibonacci series. Actually, email me at silkktradamus_12@hotmail.com, and ill send you the reports i wrote.

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Grr. I was gonna say that.

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Pshh. Prove 2 + 2 = 5.

It would be so much fun.

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You could do a bit on the golden ratio, a bit on the Fibonacci sequence, and then, dazzle them by showing how the Fibonacci sequence converges to the golden ratio!
i.e. Fn+1/Fn approaches 1.618… as n goes to infinity.

Or, you could prove that 1=2.
a=b
square both sides...
a^2=b^2
substitute b in for one of the a's on the left...
ab=b^2
subtract a^2 from both sides...
ab-a^2=b^2-a^2
factor...
a(b-a)=(b+a)(b-a)
divide both sides by (b-a)
a=b+a
a=2a
therefore...
1=2

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Do electronics.

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[This message has been edited by DogSRoOL (edited May 14, 2004).]

Kyle - schoolboy error: (b-a) = 0

You can't ever divide by 0 without producing infinity and thereby shafting your answer

Ne'mind

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If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards.

If it were me, I'd just blow off the project.

Oh, in case anyone cares, the homework that I actually decided to do for my Calculus class today brought my average up from a D+ to a C-... man have I got senioritis.

Er, you probably couldn't do this for a project, but I find much of Aristotle's logic quite interesting .. IE, his "shut the **** up I'm right" of his "If 1 = 2 (or any other number for that matter), anything is possible" to some storemanager guy of the time.. went something like

Aristotle was walking down the streets when, a rowdy manager of a shop nearby, having read his proclaimation that if 1 = 2, anything is possible, confronted him. After a brief exchange in which the store manager ridiculed the thinker, he challenged "Ok, if 1 = 2, prove you're the pope!"

Aristotle paused for a brief moment, then proclaimed, "The pope and I are two; therefore, the pope and I must be one."

Simple, clean, but still interesting xP

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[1337 FRNDS_Pommy | 3.14 of 14 | » And-GTx2]
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Do taxi-cab geometry.

Pommy, I didn't know the Pope existed before the Church.

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I think it was Bertrand Russell who is supposed to have said that with the pope

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[This message has been edited by Molgrew (edited May 15, 2004).]

You could explain the proof for Euler's famous e^(i*pi)+1=0 equation. It's pretty cool when it all comes together.

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Fight like a Warlord

Hm... I'm not to bright with math... But if you want something interesting, you could try Fractal equations... Then again, you could just ask Tom Lehrer...


/Edward

Er, sorry. Bertrand Russell quoting aristotle; Molgrew was right.

I'm pretty sure the packet I got in middle school years ago said Aristotle, but then again, middleschoolers are always being brainwashed, and I now wonder why I didn't realize that earlier.

Maybe it was with something else, like "prove you're the senior council" or something. meh


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