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MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA FALL 2007 Chapter News The Newsletter for Advisors of Student Chapters of the MAA San Jose Downtown January 6 11:10 am - noon TERRENCE TAO, UCLA “Structure and Randomness in the prime numbers” January 6 2:15 - 3:05 pm JOHN CONWAY, PRINCETON UNIV. “Three Dimensional Crystallographic Groups: The Thirty-five Prime Space Groups” January 6 3:20 - 4:10 pm PAUL H. EDELMAN, VANDER- BILT UNIV. “Mathematics and the Law: The Apportionment of the House of Students and faculty alike the Ice Cream Social and Representatives” gathered in San Jose, CA for Math MAA Awards for January 7 9 - 9:50 am Fest in early August 2007. The undergraduate student student activities began with an presenters. See inside for KAREN PARSHALL, UVA undergraduate student reception more information on all “4000 Years of Algebra: An on Thursday afternoon. Student of these events. Historical Tour from BM 13901 to events continued with the MAA The 2008 Joint Moderne Algebra” and PME student presentations Mathematics Meetings January 8 9 - 9:50 am on Friday and Saturday. Other will be held in San Diego, CARL POMERANCE, highlights included the MAA CA January 6 - 9, 2008. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE Activity for Undergraduate There are many exciting Students, by Eve Torrence of student activities and “The Covering Congruences of Paul Randolph Macon College, and the sessions being planned Erdos” MAA Lecture for Undergraduate for the JMM. For more January 8 1 - 1:50 pm Students by Francis Su of Harvey details, see the list to the BRIAN J. CONREY, AIM Mudd College. Friday evening right and articles inside four teams competed in Math the newsletter. MAA LECTURE FOR STUDENTS Jeopardy, and Saturday evening the “The Riemann Hypothesis” student events were capped off by PAGE 1 MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA FALL 2007 Lef: Ice Cream Social Photo by Betty Mayfield, Hood College Below: Youngstown State Students Photo by Doug Faires, Youngstown State University Below: Sam Houston State Students Photo by Doug Faires, Youngstown State University PAGE 2 MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA FALL 2007 UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT RECEPTION IN SAN JOSE As usual, the very first event of Math Fest, even before the Opening Reception and Banquet, was the reception for undergraduate students sponsored by CUSAC and Pi Mu Epsilon. A record number of students attended Math Fest this year (almost 250 were pre-registered, easily beating the old record of 162), and most of them attended the reception on Thursday evening in a lovely ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel. Everyone was welcomed to the conference by representatives of the two organizations and received program booklets containing abstracts and a schedule of the many student talks at Math Fest. There were plenty of refreshing drinks and snacks, and the noise level had a positive derivative, as students quickly made new friends. This event continues to be a fun, instructive way to begin Math Fest, and to welcome Photo by Doug Faires, Youngstown State University undergraduate students, their friends, and advisors. SPLITTING THE RENT FAIRNESS PROBLEMS, FIXED POINTS, AND FRAGMENTED POLYTOPES By Betty Mayfield, Hood Co#ege “How do you divide the rent among roommates Division,” appeared in the American Mathematical fairly?” That was the question posed by Prof. Francis Monthly in 1999 and was awarded a Merten M. Su of Harvey Mudd College at Math Fest 2007 in Hasse prize for exposition. San Jose, in the MAA Lecture for Students. Prof. Su kept a packed auditorium engaged and entertained The MAA Lec- for an hour, as he explained how Sperner’s Lemma, ture for Stu- Brouwer’s Fixed Point Theorem, cake-cutting, and dents, organ- walking through doors can all help to answer that ized by the question. His talk was interspersed with video clips Committee on from NUMB3RS and The Simpsons, and he did some Undergradu- walking himself, as he wandered the aisles of the ate Student room, eliciting audience responses. Students re- Activities and ported that they found the talk very interesting and Chapters, is accessible. an expository lecture aimed at undergradu- Francis Edward Su is a graduate of the University of ate students. There has been a Lecture for Students Texas and Harvard University and has taught at Har- at both the winter and summer MAA meetings since vey Mudd for ten years. He was a 2004 Alder Award 1991, featuring some of the best-known mathemati- winner, as an outstanding young mathematics faculty cians in the country. It has become one of the most member, and he delivered the James R.C. Leitzel popular events of the national meetings, drawing Lecture at last year’s Math Fest. His article on rent- faculty members and others as well as students. splitting, “Rental Harmony: Sperner’s Lemma in Fair PAGE 3 MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA FALL 2007 MATH JEOPARDY Photos by Robert Smith, Miami University PAGE 4 MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA FALL 2007 AN INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT SCHNEIDER By Linda Braddy, East Central University cations!” He admitted to having get some tips from Martin and failed his first year of algebra in hear his thoughts on music theory. high school but following his en- When asked a similar question counter with the voltage equation, about spending an evening with he taught himself algebra and has any mathematician, Schneider continued to learn more and more said, “Euler.” Descartes would be mathematics since that time. his second choice, but he said he would be afraid Descartes “might When asked to describe the pull a sword” on him. similarities in creating music and in creating During the presentation, mathematics, Schneider showed a video he made Schneider with Elijah Wood (of Lord of the explained Rings). The video was Wood’s di- Robert that in both recting debut; Schneider claimed Schneider, cases, “You that Wood is “obsessed with music founding mem- perceive it as like I’m obsessed with math.” ber of the band something Apples in Stereo, fuzzy out Schneider also discussed a mu- attended Math there in sic scale, based on log base 2, with Fest this year space, you which he has been experimenting. and was interviewed by MAA feel it’s there, and you just have to He explained that the typical mu- President Joe Gallian. The band find your way, clarify it; you don’t sic scale, called a chromatic scale, was founded in 1992 and has cut a know what it’s going to be.” His is a 12-tone scale in which the oc- total of six albums. Schneider de- response to tave (all scribes himself as a professional the ques- pitches that musician with a passion for math. tion, “If lie between a He first became interested in mu- you could pitch and the sic after his mom bought him a spend an pitch that is synthesizer and boom box when evening twice its fre- he was in the sixth grade. The fol- with any quency) is lowing year, she bought him an musician, divided into electric guitar and the rest is his- who would 12 approxi- tory! He first became interested it be?” was, mately equal in mathematics when the repair of “George intervals be- a piece of musical equipment re- Martin, tween suc- quired him to decipher schematic producer of the Beatles.” Even cessive tones. So the notes of the drawings and the equation V=IR though Brian Wilson, lead singer scale are the same distance apart. (voltage = current flow times resis- for the Beach Boys, is his hero, His “logarithmic scale” is a musical tance). He said, “It blew my mind Schneider has actually met Wilson scale in which the intervals be- that this is real; I know real appli- before and said he would like to tween successive tones decrease as PAGE 5 MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA FALL 2007 the differences between the loga- sic played in his loga- rithms of successive integers. In rithmic scale other words, the notes of the scale “sounds like alien get closer together as you move up music, odd, a little the scale. He said that what is out of tune, because really cool about the scale is that you aren’t used to it. the first octave of a keyboard Listening to the log would have 12 keys (ln 4 to ln 16), scale is like hearing the second octave would have 240 your mother talk keys, the third octave would have but she is speaking 65,280 keys, and so on. Interest- with a man’s voice – ingly, the chromatic scale (the 12- it’s weird!” tone scale) was first defined by Pythagoras as a series of whole At the conclusion of number ratios while Schneider’s the interview, Gallian quoted logarithmic scale is a series of Wikipedia’s description of logarithms of whole number ra- Schneider’s music as “bright and tios. According to Schneider, mu- catchy.” STUDENT PROBLEM SOLVING COMPETITION By Richard Neal, American Society for the Communication of Mathematics National runner-up: Carlos Gamez, ics including geometry, combina- a junior at University of Utah. torics, linear algebra, calculus and Third: Bryan Wilson, a junior at more during the competition. the University of Idaho. This is the tenth year for the na- Fourth: Aaron Goldsmith, a senior tional title competition that is at the University of Missouri - held each year at Math Fest. Rolla. To participate in the Problem Fifh: Ben Preskill, a junior at Solving Competition and to qual- Harvey Mudd College. ify a student for the National Championship, contact Dr. Rich- Twenty-six students competed in There was a three way tie for ard Neal, 1-800-229-1725, or write the U.S.

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