Humboldt State University Digital Commons @ Humboldt State University Congressional Apportionment Open Educational Resources and Data 9-2016 Congressional Apportionment: A Liberal Arts Perspective Charles M. Biles Humboldt State University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/apportionment Recommended Citation Biles, Charles M., "Congressional Apportionment: A Liberal Arts Perspective" (2016). Congressional Apportionment. 24. http://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/apportionment/24 This Articles and Essays is brought to you for free and open access by the Open Educational Resources and Data at Digital Commons @ Humboldt State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Congressional Apportionment by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Humboldt State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Congressional Apportionment: A Liberal Arts Perspective Charles M. Biles, Ph.D. Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus Humboldt State University Arcata, CA 20 September 2016 Preface Congressional apportionment of the United States House of Representatives is a popular topic in several liberal arts or general education mathematics textbooks. This work is produced in the belief that any illustrative applications of mathematics should be presented at the same high level as the mathematics. Since congressional apportionment is such a mainstay as a principle example of a mathematical, fixed resource problem, we believe that a more thorough presentation of the topic as it unfolded in American history is in order. Accordingly we dedicate five individual topics under the general heading of apportionment: averages and rounding, the basic divisor method, the quota method, the modified divisor method, and priority computational techniques. This work is intended as an open source endeavor.