Madison Math Circle: Difference between revisions

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[[Image:logo.png|right|600px]]
For the site in Spanish, visit [[Math Circle de Madison]]
=COVID-19 Update=
UW-Madison is canceling all major events and moving to “virtual instruction” for the rest of the Spring 2020 semester. The Madison Math Circle will also be canceling all in-person Math Circle meetings for the remainder of this semester.
'''We will have a few virtual Math Circle meetings on Monday, April 6, April 13, and April 20 at 4-4:45pm. Please join our email list (send a blank email to join-mathcircle@lists.wisc.edu) to receive updates about these virtual meetings and links to join us each week! We plan to send out a video about an interesting math topic to watch and think about beforehand and will answer questions and discuss the video during the meeting.'''
=What is a Math Circle?=
=What is a Math Circle?=
The Madison Math Circle is a weekly series of mathematically based activities aimed at interested middle school and high school students. It is an outreach program organized by the UW Math Department.  Our goal is to provide a taste of exciting ideas in math and science. In the past we've had talks about plasma and weather in outer space, video game graphics, and encryption.  In the sessions, students (and parents) are often asked to explore problems on their own, with the presenter facilitating a discussion.  The talks are independent of one another, so new students are welcome at any point.
The Madison Math Circle is a weekly series of mathematically based activities aimed at interested middle school and high school students. It is an outreach program organized by the UW Math Department.  Our goal is to provide a taste of exciting ideas in math and science. In the past we've had talks about plasma and weather in outer space, video game graphics, and encryption.  In the sessions, students (and parents) are often asked to explore problems on their own, with the presenter facilitating a discussion.  The talks are independent of one another, so new students are welcome at any point.
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[[Image: MathCircle_2.jpg|500px]] [[Image: MathCircle_4.jpg|500px]]  
[[Image: MathCircle_2.jpg|550px]] [[Image: MathCircle_4.jpg|550px]]  




After each talk we'll have pizza provided by the Mathematics Department, and students will have an opportunity to mingle and chat with the speaker and with other participants, to ask questions about some of the topics that have been discussed, and also about college, careers in science, etc.
After each talk we'll have pizza provided by the Mathematics Department, and students will have an opportunity to mingle and chat with the speaker and with other participants, to ask questions about some of the topics that have been discussed, and also about college, careers in science, etc.


'''The Madison Math circle was featured in Wisconsin State Journal:''' http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/local_schools/school-spotlight-madison-math-circle-gives-young-students-a-taste/article_77f5c042-0b3d-11e1-ba5f-001cc4c03286.html
'''The Madison Math circle was featured in Wisconsin State Journal:''' [http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/local_schools/school-spotlight-madison-math-circle-gives-young-students-a-taste/article_77f5c042-0b3d-11e1-ba5f-001cc4c03286.html check it out]!


=All right, I want to come!=
=All right, I want to come!=
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We have a weekly meeting, <b>Monday at 6pm in 3255 Helen C White Library</b>, during the school year.  <b>New students are welcome at any point! </b> There is no fee and the talks are independent of one another, so you can just show up any week, but we ask all participants to take a moment to register by following the link below:
We have a weekly meeting, <b>Monday at 6pm in 3255 Helen C White Library</b>, during the school year.  <b>New students are welcome at any point! </b> There is no fee and the talks are independent of one another, so you can just show up any week, but we ask all participants to take a moment to register by following the link below:


[https://fs18.formsite.com/crabbott/form1/index.html '''Math Circle Registration Form''']
[https://uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_e9WdAs2SXNurWFD '''Math Circle Registration Form''']


All of you information is kept private, and is only used by the Madison Math Circle organizer to help run the Circle.  
All of your information is kept private, and is only used by the Madison Math Circle organizer to help run the Circle.  


If you are a student, we hope you will tell other interested students about these talks, and speak with your parents or with your teacher about organizing a car pool to the UW campus. If you are a parent or a teacher, we hope you'll tell your students about these talks and organize a car pool to the UW (all talks take place in 3255 Helen C White Library, on the UW-Madison campus, right next to the Memorial Union).
If you are a student, we hope you will tell other interested students about these talks, and speak with your parents or with your teacher about organizing a car pool to the UW campus. If you are a parent or a teacher, we hope you'll tell your students about these talks and organize a car pool to the UW (all talks take place in 3255 Helen C White Library, on the UW-Madison campus, right next to the Memorial Union).
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==Directions and parking==
==Directions and parking==
Meetings are held in 3255 Helen C. White Hall.
Our meetings are held on the 3rd floor of Helen C. White Hall in room 3255.


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==Email list==
==Email list==
The best way to keep up to date with the what is going is by signing up for our email list: https://lists.math.wisc.edu/listinfo/math-circle
The best way to keep up to date with the what is going is by signing up for our email list.  Send an empty email to join-mathcircle@lists.wisc.edu


==Contact the organizers==
==Contact the organizers==
If you have any questions, suggestions for topics, or so on, just email the '''organizers''' (DJ Bruce, Gheorghe Craciun, Eva Elduque Daniel Erman, Ryan Julian, and Philip Matchett Wood): [mailto:math-circle-organizers@math.wisc.edu math-circle-organizers@math.wisc.edu]. We are always interested in feedback!
The Madison Math Circle is organized by a group of professors and graduate students from the [http://www.math.wisc.edu Department of Mathematics] at the UW-Madison. If you have any questions, suggestions for topics, or so on, just email the '''organizers''' [mailto:cbooms@wisc.edu here]. We are always interested in feedback!
<center>
<gallery widths=500px heights=300px mode="packed">
File:de.jpg|[https://www.math.wisc.edu/~derman/ Prof. Daniel Erman]
<!--File:Betsy.jpg|[http://www.math.wisc.edu/~stovall/ Prof. Betsy Stovall]-->
</gallery>
 
<gallery widths=500px heights=250px mode="packed">
<!--File:juliettebruce.jpg|[http://www.math.wisc.edu/~juliettebruce/ Juliette Bruce] File:Ee.jpg|[http://www.math.wisc.edu/~evaelduque/ Eva Elduque] File:mrjulian.jpg|[http://www.math.wisc.edu/~mrjulian/ Ryan Julian] File:soumyasankar.jpg|[http://www.math.wisc.edu/~soumyasankar Soumya Sankar]-->
File:caitlynbooms.jpg|[https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/cbooms Caitlyn Booms]
File:colincrowley.jpg|[https://sites.google.com/view/colincrowley/home Colin Crowley]
File:hyunjongkim.jpg|Hyun Jong Kim
File:Xshen.jpg|[https://www.math.wisc.edu/~xshen// Xiao Shen]
File:connorsimpson.jpg|[http://www.math.wisc.edu/~csimpson6/ Connor Simpson]
</gallery>
</center>


==Donations==
==Donations==
Please consider donating to the Madison Math Circle. As noted in our [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/images/Math_Circle_Newsletter.pdf annual report], our main costs consist of pizza and occasional supplies for the speakers.  Our costs have been covered so far by donations from the UW Math Department plus generous gifts from a private donor. But our costs are rising, primarily because this year we expect to hold more meetings than in any previous year. In fact, this year, we expect to spend at least $2500 on pizza and supplies alone.
Please consider donating to the Madison Math Circle. As noted in our [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/images/Math_Circle_Newsletter.pdf annual report], our main costs consist of pizza and occasional supplies for the speakers.  So far our costs have been covered by donations from the UW Mathematics Department as well as a generous gifts from a private donor. But our costs are rising, primarily because this year we expect to hold more meetings than in any previous year. In fact, this year, we expect to spend at least $2500 on pizza and supplies alone.


So please consider donating to support your math circle!  The easiest way to donate is to go to the link:
So please consider donating to support your math circle!  The easiest way to donate is to go to the link:
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==Help us grow!==
==Help us grow!==
If you like Math Circle, please help us continue to grow!  Students, parents, and teachers can help by:
If you like Math Circle, please help us continue to grow!  Students, parents, and teachers can help by:
*Posting our [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/images/MMC_Flyer_2016.pdf '''flyer'''] at schools or anywhere that might have interested students
* Like our [https://facebook.com/madisonmathcircle '''Facebook Page'''] and share our events with others!
*Discussing the Math Circle with students, parents, teachers, administrators, and others
* Posting our [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/images/Math_Circle_Flyer_2020.pdf '''flyer'''] at schools or anywhere that might have interested students.
*Making an announcement about Math Circle at PTO meetings
* Discussing the Math Circle with students, parents, teachers, administrators, and others.
*Donating to Math Circle
* Making an announcement about Math Circle at PTO meetings.
* Donating to Math Circle.
Contact the organizers if you have questions or your own ideas about how to help out.
Contact the organizers if you have questions or your own ideas about how to help out.


=Meetings for Fall 2015 and Spring 2016=
=Meetings for Fall 2019=


<center>
<center>


All talks start at '''6pm in room 3255 of Helen C. White Library''', unless otherwise noted.
Talks start at '''6pm in room 3255 of Helen C. White Library''', unless otherwise noted.
 
</center>
 
<center>


{| style="color:black; font-size:120%" border="1" cellpadding="14" cellspacing="0"
{| style="color:black; font-size:120%" border="1" cellpadding="14" cellspacing="0"
|-
|-
! colspan="3" style="background: #e8b2b2;" align="center" | Fall 2015
! colspan="3" style="background: #e8b2b2;" align="center" | Fall 2019
|-
|-
! Date !! Speaker !! Topic
! Date !! Speaker !! Topic
|-
|-
| September 14, 2015 || David Sondak || [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_Abstracts#September_14_2015 ''How to SEE Sound'']
| September 23, 2019 || Soumya Sankar || Why don't map makers like high heels?
|-
| September 21, 2015 || Prof. Uri Andrews|| [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_Abstracts#September_21_2015  ''Guarding Mona Lisa'']
|-
| September 28, 2015 || Eva Elduque|| [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_Abstracts#September_28_2015  ''Pick's Theorem'']
|-
| October 5, 2015 || Jessica Lin|| [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_Abstracts#October_5_2015 ''The Math of Sudoku'']
|-
| October 12, 2015 || Ryan Julian || [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_Abstracts#October_12_2015 ''Eight Dimensional Oranges'']
|-
| October 19, 2015 || <s>Keith Rush</s> || CANCELLED
|-
| October 26, 2015 || Megan Maguire || [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_Abstracts#October_26_2015 ''Aperiodic tilings: Beyond your parents' bathroom floor'']
|-
| November 2, 2015 || Marko Budisic|| [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_Abstracts#November_2_2015 ''Mathematics of GPS satellites'']
|-
| November 9, 2015 || Tess Anderson || [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_Abstracts#November_9_2015  ''Gold Coins and Goats'']
|-
| November 16, 2015 || DJ Bruce || [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_Abstracts#November_16_2015 ''To Infinity And Beyond?'']
|-
| November 23, 2015 || Prof. Tullia Dymarz (Last meeting of fall) || [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_Abstracts#November_23_2015 ''TBA'']
|-
! colspan="3" style="background: #e8b2b2;" align="center" | Spring 2016
|-
! Date !! Speaker !! Topic
|-
| February 1, 2016 || Will Mitchell || [https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_Abstracts#February_1_2016 ''Are these networks the same?'']
|-
| February 8, 2016 || Lalit Jain || [[#TBA | TBA]]
|-
| February 15, 2016 || Prof. Jordan Ellenberg || [[#TBA | TBA]]
|-
| February 22, 2016 || Soumya Sankar || [[#Soumya Sankar | TBA]]
|-
| February 29, 2016 || Alexandra (Sashka) Kjuchukova || [[#Alexandra (Sashka) Kjuchukova | TBA]]
|-
|-
| March 7, 2016 || Alisha Zachariah || [[#Alisha Zachariah | TBA]]
| September 30, 2019 || Erika Pirnes || Why do ice hockey players fall in love with mathematicians?
|-
|-
| March 14, 2016 || Chiara Franceschini || [[#Chiara Franceschini | TBA]]
| October 7, 2019 || Uri Andrews || Self-reference, proofs, and computer programming
|-
|-
| March 21, 2016 || No Meeting (Spring Break) ||  
| October 14, 2019 || James Hanson || When is a puzzle impossible?
|-
|-
| March 28, 2016 || No Meeting (Spring Break) ||  
| October 21, 2019 || Owen Goff || Symbolic Logic and How It's Really Just Arithmetic
|-
|-
| April 4, 2016 || Becky Eastham || [[#Becky Eastham | TBA]]
| October 28, 2019 || Ian Seong || Counting, but Not Like Kindergarteners
|-
|-
| April 11, 2016 || Andrew Kidd || [[#TBA | TBA]]
| November 4, 2019 || Omer Mermelstein || Ciphers: To Gibberish and Back Again
|-
|-
| April 18, 2016 || Solly Parenti || [[#Solly Parenti | TBA]]
| November 11, 2019 || Colin Crowley || Many Pennies
|-
|-
| April 25, 2016 || Prof. Betsy Stovall || [[#Betsy Stovall | TBA]]
| November 18, 2019 || Daniel Corey || The K<span>&#246;</span>nigsberg Bridge Problem
|-
|-
| May 2, 2016 || Jen Beichman || [[#Jen Beichman| TBA]]
|}
|}


</center>
</center>


=High School Meetings=
=Meetings for Spring 2020=


We are experimenting with holding some Math Circle meetings directly at local high schools. Our schedule for the fall is below. If you are interesting in having us come to your high school, please contact us!
<center>
 
Talks start at '''6pm in room 3255 of Helen C. White Library''', unless otherwise noted.
 
</center>


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{| style="color:black; font-size:120%" border="1" cellpadding="14" cellspacing="0"
{| style="color:black; font-size:120%" border="1" cellpadding="14" cellspacing="0"
|-
|-
! colspan="5" style="background: #e8b2b2;" align="center" | Fall 2015
! colspan="3" style="background: #e8b2b2;" align="center" | Spring 2020
|-
|-
! Date !! Speaker !! Topic
|-
|-
! Date !! Location !! Speaker !! Topic !! Link for more info
| January 27, 2020 || Caitlyn Booms || [https://www.facebook.com/events/994454747606234/ Magic or Math?]
|-
|-
| September 28, 2015 || 2:45pm East High || Daniel Erman || How to Catch a (data) thief ||
| February 3, 2020 || Erika Pirnes || [https://www.facebook.com/events/173248473949771/ Finding Your Roots]
|-
|-
| October 19, 2015 || 2:45pm East High || Carolyn Abbott || Donuts and Coffee Cups  ||
| February 10, 2020 || Xiao Shen || [https://www.facebook.com/events/1536925486465083/ Constructing the 17-gon]
|-
|-
! colspan="5" style="background: #e8b2b2;" align="center" | Spring 2016
| February 17, 2020 || Ben Bruce || [https://www.facebook.com/events/633574783873887/ 1+1=2 and Other Integer Partitions]
|-
|-
| February 24, 2020 || Brandon Boggess || [https://www.facebook.com/events/425841464850965/ Pi-ck Up Sticks]
|-
|-
! Date !! Location !! Speaker !! Topic !! Link for more info
| March 2, 2020 || Solly Parenti || [https://www.facebook.com/events/1042467939485675/ Lazy Math]
|-
|-
| February 22, 2016 || 2:45pm Memorial High || TBD || TBD ||
| March 9, 2020 || Connor Simpson || [https://www.facebook.com/events/1068696736816566/ Counting Ways to Color Graphs]
|-
|-
| April 18, 2016 || 2:45pm Memorial High || TBD || TBD  ||
| March 23, 2020 || Tejasi Bhatnagar || <font color="red">Canceled</font>
|-
|-
|}
| March 30, 2020 || Yunxuan Li || <font color="red">Canceled</font>
</center>
 
== Abstracts ==
<center>
{| style="color:black; font-size:100%" table border="2" cellpadding="10" width="700" cellspacing="20"
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#e8b2b2" align="center" style="font-size:125%" | '''Prof. Daniel Erman'''
| April 6, 2020 '''at 4pm''' || Daniel Erman || Virtual: Josephus Problem and Intro to Research Mathematics
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  align="center" | '''Title: How to Catch a (Data) Thief'''
| April 13, 2020 '''at 4pm''' || Caitlyn Booms || [https://www.facebook.com/events/231654831283623/ Virtual: To Infinity and Beyond]
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  |  
| April 20, 2020 '''at 4pm''' || Juliette Bruce || [https://www.facebook.com/events/246037009921568/ Virtual: Finding the Fastest Slide]
I will discuss some surprising statistical facts that have been used to catch companies that lie about data.
 
|}                                                                       
 
 
{| style="color:black; font-size:100%" table border="2" cellpadding="10" width="700" cellspacing="20"
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#e8b2b2" align="center" style="font-size:125%" | '''Carolyn Abbott'''
|}
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  align="center" | '''Title: Donuts and coffee cups: the topology of surfaces'''
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  | 
A classic problem in topology is to decide whether one surfaces can be deformed into another, without creating any holes or connecting any new points (stretching and bending is allowed!).  If you can do so, such surfaces are considered 'the same.' We will formalize this notion and classify all closed surfaces, along the way answering such questions as whether a coffee cup is the same as a donut.


|}                           
</center>
</center>


<!--
=Off-Site Meetings=
= Abstracts =


== September 14, 2015  ==
We will hold some Math Circle meetings at local high schools on early release daysIf you are interesting in having us come to your high school, please contact us!
<center>
{| style="color:black; font-size:100%" table border="2" cellpadding="10" width="700" cellspacing="20"
|-
| bgcolor="#e8b2b2" align="center" style="font-size:125%" | '''David Sondak'''
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  align="center" | '''Title: How to SEE Sound'''
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  | 
The idea is to give a simple overview of sound waves by introducing sines and cosines and some of their basic anatomy (amplitude and frequency)We will then have a computational component where the students create their own sound waves by fiddling with parameters in the sines and cosines (again, amplitude, frequency and different superpositions of the sines and cosines). They will actually be able to see plots of their waves AND listen to their waves.  Finally, if time permits, the students will use their own sound waves to make Oobleck dance.  This will bring the exercise full circle in that they will be able to see their very own sound waves in action.
|}                                                                       
</center>


== September 21, 2015 ==
<center>
<center>
{| style="color:black; font-size:100%" table border="2" cellpadding="10" width="700" cellspacing="20"
|-
| bgcolor="#e8b2b2" align="center" style="font-size:125%" | '''Prof. Uri Andrews'''
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  align="center" | '''Title: Guarding Mona Lias'''
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  | 
You have gotten a tip that a famous art thief is going to steal something from the Louvre. It is your task to organize a security team that can watch all the works of art. The problem is that the Louvre is really big and has a strange layout. Where do you put your guards? And how many do you need?
|}                                                                       
</center>


== September 28, 2015 ==
{| style="color:black; font-size:120%" border="1" cellpadding="14" cellspacing="0"
<center>
{| style="color:black; font-size:100%" table border="2" cellpadding="10" width="700" cellspacing="20"
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#e8b2b2" align="center" style="font-size:125%" | '''Eva Elduque'''
! colspan="5" style="background: #e8b2b2;" align="center" | Fall 2019
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  align="center" | '''Title: Pick's Theorem'''
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  | 
! Date !! Location !! Speaker !! Title !! Abstract
In this talk, we will a very easy formula that allows us to quickly compute the areas of polygons whose vertices are points of a grid, and we will prove that this formula works. (Solutions to the worksheet distributed during the circle can be found [[File:Pick.pdf]].)
|}                                                                       
</center>
 
== October 5, 2015 ==
<center>
{| style="color:black; font-size:100%" table border="2" cellpadding="10" width="700" cellspacing="20"
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#e8b2b2" align="center" style="font-size:125%" | '''Jessica Lin'''
| October 7, 2019 || 2:45pm East High || Solly Parenti || Tangled Up in Two || Every tangled cord you have ever encountered is secretly a number.  Once you learn how to count these cords, cleaning your room will be as easy as 1-2-3.
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  align="center" | '''Title: The Math of Sudoku'''
| November 4, 2019 || 2:45pm James Madison Memorial || Caitlyn Booms || Sneaky Segments || We call a line segment drawn between two lattice points in the coordinate plane sneaky if it does not pass through any other lattice points. During this presentation, we will try to understand exactly when this happens, and we'll discuss how to calculate the probability that two randomly chosen lattice points are connected by a sneaky segment.
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  |  
| November 11, 2019 || 2:45pm East High || Maya Banks || Tic-Tac-Topology || Tic-Tac-Toe is a game usually played on a flat piece of paper. In this standard setting, there is winning strategy--that is, if the player who goes first chooses their moves correctly, they will never lose. But we can also play Tic-Tac-Toe on a surface that isn't lying flat in a plane! In this talk, we will explore the game of Tic-Tac-Toe on cylinders, donuts, and even some wilder surfaces. We'll look for optimal strategies, and learn some topology in the process.
Have you ever sat next to someone in the airport or airplane who plays sudoku? Have you ever tried to play yourself? When you play, do you have some strategies that help you to complete the puzzle? It turns out that there is some deep mathematics behind this simple game. Come to math circle this week to learn about it, and maybe you can help the person next to you solve his/her sudoku!
 
|}                                                                       
</center>
 
== October 12, 2015 ==
<center>
{| style="color:black; font-size:100%" table border="2" cellpadding="10" width="700" cellspacing="20"
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#e8b2b2" align="center" style="font-size:125%" | '''Ryan Julian'''
| December 16, 2019 || 2:45pm James Madison Memorial || Daniel Erman || Really Big Numbers || We will discuss the role that really really, really big numbers play in modern mathematics and in science. This will be a discussion of estimation and an introduction to some of the ways that mathematicians express unfathomably big numbers.
|-
|}
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  align="center" | '''Title: The Geometry of Hockeysticks and Eight Dimensional Oranges'''
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  | 
Like most people, I've often considered opening an eight dimensional grocery store. Of course, the main difficulty with this plan is that I'd need some way of neatly stacking all of the eight dimensional fruit that I'd be selling.  In this talk, we'll explore a variety of elementary counting problems, discover that nearly all elementary counting problems are really the same problem, and we'll apply these new insights to determine how to stack 8 dimensional fruits into neat 8 dimensional pyramids.
|}                                                                      
</center>
 


== October 26, 2015 ==
<center>
{| style="color:black; font-size:100%" table border="2" cellpadding="10" width="700" cellspacing="20"
|-
| bgcolor="#e8b2b2" align="center" style="font-size:125%" | '''Megan Maguire'''
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  align="center" | '''Title: Aperiodic tilings: Beyond your parents' bathroom floor'''
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  | 
A tiling is a way of covering the plane with geometric shapes such that there are no overlaps or gaps. If you have any tile in your home (maybe in your kitchen or bathroom) that is most likely an example of a tiling. Come learn about the cool math behind tilings and about the coolest tiling of all, the Penrose tiling.


|}                                                                       
</center>


== November 2, 2015 ==
{| style="color:black; font-size:120%" border="1" cellpadding="14" cellspacing="0"
<center>
{| style="color:black; font-size:100%" table border="2" cellpadding="10" width="700" cellspacing="20"
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#e8b2b2" align="center" style="font-size:125%" | '''Marko Budisic'''
! colspan="5" style="background: #e8b2b2;" align="center" | Spring 2020
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  align="center" | '''Title: Mathematics of GPS Satellites'''
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  | 
! Date !! Location !! Speaker !! Title !! Abstract
GPS is a system of satellites circling the Earth at a height 12,500 miles. That means you could easily fit both Mars and Venus in the distance between your phone and each car-sized satellite hovering in space. Once considered science fiction, GPS is now a part of our everyday life: we can use it through our phones, through our car navigation, and even some watches. Simple math equations lie at the heart of this system, and we will write them down, understand what they mean, and figure out how to solve them.
|}                                                                       
</center>
 
== November 9, 2015 ==
<center>
{| style="color:black; font-size:100%" table border="2" cellpadding="10" width="700" cellspacing="20"
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#e8b2b2" align="center" style="font-size:125%" | '''Tess Anderson'''
| February 17, 2020 || 2:45pm James Madison Memorial || Maya Banks || Tic-Tac-Topology || Tic-Tac-Toe is a game usually played on a flat piece of paper. In this standard setting, there is winning strategy--that is, if the player who goes first chooses their moves correctly, they will never lose. But we can also play Tic-Tac-Toe on a surface that isn't lying flat in a plane! In this talk, we will explore the game of Tic-Tac-Toe on cylinders, donuts, and even some wilder surfaces. We'll look for optimal strategies, and learn some topology in the process.
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  align="center" | '''Title: Gold Coins and Goast'''
| March 9, 2020 || 2:45pm East High || Michel Alexis || Kakeya Needle Sets || Take a 1-inch needle. A shape in the plane (i.e. a shape you can draw on a piece of paper) is called Kakeya if we can place the needle within the shape, and by only rotating and shifting the needle within the shape (no lifting!) we can get the needle to point in all directions. We will think about what sort of shapes are and aren't Kakeya, how this affects their geometry, and how small these shapes can be.
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  |  
What do pulling gold coins out of a a hat have to do with the famous Monty Hall "Goat Problem" in which you are a game show contestant trying to pick out the one prize hidden behind one of three doors?  Come and find out while savoring some chocolate gold coins. We will also discuss a jailer problem in which an infinite number of jailers try to free an infinite number of prisoners.  If time permits, other fun problems will be discussed.
|}                                                                       
</center>
 
== November 16, 2015 ==
<center>
{| style="color:black; font-size:100%" table border="2" cellpadding="10" width="700" cellspacing="20"
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#e8b2b2" align="center" style="font-size:125%" | '''DJ Bruce'''
| April 13, 2020 || 2:45pm James Madison Memorial || Juliette Bruce || <font color="red">Canceled</font> || TBD
|-
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  align="center" | '''Title: To Infinity and Beyond?'''
| April 20, 2020 || 2:45pm East High || Omer Mermelstein || <font color="red">Canceled</font> || TBD
|-
|}
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  |  
 
1, 2, 3,..., infinity? What is infinity? Is infinity plus one bigger than infinity? Beginning by figuring out what we mean when we say to collections of objects have the same number of things we will slowly work our way deep into the world of infinity. This world is often weird and counterintuitive, and we shall explore it!
|}                                                                       
</center>
 
== February 1, 2016 ==
<center>
{| style="color:black; font-size:100%" table border="2" cellpadding="10" width="700" cellspacing="20"
|-
| bgcolor="#e8b2b2" align="center" style="font-size:125%" | '''Will Mitchell'''
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  align="center" | '''Title: Are these networks the same?'''
|-
| bgcolor="#BDBDBD"  |  
The question of deciding whether two things are the same comes up in many different places in math.  In this session we'll consider the problem of deciding if two networks or "graphs" are the same.  This leads to some entertaining and challenging puzzles.  We will also learn a bit about how people try to solve similar problems using computers.  This problem has applications in the design of electronic circuits and in searching for organic chemical compounds within large databases.
|}                                                                      
</center>
</center>
-->
<!--
=Contact Information Form=
[https://fs18.formsite.com/crabbott/form1/index.html Link to Contact Information Form]
-->


=Useful Resources=
=Useful Resources=
Line 337: Line 217:


== Archived Abstracts ==
== Archived Abstracts ==
[https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_2016-2017 2016 - 2017 Math Circle Page]
[https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_Abstracts_2016-2017 2016 - 2017 Abstracts]
[https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_2015-2016 2015 - 2016 Math Circle Page]
[https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Math_Circle_de_Madison_2015-2016 2015 - 2016 Math Circle Page (Spanish)]
[https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Madison_Math_Circle_Abstracts_2015-2016 2015 - 2015 Abstracts]
[[Archived Math Circle Material]]
[[Archived Math Circle Material]]


==Link for presenters (in progress)==
==Link for presenters (in progress)==
[https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Math_Circle_Presentations   https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Math_Circle_Presentations]
[https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Math_Circle_Presentations Advice For Math Circle Presenters]
 
[http://www.geometer.org/mathcircles/ Sample Talk Ideas/Problems from Tom Davis]
 
[https://www.mathcircles.org/activities Sample Talks from the National Association of Math Circles]
 
[https://epdf.pub/circle-in-a-box715623b97664e247f2118ddf7bec4bfa35437.html "Circle in a Box"]

Revision as of 15:11, 20 April 2020

Logo.png

For the site in Spanish, visit Math Circle de Madison

COVID-19 Update

UW-Madison is canceling all major events and moving to “virtual instruction” for the rest of the Spring 2020 semester. The Madison Math Circle will also be canceling all in-person Math Circle meetings for the remainder of this semester.

We will have a few virtual Math Circle meetings on Monday, April 6, April 13, and April 20 at 4-4:45pm. Please join our email list (send a blank email to join-mathcircle@lists.wisc.edu) to receive updates about these virtual meetings and links to join us each week! We plan to send out a video about an interesting math topic to watch and think about beforehand and will answer questions and discuss the video during the meeting.

What is a Math Circle?

The Madison Math Circle is a weekly series of mathematically based activities aimed at interested middle school and high school students. It is an outreach program organized by the UW Math Department. Our goal is to provide a taste of exciting ideas in math and science. In the past we've had talks about plasma and weather in outer space, video game graphics, and encryption. In the sessions, students (and parents) are often asked to explore problems on their own, with the presenter facilitating a discussion. The talks are independent of one another, so new students are welcome at any point.

The level of the audience varies quite widely, including a mix of middle school and high school students, and the speakers generally address this by considering subjects that will be interesting for a wide range of students.


MathCircle 2.jpg MathCircle 4.jpg


After each talk we'll have pizza provided by the Mathematics Department, and students will have an opportunity to mingle and chat with the speaker and with other participants, to ask questions about some of the topics that have been discussed, and also about college, careers in science, etc.

The Madison Math circle was featured in Wisconsin State Journal: check it out!

All right, I want to come!

We have a weekly meeting, Monday at 6pm in 3255 Helen C White Library, during the school year. New students are welcome at any point! There is no fee and the talks are independent of one another, so you can just show up any week, but we ask all participants to take a moment to register by following the link below:

Math Circle Registration Form

All of your information is kept private, and is only used by the Madison Math Circle organizer to help run the Circle.

If you are a student, we hope you will tell other interested students about these talks, and speak with your parents or with your teacher about organizing a car pool to the UW campus. If you are a parent or a teacher, we hope you'll tell your students about these talks and organize a car pool to the UW (all talks take place in 3255 Helen C White Library, on the UW-Madison campus, right next to the Memorial Union).


Directions and parking

Our meetings are held on the 3rd floor of Helen C. White Hall in room 3255.

Helencwhitemap.png

Parking. Parking on campus is rather limited. Here is as list of some options:

Email list

The best way to keep up to date with the what is going is by signing up for our email list. Send an empty email to join-mathcircle@lists.wisc.edu

Contact the organizers

The Madison Math Circle is organized by a group of professors and graduate students from the Department of Mathematics at the UW-Madison. If you have any questions, suggestions for topics, or so on, just email the organizers here. We are always interested in feedback!

Donations

Please consider donating to the Madison Math Circle. As noted in our annual report, our main costs consist of pizza and occasional supplies for the speakers. So far our costs have been covered by donations from the UW Mathematics Department as well as a generous gifts from a private donor. But our costs are rising, primarily because this year we expect to hold more meetings than in any previous year. In fact, this year, we expect to spend at least $2500 on pizza and supplies alone.

So please consider donating to support your math circle! The easiest way to donate is to go to the link:

Online Donation Link

There are instructions on that page for donating to the Math Department. Be sure and add a Gift Note saying that the donation is intended for the "Madison Math Circle"! The money goes into the Mathematics Department Annual Fund and is routed through the University of Wisconsin Foundation, which is convenient for record-keeping, etc.

Alternately, you can bring a check to one of the Math Circle Meetings. If you write a check, be sure to make it payable to the "WFAA" and add the note "Math Circle Donation" on the check.

Or you can just pay in cash, and we'll give you a receipt.

Help us grow!

If you like Math Circle, please help us continue to grow! Students, parents, and teachers can help by:

  • Like our Facebook Page and share our events with others!
  • Posting our flyer at schools or anywhere that might have interested students.
  • Discussing the Math Circle with students, parents, teachers, administrators, and others.
  • Making an announcement about Math Circle at PTO meetings.
  • Donating to Math Circle.

Contact the organizers if you have questions or your own ideas about how to help out.

Meetings for Fall 2019

Talks start at 6pm in room 3255 of Helen C. White Library, unless otherwise noted.

Fall 2019
Date Speaker Topic
September 23, 2019 Soumya Sankar Why don't map makers like high heels?
September 30, 2019 Erika Pirnes Why do ice hockey players fall in love with mathematicians?
October 7, 2019 Uri Andrews Self-reference, proofs, and computer programming
October 14, 2019 James Hanson When is a puzzle impossible?
October 21, 2019 Owen Goff Symbolic Logic and How It's Really Just Arithmetic
October 28, 2019 Ian Seong Counting, but Not Like Kindergarteners
November 4, 2019 Omer Mermelstein Ciphers: To Gibberish and Back Again
November 11, 2019 Colin Crowley Many Pennies
November 18, 2019 Daniel Corey The Königsberg Bridge Problem

Meetings for Spring 2020

Talks start at 6pm in room 3255 of Helen C. White Library, unless otherwise noted.

Spring 2020
Date Speaker Topic
January 27, 2020 Caitlyn Booms Magic or Math?
February 3, 2020 Erika Pirnes Finding Your Roots
February 10, 2020 Xiao Shen Constructing the 17-gon
February 17, 2020 Ben Bruce 1+1=2 and Other Integer Partitions
February 24, 2020 Brandon Boggess Pi-ck Up Sticks
March 2, 2020 Solly Parenti Lazy Math
March 9, 2020 Connor Simpson Counting Ways to Color Graphs
March 23, 2020 Tejasi Bhatnagar Canceled
March 30, 2020 Yunxuan Li Canceled
April 6, 2020 at 4pm Daniel Erman Virtual: Josephus Problem and Intro to Research Mathematics
April 13, 2020 at 4pm Caitlyn Booms Virtual: To Infinity and Beyond
April 20, 2020 at 4pm Juliette Bruce Virtual: Finding the Fastest Slide

Off-Site Meetings

We will hold some Math Circle meetings at local high schools on early release days. If you are interesting in having us come to your high school, please contact us!

Fall 2019
Date Location Speaker Title Abstract
October 7, 2019 2:45pm East High Solly Parenti Tangled Up in Two Every tangled cord you have ever encountered is secretly a number. Once you learn how to count these cords, cleaning your room will be as easy as 1-2-3.
November 4, 2019 2:45pm James Madison Memorial Caitlyn Booms Sneaky Segments We call a line segment drawn between two lattice points in the coordinate plane sneaky if it does not pass through any other lattice points. During this presentation, we will try to understand exactly when this happens, and we'll discuss how to calculate the probability that two randomly chosen lattice points are connected by a sneaky segment.
November 11, 2019 2:45pm East High Maya Banks Tic-Tac-Topology Tic-Tac-Toe is a game usually played on a flat piece of paper. In this standard setting, there is winning strategy--that is, if the player who goes first chooses their moves correctly, they will never lose. But we can also play Tic-Tac-Toe on a surface that isn't lying flat in a plane! In this talk, we will explore the game of Tic-Tac-Toe on cylinders, donuts, and even some wilder surfaces. We'll look for optimal strategies, and learn some topology in the process.
December 16, 2019 2:45pm James Madison Memorial Daniel Erman Really Big Numbers We will discuss the role that really really, really big numbers play in modern mathematics and in science. This will be a discussion of estimation and an introduction to some of the ways that mathematicians express unfathomably big numbers.


Spring 2020
Date Location Speaker Title Abstract
February 17, 2020 2:45pm James Madison Memorial Maya Banks Tic-Tac-Topology Tic-Tac-Toe is a game usually played on a flat piece of paper. In this standard setting, there is winning strategy--that is, if the player who goes first chooses their moves correctly, they will never lose. But we can also play Tic-Tac-Toe on a surface that isn't lying flat in a plane! In this talk, we will explore the game of Tic-Tac-Toe on cylinders, donuts, and even some wilder surfaces. We'll look for optimal strategies, and learn some topology in the process.
March 9, 2020 2:45pm East High Michel Alexis Kakeya Needle Sets Take a 1-inch needle. A shape in the plane (i.e. a shape you can draw on a piece of paper) is called Kakeya if we can place the needle within the shape, and by only rotating and shifting the needle within the shape (no lifting!) we can get the needle to point in all directions. We will think about what sort of shapes are and aren't Kakeya, how this affects their geometry, and how small these shapes can be.
April 13, 2020 2:45pm James Madison Memorial Juliette Bruce Canceled TBD
April 20, 2020 2:45pm East High Omer Mermelstein Canceled TBD

Useful Resources

Annual Reports

2013-2014 Annual Report

Archived Abstracts

2016 - 2017 Math Circle Page

2016 - 2017 Abstracts

2015 - 2016 Math Circle Page

2015 - 2016 Math Circle Page (Spanish)

2015 - 2015 Abstracts

Archived Math Circle Material

Link for presenters (in progress)

Advice For Math Circle Presenters

Sample Talk Ideas/Problems from Tom Davis

Sample Talks from the National Association of Math Circles

"Circle in a Box"