Archives

1. Interactive recreational math presentation. 

This presentation is open to people of all backgrounds.

The content is chosen so that it is new to most people.

2. Introductory problem solving workshop. 

This is a relaxed problem solving workshop. 

To see if this is right for you, check out these two problem sets:

If this one is too hard to start, then you are not ready yet.

If this one is too easy, then this is not for you.

3. Advanced contest math.  

This class is designed for those who are comfortable with the AMC 10/12 and wish to train for contests such as HMMT/PUMAC/ARML.  

Fall 2023

Recreational Math Seminar

Our main event, open to all levels. Presenters and topics vary from week to week.

Tuesdays 6-7:30 pm,  In Person

Location: Brownson Hall BR-109, Manhattanville College  

Date: Sept 12

Title: Loops and Roots: The Connection Between Two Mathematical Fundamentals

Presented by Matt Cushman, PhD 

At the heart of mathematics lie "Fundamental" concepts and truths. One such truth is the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra, which asserts that every polynomial over the complex numbers has a root. This claim is foundational for our understanding of equations and their solutions. But how can we prove it? Enter the world of topology and the concept of the "Fundamental Group." Though seemingly distant from the world of polynomials and equations, this concept offers a unique and illuminating perspective on algebra. We will journey through these two mathematical territories, each labeled as "fundamental" in their respective fields. We will uncover the threads that link them as we explore and see how these connections hint at even deeper mathematical landscapes. Whether you're familiar with these ideas or hearing of them for the first time, join us for an exploration of these intertwined fundamentals.

Date: Sept 19

Title:  Randomness as a tool

Presented by Yi Lin, Ph.D.

Randomness is associated with uncertainty. While we typically prefer reduced uncertainty, adding a dose of designed randomness can help solve many real

life problems. In this talk we give a few examples of such situations. The examples introduce interesting ideas, but are kept simple mathematically. While we touch upon some advanced concepts such as the randomized strategies in game theory, all the material requires only high school math.

Date: Sept 26

Title: Egyptian Palindromic Fractions

Presented by Peder Olsen, Ph.D.

Abstract: A fifth-grade problem challenging students to find distinct integers a,b,c,d,e such that 1 = 1/a+1/b+1/c+1/d+1/e made me realize how tricky fractions can be. These types of sums are called Egyptian factions.  I will ask previously unexplored questions relating to Egyptian fractions and palindromes.  Can every fraction be written as an Egyptian fraction with all palindromes, and what palindromic fraction representations are possible?   Bring a pencil and paper to find out who is smarter than a fifth grader and have some fun with fractions.  Here's a palindromic teaser: 1/98 = 1/99+1/9999+1/606606+1/707707.

Date: Oct 3

Title: Sylvester’s Problem, Point-Line Duality and the Projective Plane

Presented by Jon Lenchner, Ph.D.

In 1893, Sylvester asked the famous question: “Given n points in the plane not all of which lie on a single line, must there be some two points such that the line passing through the points does not pass through any additional point?” The problem was answered in the affirmative 50 years later by Tibor Gallai and the result is now known as the Sylvester-Gallai Theorem. I will describe my own proof of this theorem, and give a couple of others. I will also describe the concept of point-line duality and introduce you to the projective plane, which gives us a new way to think about point-line incidences.

Oct 10

Title: Certainty from Probability

Presented by Matt Cushman, PhD 

Abstract:  Probability is the mathematical study of uncertain events, such as the roll of a die.  Surprisingly, arguments from probability can sometimes be used to prove "normal" mathematical statements, statements such as "there exists a mathematical structure with a certain property", or number theoretic/combinatorial identities, or even statements in geometry.  We'll take a leisurely stroll through some examples of these, including solving some math competition problems (IMO and more!), and giving some proofs of problem that were open as recently as the late 20th century.

Oct 17

Title: Probability from Certainty II

Presented by Matt Cushman, PhD 

We will continue our discussion of the uses of probability in proofs of non-random statements.  This lecture will also be entirely self-contained, so please don’t fret if you missed the prior week.  The “Probabilistic Method” is beautiful in its own right and very powerful for solving certain problems.  Just like last week, we will hit some relatively recent research problems as well as some contest problems! 

Oct 24

Title: Nested Radicals

Presented by Dr. Henry Ricardo

Introductory Problem Solving Workshop

Presented by: Grace Lin and Chen Lei 

New to math competitions and problem solving? Join our free relaxed problem solving workshop based on Math Kangaroo and Moscow Math Circle material. Suitable for middle school students. Enjoy pizza after the end of the class.

To see if this is right for you, check out these two problem sets:

If this one is too hard to start, then you are not ready yet.

If this one is too easy, then this is not for you.

Tuesdays 5-5:50 PM, In Person

Location: Brownson Hall BR-109, Manhattanville College 

Sept 12

Sept 19

Sept 26

Oct 3

Oct 10

Oct 17

Oct 24

Intermediate Problem Solving Workshop

Presented by Chinmayi Goyal and Jai Paradkar,

Getting ready for AIME? Interested in improving your AMC 10/12 score? Join us for a free topic-based workshop covering algebra, geometry, combinatorics, and number theory. Our winter workshop will concentrate on AIME level problems.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87914723806?pwd=dHBkNDNWOHBpdmdkT2xLbFBWTDZJUT09 

Thursdays, 6-6:50 PM,  Online

Aug 24

Aug 31

Sept 7

Sept 14

Sept 21

Sept 28

Oct 5

Oct 12

Oct 19

Oct 26

Nov 2

Nov 9  - Review

Nov 16 - Geometry &Trigonometry

Nov 30 - Probability

Dec 7 - Algebra & Logarithms

Dec 14 - Complex Numbers

Dec 21 Number Theory

=====

Jan 4 - State Theory& Generating Functions

Jan 11  Miscellaneous

Jan 18 Review

Jan 25 Review

Advanced Problem Solving Workshop

Presented by: Andrew Tu, Derek Xu, Vikram Sarkar

Comfortable with the majority of AMC 10/12 problems? Interested in team competitions? Come and train with us for more advanced team contests. We will use past MMATH, PUMaC, ARML, and HMMT problems.

Sundays 3-4:30 PM, In Person

Location: Brownson Hall BR-109, Manhattanville College  

Sept 10

Sept 17

Sept 24

Oct 1

Oct 8

Oct 15

Oct 22

Oct 29 - MMATH weekend

Nov 5 

Nov 12 - HMMT weekend

EMCC Preparation session

Presented by: Andrew Zhang

4-week workshop that is designed for middle school and advanced elementary school student who would like to prepare for EMCC

Sunday 1:30-3:00 PM , in Person

Location: Brownson Hall BR-109, Manhattanville College  

Nov 5,

Nov 12

Nov 19

Dec 3

Math Contests

MOAA

At Phillips Academy Andover on Oct 7, 2023

MMATH

At Yale on Oct 28, 2023

CMWMC

At CMU on Oct 28, 2023

AMC I0A/12A

At Manhattanville College on Wednesday, Nov 8, 2023

AMC I0B/12B

At Manhattanville College on Tuesday, Nov 14, 2023

HMMT

At Harvard on November 11, 2023

PUMaC

At Princeton on November 18, 2023

Summer 2023

AMC 8 and Mathcounts Preparation summer classes are back! Grace Lin and Warren Fu will be leading the session again.

This year's session will include a new set of topics and will go into more depth compared to previous years.

Classes will take place online at 4:00-4:45 PM every Tuesday and Thursday from July 11th to August 24th. They are designed for 4th to 8th graders who are interested in solving AMC 8 / Mathcounts problems.

Please register in advance for this meeting:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUudO-trDIrGtOCgbnv4l2HmI8SV-xIH555

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

July 11th - The AMC 8 and Mathcounts

July 13th - Polygons

July 18th - Similarity

July 20th - Primes

July 25th - Divisor Counting

July 27th - Relationships Between LCMs and GCDs

August 1st - Logic Puzzles

August 3rd - Modular Arithmetic

August 8th - Venn Diagrams & PIE

August 10th - Constructive Counting

August 15th - Radicals

August 22nd - Inequalities

August 24th - Lateral Thinking Puzzles

Spring 2023

Schedule 

Introductory Problem Solving Workshop

Presented by: Grace Lin and Chen Lei

New to math competitions and problem solving? Join our free relaxed problem solving workshop based on Math Kangaroo and Moscow Math Circle material. Suitable for middle school students. Enjoy pizza after the end of the class.

Tuesdays 5-5:50 PM, In Person

Location: Brownson Hall 14, Manhattanville College  

Jan 24

It's a special introductory problem seminar this week: we will review the AMC 8 problems and solutions, so a great forum to review and learn from if you took it this past week. 

Jan 31

(AIME break)

Feb 14

(winter break)

Feb 28

Mar 7

Mar 14

Mar 21

Mar 28

Recreational Math Seminar

Our main event, open to all levels. Presenters and topics vary from week to week.

Tuesdays 6-7:30 pm,  In Person

Location: Brownson Hall 14, Manhattanville College  

Jan 24

Title: Topology and The Game of Hex

Presented by Matt Cushman, PhD 

Hex is a fun two-person strategy game played on a sheet of hexagonal graph paper.  Discovered by Piet Hien and independently re-discovered and studied by John Nash, we'll play a game and study the theory behind it.  The key fact about Hex is that no game ever ends in a draw: an intuitively obvious fact that is surprisingly subtle to prove... and will lead us to the equivalent result which says if you take a sheet of paper and crumple it in place, one point's location will remain unchanged.

Jan 31

Fun with Finite Fields I

Presented by Matt Cushman, PhD 

You might have heard about "modulo" arithmetic or "clock" arithmetic -- it's simply just using remainders when dividing by a specified number n when doing addition and multiplication.  It turns out that this is a surprisingly powerful idea in mathematics.  We'll discuss the basics of how this works, and some of the amazing and fascinating structures that emerge when n is prime. 

(AIME break)

Feb 14

Title: Turning Paper into Shapes, with Math

Presented by Luke Martin

Abstract: Origami is the art of folding paper into shapes. There is a lot of rich mathematics underlying the techniques. We'll discuss the basics of folding, mountain and valley folds, crease patterns, and flat-foldable-ness. Then we'll discuss crease intersections and study the mathematical restrictions on the number and type of creases and how they must meet at each intersection for a pattern to be flat-foldable.

(winter break)

Feb 28

Title: Randomness as a tool

Presented by Yi Lin, Ph.D.

February 28, 6-7:30 pm, Manhattanville College, Brownson Hall 14

Randomness is associated with uncertainty. While we typically prefer reduced uncertainty, adding a dose of designed randomness can help solve many real life problems. In this talk we give a few examples of such situations. The examples introduce interesting ideas, but are kept simple mathematically. While we touch upon some advanced concepts such as the randomized strategies in game theory, all the material should be understandable by high school students. 

Mar 7

Title: Buffon’s Needle

Presented by Erik Brodsky

March 7, 6-7:30 pm, Manhattanville College, Brownson Hall 14

Your floor is made from long, parallel planks of wood, each of them 1 inch thick. If you drop a 1-inch long needle on your floor, what's the probability that it lands on a line between two of the planks? This is known as Buffon's Needle problem, and with some

clever tricks of probability theory, we can get a very elegant solution. Afterwards, we will look at how this innocuous question can be used to estimate pi

Mar 14

Title: Understanding expressivity in first order logic via simple combinatorial games

Speaker: Jonathan Lenchner, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

Abstract: Ever since Frege in the late 1800s, mathematicians have sought to formalize mathematics in terms of the formal language of logic, leading to the famous Russel Paradox and Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems, among many other important results. In this talk I will introduce the formal languages of first and second order logic.  I will also describe the computational complexity classes P and NP,  and describe the famous unsolved problem of whether P = NP. Then I will describe how computational complexity is connected to expressivity of problems in formal logical languages and how this problem can be studied by analyzing certain simple two player games.

Mar 21

Title: Proofs of the Infinitude or Primes

Presented by Gautam Chinta, Ph.D.

March 21, 6-7:30 pm, Manhattanville College, Brownson Hall 14

Euclid proved over 2000 years ago that there are infinitely many prime numbers. How many different proofs do you think Dr. Chinta can give in 1 hour? The audience member who gets closest to answering this question without going over will win a prize!

Mar 28

Title: Life, Death, and Water Jugs

Presented by Henry Ricardo (Professor of Mathematics at CUNY, retired) 

In the movie Die Hard with a Vengeance, a terrorist challenges a police officer and a Harlem store owner with a life-and-death math problem involving a bomb and jugs of water.  Starting with a film clip, I will solicit solutions to this problem, reveal the underlying mathematics, and discuss its generalizations.

May 7

Title: How to survive the ChatGPT invasion

Presented by Po-shen Loh

Speaker Info

Po-Shen Loh is a social entrepreneur and inventor working across mathematics, education, and healthcare. He is a math professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the national coach of the USA International Mathematical Olympiad team. He has pioneered innovations ranging from a scalable way for people to learn challenging math live online from brilliant people to a new way to control pandemics by leveraging self-interest. 

He has earned distinctions ranging from an International Mathematical Olympiad silver medal to the USA Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. He was the coach of Carnegie Mellon University’s math team when it achieved its first-ever #1 rank among all North American universities, and the coach of the USA Math Olympiad team when it achieved its first-ever back-to-back #1-rank victories in 2015 and 2016, and then again in 2018 and 2019. He featured in or co-created videos totaling over 19 million YouTube views.

Event Description

The scale of global societal problems looks daunting. One person, or even a small team, is minuscule relative to the number of people who need help. For example, since ChatGPT has exploded onto the scene, our children's future employment prospects (and current educational experience, with ChatGPT-powered cheating) are in existential danger. There is an area close to mathematics, however, which devises solutions in which problems solve themselves even through self-serving human behavior: Game Theory. 

The speaker is a pure math professor, researcher, and educator who transitioned to using Game Theory to develop new solutions for large-scale real-world problems. He will talk about his experience going from the ivory tower of academia into the practical mess of the real world.

He will also discuss educational strategies that build relevant skills to survive this new era of Generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT). He has been working extensively on this problem and draws from experience teaching across the entire spectrum, from underprivileged schools to the International Math Olympiad. 

This event will be completely different from an ordinary math talk. It will be fun and thought-provoking.

Intermediate Problem Solving Workshop

Presented by Chinmayi Goyal and Jai Paradkar,

Getting ready for AIME? Interested in improving your AMC 10/12 score? Join us for a free topic-based workshop covering algebra, geometry, combinatorics, and number theory. Our winter workshop will concentrate on AIME level problems.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89028596167?pwd=MWQ1UktDRERBSW9oY1dDVkNhMlg1Zz09 

Thursdays, 6-6:50 PM,  Online

Jan 5

Jan 12

Jan 19

Jan 26

Feb 2

Feb 9

possible additional sessions to go over AIME

Advanced Problem Solving Workshop

Presented by: Mathew Zhao, Jason Zhong, and Andrew Tu

Comfortable with the majority of AMC 10/12 problems? Interested in team competitions? Come and train with us for more advanced team contests. We will use past PUMaC, ARML, and HMMT problems.

Sundays 3-4:30 PM, In Person

Location: Brownson Hall 14, Manhattanville College  

Jan 29

(AIME break)

Feb 12

(winter break)

Feb 26

Mar 5

Mar 12

Mar 19

Mar 26

(PUMaC)

AMC 8

Thursday, January 19, 2023, 5-6 PM

makeup day in case of bad weather - Sunday, January 22, 2023, 3-4 pm (I will just add an extra day to the Advanced Workshop when making the reservation)

AIME I

Tuesday, Feb 7, 2023.  3hours somewhere between 1:30 and 5:30 pm

Fall 2022

Schedule 

Introductory Problem Solving Workshop

Presented by: Grace Lin, Chen Lei

This is a relaxed problem solving workshop based on Moscow Math Circle and AMC 8 materials. The course will be on a similar level like last year, but it will include new problems only. 

Time: Tuesdays 5-5:50 pm (weekly)

Sept 20,27

Oct 4,11,18,25

Nov 1,22

Recreational Math Seminar

Time: Tuesdays 6-7:30 pm (weekly)

Sept 20, Matt Cushman - Platonic Solids

We all know what a triangle, square and hexagon are.  You may have learned about polygons and regular polygons in geometry class.  All of these objects dwell in two dimensions.. what would be their analogue for three dimensions?  Join us as we explore this question, touching on a web of ideas running from the ancient Greeks (Plato), through Descartes and Euler through Gauss.

Sept 27, Yi Lin - Bayes Rules

Yi Lin will be leading a discussion of Bayes Rule:

Bayes Rule is the foundation for much of statistical and scientific reasoning.  It's even been described as the most important equation for Machine Learning!  Join our discussion of basic concepts in conditional probability with examples leading to Bayes formula and its applications. 

Oct 4 Matt Cushman - "Fermat's L(ittle) Theorem"

Abstract:  Fermat's Last Theorem famously was proved in the 1990s by Andrew Wiles after centuries of work by brilliant mathematicians.  Fermat has another "L" theorem, which is actually much more important and which he actually proved.  Known as "Fermat's Little Theorem", this forms the basis for a lot of number theory and algebra.  We will discuss it, and a couple of different proofs as well as some applications.

Oct 11, Henry Ricardo (Professor of Mathematics at CUNY, retired)

Title: Digital Roots and the Hidden Design of the Universe

Abstract: Mystical qualities have been attributed to numbers by philosophers and mystics throughout the

ages. In particular, the digital root of a number has been endowed with cosmological

significance.

We will discuss (mathematically) the definition and basic properties of this number-theoretic

function, as well as more sophisticated results. For the purposes of our math circle, we note that

the digital root and related concepts have appeared in various mathematical and programming

competitions over the years. Audience participation will be encouraged. Exercises and

references will be provided.

Oct 18, Jon Lenchner (Research Scientist, IBM)

Title: On Some Card Games Related to the Card Game SET

Abstract: Dr. Lenchner will describe two mathematical card games that I have created that have some similarities to the popular card game SET. I will describe various mathematical properties of these games, allow the audience to play a few sample hands, and then I will describe the making of the physical and online versions of the games. I will also mention a handful of open problems connected to the games.

Oct 25, Yi Lin - Former professor of UW-Madison, Portfolio Manager at Verition

Title: Gambler's ruin and martingale

Abstract: Many games involve an element of chance.  We will learn about how one can use math and probability theory to understand them (and sometimes win!).  We will learn about Martingales which were one of the motivating examples of probability theory and continue to be an important concept in probability theory today.

Nov 1, Yicheng Zhong- Mortgage Specialist at Rokos Capital

Title: Predicting Mortgage Prepayment of U.S. Homeowners - Mathematical Modeling in Finance

Abstract: Majortiy of US homeowners fund their house purchases with mortgages, resulting in $8+ trln bonds derived from their pooled cashflow sold to global investors. Properly predicting homeowner behavior of prepaying their mortgages via sophisticated mathematical models becomes a heavily-invested field and one key success measure of such strategies. The presenter will lead you to discover the power of everyday, common-sense math in this field from a practitioner's point of view. 

Nov 22, Yevgeniy Kostrov - Professor of Manhattanville College

Abstract: Professor Yevgeniy Kostrov will be introducing us to Difference Equations, with few financial applications.

Intermediate Problem Solving Workshop

Presented by Chinmayi Goyal, Jai Paradkar, and Jason Shi

Topic based seminars covering algebra, geometry, combinatorics, and number theory. The fall semester will concentrate on AMC 10/12 problems. The spring semester will introduce AIME level problems.

Time: Thursdays 6-6:50 pm (weekly)

Sept 15,22,29

Oct 6,13,20,27

Nov 3

Dec 1, 8

ARML Training

Presented by: Mathew Zhao, Jason Zhong, and Andrew Tu

This class is designed for those who are comfortable with the AMC 10/12 and wish to train for more advanced contests. We will be using past ARML problems.

Time: Sundays 3-4:30 pm (weekly)

Sept 25

Oct 2,9,16,23,30

Nov 6,20

Summer 2022

AMC 8 and Mathcounts Preparation summer classes are back! Grace Lin, who taught last year's session, will be leading the session again with help from Warren Fu.

This year's session will include a new set of topics and will go into more depth compared to last year.

Classes will take place online at 4:00-4:45 PM every Tuesday and Thursday from July 19th to August 25th. They are designed for 4th to 7th graders who are interested in solving AMC 8 / Mathcounts problems.

Please register in advance for this meeting:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAudemoqT4vGd2RL01eaaDwN1JWal6Nz7Gu

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

July 19th - Introduction to the AMC 8 and Mathcounts

July 21th - Arithmetic Series

July 26th - Geometric Series

July 28th - Circles

August 2nd - 3D Geometry

August 4th - Lateral Thinking Puzzles (Day 1)

August 9th - Casework

August 11th - Probability

August 16th - Logic Puzzles

August 18th - Linear Equations

August 23th - Factoring Polynomials

August 25th - Lateral Thinking Puzzles (Day 2)

Spring 2022

1. Recreational Math Seminar 5:30-6:50 NYC time on Wednesdays.

Presented by Paul Ellis.  

March 16 - Magic Squares- David Nacin (William Paterson University)

March 23 - An intuitive look at the fundamental group  - Matt Cushman (WAMC)

March 30 - The games of NIM and JIM - Paul Ellis (Manhattanville College)

April 6 - Infinite Logicians and Infinite Hats - Paul Ellis (Manhattanville College)

April 13 - Lobachevskian Geometry - Eric Brodsky (WAMC)

April 20 [4:30pm] - Padovan Patterns - David Nacin (William Paterson University)

April 27 [4:30pm] - Partitions and Puzzles - David Nacin (William Paterson University)

2. Introductory problem solving workshop.  6:00-6:50 NYC time on Thursdays.

Presented by Andrew Tu, Grace Lin, and Chinmayi Goyal 

This is a relaxed problem solving workshop.   To see if this is right for you, check out these two problem sets:

If this one is too hard to start, then you are not ready yet.

If this one is too easy, then this is not for you.

Jan 13,20,27

Feb 3,10,17

Mar 3,10,17,24,31

Apr 7,21,28

May 5,12,19,26 

3. ARML Training.  3:00-4:30 NYC time on Saturdays.

Presented by Erik Brodsky, Matthew Zhao, and Jason Zhong 

This class is designed for those who are comfortable with the AMC 10/12 and wish to train for more advanced contests.  We will be using past ARML problems.

Jan 15,22,29

Feb 5,12,19

Mar 5,12,19,26

Apr 2,9,23,30

May 7,14,21,28 

Fall 2021

1. Recreational Math Seminar 5:30-6:50 NYC time on Wednesdays.

Presented by Paul Ellis.  

September 15 - Sona:  Sand drawings from Angola (Paul Ellis, Manhattanville College)

September 22 - A Tricky Pair of Dice (Matt Cushman, Phd Math)

September 29 - Fermat's Last Theorem (Mervin Bierman, National Security Agency)

October 6 - Euler Characteristic (Matt Cushman, Phd Math)

October 13 - Hogan House Geometry (Maria Droujkova, Natural Math and Dawnlei Hunter Ben, Dzil Dit’loií School of Empowerment, Action, and Perseverance)

October 20 - Patterns That Do Not Last (Paul Ellis, Manhattanville College)

October 27 - Big Numbers (Matt Cushman, PhD Math)

November 3 - The Search for Perfect Numbers (Paul Ellis, Manhattanville College)

2. Introductory problem solving workshop.  6:00-6:50 NYC time on Thursdays.

Presented by Andrew Tu, Grace Lin, and Chinmayi Goyal 

Sept 16,23,30

Oct 7,14,21,28

Nov 4,18 (off for AMC and Thanksgiving)

Dec 2,9,16

3. ARML Training.  3:00-4:30 NYC time on Saturdays.

Presented by Erik Brodsky, Matthew Zhao, and Jason Zhong 

Sept 18,25

Oct 2,9,16,23,30

Nov 6,20 (off for HMMT and Thanksgiving)

Dec 4,11,18

Summer 2021: AMC8/Mathcounts preparation

Presented by Grace and Katherine Lin. 

July 6th - Introduction to the AMC 8 and Mathcounts

July 8th - Divisibility Rules

July 13th - Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences

July 15th - Number Bases

July 20th - 3D Objects

July 22th - Proportions

July 27th - Percentages

July 29th - Exponent Rules

August 3th - System of Equations

August 5th - Factoring Polynomials

August 10th - Something a little different: Lateral Thinking Puzzles

Summer 2020 Meetings

All sessions presented by Katherine Lin.

Tuesday, July 28 - Angles, Stars, and Spirals

Thursday, July 30 - Chicken McNugget Theorem/Visual Approach to Solving Problems Like This

Tuesday, August 4 - One-Piece Chess

Thursday, August 6 - Get To Zero

 Tuesday, August 11 - Nim with Two Piles

Thursday, August 13 -  A Variation on Two-Pile Nim

Tuesday, August 18 - Prime Numbers

Thursday, August 20 - Tesselations

Tuesday, August 25 - Take and Split

Thursday, August 27 - Divisibility Rules

Spring 2019 Meetings

Interactive recreational math presentations. 5:30-6:50 on Wednesdays in Brownson 108

March 20 - Padovan Patterns - David Nacin (William Paterson University)

March 27 - Knot Theory - Paul Ellis (Manhattanville College)

April 3 - Jacobsthal Numbers - David Nacin (William Paterson University)

April 10 - SET and Super SET - Lauren Rose (Bard College)

April 17 - NO MEETING

April 24 - Fourier Transforms and Sound - Austin Purves (Manhattanville College)

May 1 - Pythagorean Triples - Yevgeniy Kostrov (Manhattanville College)

Advanced Contest Math Class presented by Derrick Xiong

Saturdays, 2:00-3:30 in Brownson 14

-March 9, March 16, March 23, March 30, April 6, May 4, May 11, May 18 (cancelled), May 25.

Spring 2017 Meetings

Feb 1 - An origami inspired adventure in Number Theory, with limits - Jeanine Meyer (Purchase College)

(Tuesday, Feb 7 - AMC 10A/12A)

Feb 8 - More fun with Number Theory - Marty Lewinter (Purchase College)

Feb 15 - AMC 10B/12B only (no presentation)

Feb 22 - NO MEETING (area schools' Winter Break) 

Mar 1 - Dirichlet and His Pigeons - Henry Ricardo (CUNY)

    Mar 8 at 5:00pm - Momathlon tryouts

Mar 8 - Dirichlet and His Pigeons, part 2 - Henry Ricardo (CUNY)

Mar 15 - NO MEETING (Manhattanville's Spring Break)

(Monday, Mar 20 - Westchester Momathlon)

Mar 22 - Computing the area of a parabola, from Archimedes to Calculus - Japheth Wood (Bard College)

Mar 29 - Topics in Computer Arithmetic - Mayan Moudgill (Optimum Semiconductors)

Apr 5 - Bayes Theorem - Austin Purves*

Apr 12 - NO MEETING (area schools' Spring Break)

Apr 19 - Volunteer Meeting

Apr 26 - ARML Tryouts and info session

May 3 - Solving the Cubic and the Quartic - Keith Hickey*

(*speaker is from Manhattanville College)

Fall 2016 Meetings

September 7 - Proofs Without Words, part 1 - Paul Ellis*

September 14 - Proofs Without Words, part 2 - Paul Ellis* 

September 21 - HMMT and PUMAC Tryouts only (no presentation)

September 28 - Introduction to Game Theory - Mia Heissan*

October 5 - Some Parenthetical Remarks About Counting: Catalan Numbers - Henry Ricardo (CUNY)

October 12 - NO MEETING (Manhattanville Fall Break)

October 19 - Bulgarian Solitaire - Paul Ellis* 

October 26 - Recounting the Rationals - Paul Ellis*

November 2 - EMCC tryouts only (no presentation)

November 9 - The Central Limit Theorem - Austin Purves*

(Saturday, Nov 12 HMMT)

(Tuesday, Nov 15 AMC 8)

November 16 - Magic Squares - Japheth Wood (Bard College) 

(Tuesday, Nov 19 - PUMAC)

(*speaker is from Manhattanville College)

Spring 2016 Meetings

January 27 - The Game of Set and Steiner Triple Systems - Paul Ellis*

(Tuesday, Feb 2 AMC 10A/12A)

February 3 - How do we define the real numbers? - Mia Heissan*

February 10 - NO MEETING

February 17 - No Meeting - AMC 10B/12B

February 24 - Finite Fields, part 1 - Paul Ellis*

March 2 - Finite Fields, part 2 - Paul Ellis*

(Monday, March 7- Westchester MoMathalon)

March 9 - NO MEETING (Manhattanville's Spring Break)

March 16 - Patterns that do not last - Keith Conrad (University of Connecticut).

March 23 - Perfect Numbers - Japheth Wood (Bard College)

March 30 - ARML Tryouts 

April 6 - The Poisson Distribution in Counting Experiments - Austin Purves*

April 13 - Senior Math Major Presentations

April 20 - P vs. NP - Jon Munson*

Fall 2015 Meetings

September 9 - How to Guard a Museum - Paul Ellis*

September 16 -  Infinitely Many Primes - Paul Ellis*

September 23 - NO MEETING (Yom Kippur)

September 30 - Infinitely Many Primes, Part II - Paul Ellis*

October 7 - Arithmetic Sequences, Sets, and Infinitely many primes Part III - Paul Ellis*

October 14 - The use of Entropy in proving inequalities - Mayank Sharma (IBM Research)

October 21 - NO MEETING

October 28 - Some common inequalities and their applications. - Paul Ellis*

November 4 - Two faces of the universe: determinism vs. randomness - Tomasz Nowicki (IBM Research)

November 11 - Vectors Explain Gyroscopic Precession - Austin Purves*

November 18 - Complex Numbers and Geometry - Mia Heissan*

Spring 2015 Meetings

February 3 - AMC 10A/12A 6:30-8:00pm (This is a Tuesday!)

February 4 -  Pick's Theorem - Paul Ellis

February 11 -  Modular Origami - Paul Ellis (MoMathalon tryouts at 4:30)

February 18 - NO MEETING (Schools' Winter Break)

February 25 - AMC 10B/12B 4:30-6:00pm (No regular meeting)

March 4 - Spherical Geometry with the Lénárt Sphere - Paul Ellis

March 11 - NO MEETING (Manhattanville's Spring Break)

March 18  - Continued Fractions - Keith Conrad (University of Connecticut)

March 19 - Westchester MoMathalon snow date (This is a Thursday!)

March 25  - Catalan Numbers - Japheth Wood (Bard College, NYC Math Circle)

April 1 - NO MEETING

April 8 - NO MEETING (Schools' Spring Break)

April 15 - Circle Geometry I - The Power of a Point - Paul Ellis

April 22 - NO MEETING 

April 29 - Circle Geometry II - Circle Inversion and the Poincare Disc Model of Hyperbolic Geometry - Paul Ellis

Fall 2014 Meetings

September 10 - Some thoughts about infinity - Paul Ellis*

September 17 - Some thoughts about infinity, part 2 - Paul Ellis*

September 24 - No meeting (Rosh Hashanah)

October 1 - Number Theory I, Mia Heissan*

October 8 -  Number Theory II, Mia Heissan* [Schedule is changed today.  Presentation at 5:30, and HMMT tryouts at 7:00]

October 15 - Fermat's Little Theorem, Paul Ellis*

October 22 - Chinese Remainder Theorem, Paul Ellis* 

October 29 - No Meeting

November 5 - Bezout's Identity and The Chicken Nugget Theorem, Paul Ellis*

November 12 - Noncomputable Sets and Undecidable Problems, Russell Miller (Queens College)

November 19 - Wilson's Theorem, Paul Ellis*

*presenter from Manhattanville College

Spring 2014 Archives

February 4 - AMC 10A/12B - Note that this is a TUESDAY!!!

February 12 - Paul Ellis* - Modular Arithmetic

February 19 - AMC 10B/12B

February 26 - Mia Heissan* - Counting Methods

March 5 - Dennis Debay* - Three Dimensional Graphs 

March 12 - NO MEETING (Manhattanville Spring Break)

March 19 - Keith Conrad (University of Connecticut) - The ABC Conjecture

March 26 -  Dennis Debay* - Rational Tangles 

April 2 -  Dennis Debay* - The Perfect Shuffle

April 9 -  Paul Ellis* - The 15 Puzzle and Group Theory

April 16 - NO MEETING (Area School Districts Spring Break)

April 23 -  Dennis Debay* - Mathematical Origami 

April 30 -  Paul Ellis* - Knot Theory

*From Manhattanville College

Fall 2013 Archives

September 11 - Paul Ellis* - The mathematics of Sona (sand drawings from central Africa)

September 25 - Paul Ellis* - Mathematical Games (Handout 1, Handout 2)

September 18 - Paul Ellis* - The game of SET and finite geometries

October 2 - Dennis DeBay* and Mia Heissan* - PUMaC Tryouts and Free The Clones (source handout)

October 9 - Paul Ellis* - Bulgarian Solitaire.

October 16 - Marty Lewinter (Purchase College) - Fun with Number Theory

October 23 - Japheth Wood (Bard College & NYC Math Circle) - NIM and JIM (Japheth's NIM)

October 30 - Mia Heissan* - Graph Theory

November 6 - Ethan Akin (CCNY) - The 3x+1 Problem

November 13 - Dennis DeBay* - Sophisticated Child's Play: A look at Dots & Boxes

November 20 - Mia Heissan* - More Graph Theory

*From Manhattanville College

2012-2013 Archives

December 2, 2012 - First meeting! Colorings.

December 9, 2012 - Diophantine Equations.

December 16, 2012 - The Radical Axis.

January 6, 2013 - The Invertible Matrix Theorem.

January 13, 2013 - Cyclic Quadrilaterals.

January 20, 2013 - Sets.

January 27, 2013 - Series.

February 3, 2013 - Combinatorial Number Theory.March 3, 2013 - Inversion.

March 10, 2013 - Generating Functions.

March 17, 2013 - Polynomials.

March 24, 2013 - Burnside's Lemma.

March 31, 2013 - Easter, no meeting.

April 28, 2013 - Harmonic Divisions.

May 5, 2013 - Graph Theory.

May 12, 2013 - Mother's Day, no meeting.

May 19, 2013 - Graph Theory.

June 9, 2013 - Topic TBD.

1. Interactive recreational math presentation. 

This presentation is open to people of all backgrounds.

The content is chosen so that it is new to most people.

2. Introductory problem solving workshop. 

This is a relaxed problem solving workshop. 

To see if this is right for you, check out these two problem sets:

If this one is too hard to start, then you are not ready yet.

If this one is too easy, then this is not for you.

3. Advanced contest math.  

This class is designed for those who are comfortable with the AMC 10/12 and wish to train for contests such as HMMT/PUMAC/ARML.