2008 Section Meeting

Invited talks

Art Benjamin, Harvey Mudd College

Combinatorial Trigonometry (and a method to DIE for)

Abstract: Many trigonometric identities, including the Pythagorean theorem, have combinatorial proofs. Furthermore, some combinatorial problems have trigonometric solutions. All of these problems can be reduced to alternating sums, and are attacked by a technique we call D.I.E. (Description, Involution, Exception). This technique offers new insights to identities involving binomial coefficients, Fibonacci numbers, derangements, zig-zag permutations, and Chebyshev polynomials.

David Bressoud, Macalester College and MAA President-Elect

Calculus as a High School Course

Abstract: Over the past quarter century, 2- and 4-year college enrollment in first semester calculus has remained constant while high school enrollment in calculus has grown tenfold, from 50,000 to 500,000, and continues to grow at 6% per year. We have reached the cross-over point where each year more students study first semester calculus in US high schools than in all 2- and 4-year colleges and universities in the United States. There is considerable overlap between these populations. Most high school students do not earn college credit for the calculus they study. This talk will present some of the data that we have about this phenomenon and its effects and will raise issues of how colleges and universities should respond.

David Zitarelli, Temple University

Miss Mullikin and the Evolution of Connected Sets

Abstract: In 1946 R. L. Moore closed a letter with a personal note to "Please remember me to Miss Mullikin." Who was Anna Mullikin? And why did someone of Moore’s stature wish to convey his best wishes to her? This talk answers these questions by describing the role this virtually unknown, early-20th-century mathematician played in the evolution of connected sets and in international communication between the Polish and American schools of topology. A biographical sketch will also be provided.