Post by Sarah Fleming ’17 and Nina Pande ’17 Last Saturday, we attended WIMIN15, a conference sponsored by the Center for Women in Mathematics at Smith College. We heard two invited speakers, Linda Chen of Swarthmore College and Mariel Vazquez of University of California at Davis. Chen… Continue reading »
It was another glorious year in the Math/Stat department at Williams. We celebrated its end with our annual banquet, packed with over 150 faculty and students. As tradition, the new majors received a beverage wrench, and everyone joined in applauding the winners of this year’s awards. Colloquium… Continue reading »
BACKGROUND At the start of the year, I was made chair of a committee to reimagine the Williams Course Catalog for 2015-2016. We were tasked with coming up with a “scheme and shape” for how the course catalog can be organized, and how different kinds of information can be visualized. Instead… Continue reading »
Join us Wednesday, March 18th for a day of activities celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Williams Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society. Events begin at 10am in Lawrence 231 where William Arms of Cornell, our distinguished visiting scholar, will give a talk in… Continue reading »
In Math 12, The Mathematics of Lego Bricks, while we used lego bricks as a springboard to talk about a lot of interesting math (the lectures and additional comments are available here), the main goal was to successfully build the… Continue reading »
According to the latest ranking by CareerCast.com, the best four jobs of 2014 are: 1. Mathematician. 2. Tenured professor. 3. Statistician. 4. Actuary. (The worst was lumberjack.)… Continue reading »
Mathematics has got to be the most interesting of all subjects. As I was telling the wonderful math faculty at Berkshire Community College, even arithmetic is fascinating. Addition and multiplication are commutative: 4+7=7+4 and 4×7=7×4. I recall MIT Professor Michael Artin saying: When I ask my kids what’s 4×7,… Continue reading »
Annual π Day Missive from Nick Yates ’06 Once again, Pi Day has arrived! As you probably know, pi (π) is a mathematical constant found in circles and throughout mathematics! Since pi’s decimal expansion starts off 3.14…, and today’s date is 3/14, we celebrate pi and all things mathematical on… Continue reading »
An official World Cube Association Rubik’s Cube Competition filled Goodrich Hall Saturday March 2, 2014, organized by local school student Ric Donati and Professor Mihai Stoiciu. Competitors included Adam Reich ’14. Williams Record account. Continue reading »
Math at Oxford II: Reflections After the First Term Hey Williams! Congratulations on finishing up finals. I hope everyone has an amazing break. In this post, I'll focus on what I have learned about the math(s) curriculum at Oxford since the beginning of term. Then, I will discuss sports at Oxford in comparison to sports at Williams and conclude by sharing a few more pieces UK slang. Continue reading »