Decimals Into Fractions
Many years ago, I was a guest at a board meeting. The executive officer of the organization was reporting on a surve...
Misnomers in Mathematics Part I
Misnomers in mathematics often stem from early points of view or actual errors in reasoning. The name "geometry," li...
Barycentric Coordinates
Although much of the work we do in mathematics uses the familiar Cartesian coordinate system, there are other system...
The Mathematics of Medical X-Ray Imaging (UMAP)
Determining the internal structure of an object without having to cut it, or viewing a section of a body without inte...
The Scheduling of Traffic Lights (UMAP)
We consider the problem of scheduling traffic lights optimally, or more generally, the problem of allocating optimall...
A Hands-On Approach to Finding Plantonic Volumes
In my last column, I showed how to find the volume of anti-prisms. After finishing it, it occurred to me that you nev...
Mathematics and Global Positioning System
Ships at sea, planes in the air, surveyors on the ground, submarines under the sea, and thosands of others need to kn...
Viewing Earth From Space
Students calculate various facts about the earth as seen from space.
Mortality and Money
Suppose you are going to start a life insurance company in which you will insure 1000 young people, who are 16 years ...
The 1992 Election... Mathematics?
When reporting the results of a survey, the organization usually gives the sample percentage as an estimate of the ac...
Eco-Powered Programs: Linear Programming in Environmental Issues
United States decision makers continue to wrestle with problems of natural resources, ecology, and human needs. In o...
Tim & Tom's Financial Adventure
Tim and Tom are interesting characters. Their story has been told millions of times and has appeared many times in p...
For Earthlings, Eccentricity is 0.01673
As a citizen of Planet Earth, you can be called an Earthling. For the purpose of cosmic communications, you can be i...
Time, Money, & Polynomials
As time passes, money and polynomials make more money. How could this be? Do this HiMAP Pull-Out and you will learn ...
Card Shuffling, Card Tricks, and Mathematics
Professor Peter Diaconis of Harvard has discovered that seven shuffles are required to mix a deck of 52 cards thorou...
How Logical Are You?
How logical are people in general? To find out, number a piece of paper from 1 to 10 and answer the questions in the...
Examining Applied Rational Functions
Rational functions occur in amazing places. They even occur in the area of comparing the fuel costs for automobiles....
Making Money With Algebra
Many individuals make money by collecting interest on money which they loan or invest. Banks and other financial ins...
Examining a Lifetime of Automobile Purchase Expenses
Young families often feel the need for financial planning for the future and for saving to finance such items as eme...
Time and Motion Study
You are a new Industrial Engineering Technician, working for Bates Manufacturing. The marketing department has decid...
The Long View Calculating What You'll Need in Order to Retire
Perhaps as a student you are now 16, 18, or 20 years of age. It may be that some day you will begin your earning yea...
Earthquakes and Logarithms
One thinks of an earthquake as a sudden motion or trembling in the earth caused by an abrupt release of accumulated ...
Apples, Oranges, and Interest Rates
How many times have you heard the expression, Don't compare apples and oranges? I'm sure that your mathematics teach...
The Rise and Fall of the Individual Batting Average
Yes, it is that time of the year again - the start of the major league baseball season! Every April ignites that ann...
Rates of Change
Most physical quantities change. The speed of a car changes with time; the size of a tumor changes with the quantity...
Bending Light and Snell's Law
Light bends! Light travels at different speeds through different substances and changes direction as it changes spee...
Card Tricks - Magic or Mathematics?
On the one hand, when viewed by students, magicians and mathematics have something in common - both have a "bag of tr...
What is the Value of Your Money?
Within the next ten years, you will possibly purchase a stereo, borrow money to attend college, purchase a car, inves...
The Mathematics of a Soda Pop Can
This HiMAP Pull-Out Section explores the mathematics behind how a company chooses the size and shape of its product c...
Voting: The Importance of Method
When people put an issue to a vote, they generally suppose that they are using a fair and accurate way of discovering...
What Do You Expect to Happen When…?
What do expect to happen when the weather report calls for an 80% chance of rain for tomorrow? What do you expect to ...
Zero-Coupon Bonds
Finance is an area where mathematics is applied every day. Business people have learned from experience that intuitio...
I Will if You Will
Has a situation like the following one ever happened to you?
Situation A: Tom and a couple of friends are discussin...
Checks, Check Digits, and Check Codes
Students in the classroom often hear, "Check your work!" Outside of the classroom, you are also confronted with situ...