MAA-BIH ORG

What type of competition is the McNabb competition? What happens in this math competition? What happens if you "win"? How do you "win" this competition? Give a brief description of this competition. Thx! >.<

The McNabb is the premier math contest for schools in the Metroplex. It is sponsored by the Dallas Council of Teachers of Mathematics and is named in memory of a long-time chair of math at St. Marks.

In its most recent form, it consists of six level contests from pre-algebra through calculus, run in the fall and spring of each academic year. Over 500 students and dozens of schools now participate.

Cistercian has a proud history of excellence in the McNabb, from its inception when Cistercian won the first team and individual contest, through the present, when in the past academic year, Cistercian captured 5 of the 12 team championships.

Doesn't it have serious problems in some or all of the following areas : testability, the virtual infinity of Universes that inhabit the string theory landscape, the paradoxical background dependence, the excessively difficult mathematics, the absence of a guiding principle such as the Uncertainty principle or the Principle of Equivalence and it's heavy use of highly abstract maths to explain its key features eg. p-branes, supersymmetry, curled-up dimensions, holography,dualities,… amid a dearth of experimental support.Finally, isn't it the case that other contenders notably Loop Quantum Gravity have to progress in it's shadow? Even if only some of this is true isn't it quite unsatisfactory? A bit like the 21st century version of the ether…Apparently for the experts in the field it's beautiful but does that make it true?

Yes. . . . You mean you can take a 42 or more parameter theory and fit it to experimental data?! *Gasps* The truth is, with all the different possible versions, string theories could account for the spontaneous generation of elephants, yet they produce few new PREDICTIONS. It's a mathematical juggernaut that has been used to try and mesh relativity and quantum–yet, having accomplished this, it's not really that much more useful than using relativity or quantum. Quantum field theory so far I think is the best theory created by humans. We'll find out when the new accelerators are built . . .

It is very interesting in this book how Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2 for the equivalence of mass and energy can be derived using a Newtonian approach without recourse to relativistic concepts. - Lindsay Douglas, MA DPhil (Oxon). “How does light work?” 100 years ago, Einstein published his famous article on light. Despite being found incompatible with other theories, it has largely been accepted by the scientific community as a working model and given impetus to much that is useful in our understanding of the universe. Was Einstein right however, in saying that a medium in space to carry light could be ignored without consequences? With some simple maths the authors make a strong case to return to absolutes in space and time and demonstrate that Einstein may have made some serious errors. They therefore propose bypassing relativity theory without losing its valid results and offer a logical alternative that restores meaning to time, length, and the speed of light. Francis Pym, RIBA (Retd) AA.Dipl having qualified at Architectural Association, London, won a major Architectural Competition for the Ulster Museum and several other awards. Clifford Denton, MA D Phil (Oxon), studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge and obtained his Doctorate at the University of Oxford. His research included the identification of and educational provision for gifted children in mathematics.

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In this event, math games were constructed with recycled materials. Kids are playing math games in competitive situations.

Duration : 0:1:43

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Has do you brace a structure to make sure that it doesn’t distort when loaded? And, more importantly, how can we prove it without trial and error? Robin Wilson, Gresham Professor of Geometry, explains how a good diagram and simple graph theory can solve this seemingly difficult problem.

This is the 22nd part of ‘A Millennium of Mathematical Puzzles’.
The full lecture is available (in 24 parts) here on YouTube, or it can be downloaded (like all of our lectures) in its complete form from the Gresham College website, in video, audio or text formats:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.

Duration : 0:2:40

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Tony Brigmon, conducting hand-math competition with ForMor International Health Care professionals.

Duration : 0:1:15

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It’s difficult to learn math extremely quickly, but remembering the order of operations is a great place to start. Find out how to speed up the math learning process by practicing multiplication tables with help from a math teacher in this free video series on math help and lessons.

Expert: Jimmy Chang
Contact: www.wearehdtv.com
Bio: Jimmy Chang has been a math teacher at St. Pete College for more than nine years. He has a master’s degree in math and his specialties include calculus, algebra, liberal arts math, and trigonometry.
Filmmaker: Christopher Rokosz

Duration : 0:2:12

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Technorati Tags: calculate, calculations, equations, help, Math, mathematics, problems, reciprocals, roots, square, tips, tutor, variables

I have experience with Math Olympiads, UIL mathematics, and other math competitions, but I would like to tackle the mack-daddy of them all…the Putnam…Any advice on how should I go about preparing for the exam? Any particular books or resources I should make use of?

Honestly, the best (and possibly only) way to study for the Putnam is to do the old Putnams. Get an idea about the problems that are on there. Usually there are at least two in each part that only involve elementary things (eg take a derivative, do an integral, etc.) but are clever. Work on getting your mind focused on figuring out "the trick" for each problem.

Then learn a bit about Putnam strategy. If you can get just one single problem in each section, do that. Do not attempt to do them all and get partial credit. The ONLY points they ever give are 0,1,9,10, with maybe a few 2s and 8s. Partial credit will not help you as much as getting a single question 100% right.

So when you get the test, look at the questions. Usually it's the first question that's the easy one (not always - make sure you can identify the easy question). Do that one if you can. Then maybe find the next easiest and do that one as much as you can. Then, if you have time, try the harder ones.

Find an old problems/solutions manual. Look at the problems, and the techniques, and (IMPORTANT) the way they expect the solutions to be written up. A correct solution with a bad write-up gets 1 point. An almost correct solution with a good write up might get 9 points (depending on how close "almost correct" is).

That's my advice! Try websites like:
http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/problems-math/

Or just search in Yahoo or Google "putnam exam" questions:
http://www.google.com/search?q=putnam+exam+questions

How is the topic of physics and calculus related, and how do these topics depend on each other. For example, acceleration is taught in calculus even though it is a pure physics problem. What are some other instances in which these topics depend on each other? what topics? How exactly are they related?

I've noticed over several years, that even excellent math students find calculus and physics difficult, why do many find these topics difficult? Is it the mathematics or concepts that are hard to understand?

I thank all in advance. Thanks.

It just so happens in our universe that the universe can be explained and understood in terms of mathematics. Why this should be the case, nobody knows- that is a meta-physical question. Perhaps we humans need something like mathematics to help us understand the universe, we have used mathematics to analyse, axplain and understand the universe. Or maybe there is a more fundamental connection. Maybe "Mother Nature" is a mathematician…

Acceleration doesn't need to be taught in calculus. A calculus course could be completely abstract, without reference to the real world. But, calculus has found an extremely wide range of application, so it makes sense to bring in the applications in a calculus course, not least because those taking the course may want to apply to real world problems (physicists, engineers, even business men), but it also helps heuristically if it relates to the real world, things that are tangible and 'knowable'.
That is to say, calculus does not depend on physics. Calculus to be completely abstract. But it is quite unlikely that physics would have gotten far without calculus. Just about every branch of physics can be dealt with within the framework of calculus- dynamics, kinematics, hydraulics…- you name it. Some topics in physics would even be impossible without calculus, such as variable acceleration. Even in quantum mechanics, where (almost) everything is discrete, calculus plays an important role.
But, one could say that certain physics problems which required an analysis with calculus, sort of spurred on the developement of calculus, in a similar way that engineering problems pushed physics forward (think Fourier Series etc.).

Why does calculus find so much application in physics? Calculus basically deals with infinitesimal changes- changes that are not zero, but smaller than any imaginable real number. In physics (reality) the universe operates with infinitesimal changes. So calculus (specifically, infinitesimal calculus) works splenidly with the real world where things can be analysed infinitesimally. And such infinitesimal analyses covers the (usual) situation where the quantity in question is not constant, or not even changing at a constant rate, which would not be possible without calculus.
And that would explain why calculus and physics are difficult. Calculus requires thinking about infinitesimal changes, which sound quite contradictory and mind-boggling. Calculus is unlike any other branch in mathematics. Also, physics requires a sort of "visualisation" and intuition about physical reality.
One must also remember that the topics covered in one physics or calculus course (at university) may have taken thinkers and scientists centuries, and even millenia, to come to grips with, and all that thought is condensed into a semester or one year.

It makes you think….

*Old version, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxi_uzPLqV0 for version two with music by composer Todd Boekelheide*

Trailer for the upcoming film Hard Problems: The Road to the World’s Toughest Math Competition. Hard Problems is a feature documentary about the extraordinarily gifted students who represented the United States in 2006 at the world’s toughest math competition—the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).
hardproblemsmovie.com

Duration : 0:3:41

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