Memories - a beautiful campus and an abstract - 27 years ago

I vividly remember that talk. 

People were great! Added bonus: the campus and the nature were amazing. 

I could recover my abstract from https://scholarworks.umt.edu/mathcolloquia/7/

 

So... about 27 years years ago:

 

Presentation Date 10-23-1997 

Abstract A classical problem considered by Davenport asks for the number of occurrences of a certain pattern of quadratic residues and nonresidues among the set of integers modulo a prime p. We will take this problem as a starting point of an itinerary revealing the interplay between quasirandom structures over finite fields, definable subsets of finite fields, character sums and coding theory. 

Additional Details Thursday, October 23, 1997 4:10 p.m. in MA 109 Coffee/Tea/Treats 3:30 p.m. in MA 104 (Lounge)

The eternal paradox of neuroscience

"If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't."

Emerson Pugh

Pictured: Cross-section of a human head, showing location of the hypothalamus (source)

Kenneth A. Ribet, "A 2020 View of Fermat's Last Theorem"

 

Are these the same proof?

In his blog, Timothy Gowers presents two proofs of the fact that the product of k consecutive positive integers is a multiple of k! and asks  

"whether there is some sophisticated perspective from which it is possible to regard them as sort of the same". 

There are many interesting answers from the readers, among them being Terence Tao.

My book among the best 20 prime numbers books of all time (10/10/2024)

As of October 10, I noticed that Sequential Experiments with Primes is ranked 6th in the list of best 20 prime numbers books of all time (maintained by bookauthority - here). 

The evaluations in the rubrics New Mathematical Ideas and High Impact Learning make me happy because these were the primary objectives and the spirit in which I wrote the book.

Earl Llhamon at the Schoonover Observatory 60th Anniversary Dinner

 

Earl will soon turn 90! 

It was an extraordinary event. 

Lima Astronomical Society 

October 11, 2024

https://limaastro.com/

Electric Light Orchestra - Shangri La

 

1 proton per 4 cubic meters...

"More than 95% of the energy density in the universe is in a form that has never been directly detected in the laboratory! The actual density of atoms is equivalent to roughly 1 proton per 4 cubic meters."

Source: WMAP- Content of the Universe - NASA https://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_matter.html

Image - CMB Timeline300 no WMAP.jpg

Be grateful for the complex life on Earth...

September wonders

 

My office ficus

 

A particular bee

Raison d'être - Capstone projects

 

A Capstone Research project is a wonderful experience for a Mathematics educator engaged in Undergraduate Research. That's our raison d'être! Here are the Capstones that I advised at ONU. With many thanks to all those amazing students.

1.     Kaleb Swieringa, On the Alternating Sum of Divisors 2023

2.     McKinley Britton: Fibonacci Numbers and Domino Tilings 2023

3.     Alexander Hare: Experiments with Greatest Prime Factor Sequences 2023

4.     Rachael Harbaugh: Extending a Putnam Problem to Fields of Various Characteristics 2022

5.     Benjamin Morris: Fibonacci Periods 2022

6.     Greg Hassenpflug: The Golden Ratio 2021

7.     Aaron Kemats: An Investigation of the Square Grid Graph 2021

8.     Travis Maenle: A linear complexity analysis of quadratic residues and primitive roots spacings 2020

9.     Bryan Peck: Bell's Inequalities 2020

10.  Kaity Kelly: Gaussian Integers 2020

11.  Kenneth Eaton: The Fundamentals of Automated Theorem Proving 2019

12.  Megan Meyer: An Experimental Approach to Sophie Germain Sequences 2019

13.  Addison Carter: An Introduction to Partitions and Compositions 2019

14.  Rachel Liebrecht: Special Topics on Graph Theory and Ramsey Numbers 2019

15.  Shannon Tefft: Processing Quadratic Residues with Ducci Iterations 2019

16.  Jenna Holler: American Mathematics Competitions – Variations and Generalizations 2018

17.  Joseph Stomps: American Mathematics Competitions AMC 10 - analogies and generalizations 2018

18.  Matthew Golden: The Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff Formula 2017

19.  Michelle Haver: Poissonian Character and Chebyshev Bias for GPF Sequences: A Computational Analysis 2017

20.  Amanda Marco: Fibonacci Numbers and Some of Their Properties 2014

21. Matthew R. Zirkle: Finding Square Roots in a Prime Field 2013

22.  Jonathan C. Schroeder: Small Special Pairs of Primitive Roots 2013

23.  Donald J. Pleshinger: On a Congruence of Ohtsuka 2013

24.  Ashley Risch: An Euler-Fibonacci Sequence 2011

25.  Lauren Sutherland: Multidimensional Greatest Prime Factor Sequences 2011

26.  Greg Back: The Greatest Prime Factor and its Applications 2010

27.  Jenna Brace: Traffic Flow Simulation with Cellular Automata 2010

28.  John Holodnak: The Perron-Frobenius Theorem and Applications 2010

29.  Sharon Binkley: The One Time Pad and Text Visualization 2009

30.  Joshua Somerlot: The Affine Cipher 2009

31.  Andrew Homan: An Overview of Model Theory and Completeness 2007

32.  Allison Mackay: Elementary Number Theory and Classical Cryptography 2006

33.  Lisa Scheckelhoff: GPF Sequences 2006

34.  Brandon Bucholtz: The Euclidean Algorithm 2006

35.  Jacob L. Johanssen: Fibonacci-Lucas Densities 2006

36.  Nathan Baxter: Finite Fields 2005

37.  Sara Miller: Fibonacci Numbers 2003