{"id":12328,"date":"2019-12-12T20:44:59","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T12:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/?p=12328"},"modified":"2020-02-28T17:15:36","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T09:15:36","slug":"intmath-newsletter-putnam-review-captive-cipher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/letters\/intmath-newsletter-putnam-review-captive-cipher-12328","title":{"rendered":"IntMath Newsletter: Putnam, review, Captive, cipher"},"content":{"rendered":"

12 Dec 2019 <\/p>\n

In this Newsletter:<\/p>\n

0. Season's greetings
\n 1. New on IntMath: Putnam
\n 2. The year in review
\n 3. Math movies: Captive
\n 4. Math puzzle: Cipher
\n5. Final thought: Imagine <\/p>\n

0. Season's greetings<\/h2>\n

'Tis the season for special days. If you celebrate any of these, enjoy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Festival<\/th>\n2019\/20 date <\/th>\nNotes<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Bodhi Day<\/td>\n8 Dec, 2 Jan<\/td>\n"8th day of the 12th month" - so there's 2 of them <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pancha Ganapati<\/td>\nHindu festival celebrated from 21 through 25 Dec<\/td>\nBased on the solstice<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Solstice<\/td>\n22 Dec<\/td>\nCelebrated in many cultures <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hannukah<\/td>\n22 Dec to 20 Dec<\/td>\n Movable. Could be late November to early January.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Christmas<\/td>\n25 Dec<\/td>\n"12 Days" finish on 6 Jan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chinese New Year<\/td>\n25 Jan (new moon) to 8 Feb (full moon) <\/td>\nMovable. Could start 21 Jan to 20 Feb<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

1. New on IntMath: Solving a word problem (Putnam solution) <\/h2>\n

The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is held each year in early December. It's aimed at undergraduate students and has quite a reputation. Reader Pat Lachapelle participated in the competition this year and kindly provided a series of guest articles outlining the solution for an earlier competition question. <\/p>\n\n\n
\"Putnam<\/a><\/td>\n\n

See how to go about solving a word problem. Most of the concepts involved are around the grade 9 school level (age 15). There are 7 parts to the solution. <\/p>\n

See: Putnam Mathematical Competition solution<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

2. The year in review<\/h2>\n

Thousands of readers have found the following useful or interesting during 2019. In case you missed any of them... <\/p>\n

6 Most popular IntMath Newsletter resources, 2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"Polar<\/a><\/td>\nPolar to Rectangular Online Calculator<\/a> <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Curvilinear<\/a><\/td>\nCurvilinear motion animated graphs<\/a> <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Visual<\/a><\/td>\nVisual explanation of eigenvalues and eigenvectors<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Bubble<\/a><\/td>\nBubble sort rainbow<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"how<\/a><\/td>\nHow to find the equation of a logarithm function from its graph?<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Matrices<\/a><\/td>\nMatrices and Linear Transformations applet<\/a> <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

5 Most popular external resources, 2019<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Mathematical Symbols<\/a> (by RapidTables) <\/li>\n
  2. How to Study<\/a> (MyDegreeGuide) <\/li>\n
  3. Essence of Calculus<\/a> (3Blue1Brown)<\/li>\n
  4. MathGraph<\/a> (online graphing tool) <\/li>\n
  5. Breakthrough Junior Challenge<\/a> (Explain a big scientific idea with a short video.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    6 Most popular blog posts, 2019 <\/h3>\n

    I wrote some of these years ago, but they are still popular - and\/or causing controversy. <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. How do you find the exact values for the sine of all angles?<\/a> <\/li>\n
    2. How to find the equation of a quadratic function from its graph<\/a> <\/li>\n
    3. Is 0 a natural number?<\/a> <\/li>\n
    4. How to reflect a graph through the x axis, y axis or origin<\/a><\/li>\n
    5. How to draw y<\/em>2<\/sup> = x<\/em> − 2<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
    6. Is cube root the same as raising to power 1\/3?<\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      6 Most popular forum questions, 2019 <\/h3>\n
        \n
      1. Difference between disc method, washer method, and shell<\/a><\/li>\n
      2. Is 270 degrees considered to be in the 3rd or 4th quadrant?<\/a><\/li>\n
      3. How to find the first term and common ratio if the sum of first and third term is 20 and sum of fourth and sixth term is 540?<\/a><\/li>\n
      4. Does Laplace exist for every function?<\/a><\/li>\n
      5. How does plane analytical geometry apply in real life?<\/a><\/li>\n
      6. Determining lambda for a poisson probability calculation<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        6 Most popular math lessons, 2019 <\/h3>\n
          \n
        1. Domain and range<\/a> (Functions and graphs) <\/li>\n
        2. Convert polar to rectangular interactive<\/a> (Complex Numbers_ <\/li>\n
        3. Derivative of sine, cosine and tangent<\/a> (Differentiation) <\/li>\n
        4. Solving DEs<\/a> (Differential Equations) <\/li>\n
        5. Singapore Toto<\/a> (Counting and probability) <\/li>\n
        6. Poisson Probabillity Distribution<\/a> (Counting and Probability) <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          6 Most popular Tweets, 2019 <\/h3>\n
            \n
          1. How to overcome fear of math tests<\/a><\/li>\n
          2. "Your children need your presence more than your presents." [Jesse Jackson]<\/li>\n
          3. The way math is written is (often) silly: Towards more meaningful math notation<\/a> <\/li>\n
          4. "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." [Mark Twain]<\/li>\n
          5. "That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest." [Henry David Thoreau]<\/li>\n
          6. "Who you become is not about the traits you have. It's what you decide to do with them." [Adam Grant]<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            3. Math Movie - Device allows users to manipulate 3-D virtual objects more quickly<\/h2>\n

            Here's an approach that could make quite a difference when students are learning about 3-D graphs. <\/p>\n\n\n
            \"HyperTools<\/a><\/td>\n\n

            The device, called CAPTIVE, offers six degrees of freedom (6DoF) for users - with applications ranging from video gaming to medical diagnostics to design tools.<\/p>\n

            See: Device allows users to manipulate 3-D virtual objects more quickly<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

            The article includes a video of the process in action. (It's a 2017 article, but nonetheless interesting.) <\/p>\n

            4. Math puzzles<\/h2>\n

            The puzzle in the last IntMath Newsletter<\/a> asked whether median or mean would be the best way to describe a typical value. <\/p>\n

            There were two parts to the puzzle, and correct answers with sufficient explanation<\/a> were given by Dritan, Danish and Bob (who gets a special mention for pointing out it could be different depending on who the audience for the statistic is!).<\/p>\n

            A good way to see what's happening in this puzzle is to draw graphs.<\/p>\n

            Person A "typically" could expect to earn around $90 (the median) per day. Clearly the mean (just over $75) is not "typical" of his earnings, so we would take the median to be the best statistic. <\/p>\n

            \"Person
            \nPerson A's data<\/div>\n

            Person B, on the other hand, usually earns around $82 (the mean), not $72 (the median), so in this case, the mean would represent the "typical" earnings.<\/p>\n

            \"Person
            \nPerson B's data<\/div>\n

            New math puzzle: Substitution cipher<\/h3>\n

            A popular article at this time of the year is: The 12 Days of Christmas - How many Presents?<\/a><\/p>\n

            This cryptogram also involves 12. What is the value of each letter?<\/p>\n

                      T W O       \r\n      T H R E E      \r\n    + S E V E N       \r\n    -----------      \r\n    T W E L V E<\/pre>\n
            You can leave your responses here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
            5. Final thought - Imagine <\/h2>\n
            Next year marks the 40th anniversary of John Lennon's murder. <\/p>\n
            \"John
            \nJohn Lennon [Image             source<\/a>] <\/div>\n
            My hope for 2020 is that more of us will get out of our echo chambers, start to listen to each other, and "live life in peace".<\/p>\n
            \n
            Imagine there's no countries<\/p>\n
              It isn't hard to do 
            \n  Nothing to kill or die for 
            \n  And no religion, too<\/p>\n
             Imagine all the people 
            \n  Living life in peace<\/p>\n
            John Lennon, Imagine<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
            All the best to everyone for the holidays, and for 2020. <\/p>\n
            Until next time, enjoy whatever you learn.<\/p>\n
            See the 4 Comments<\/a> below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
            In this Newsletter:<\/p>\n
            0. Season's greetings
            \n  1. New on IntMath: Putnam 
            \n  2. The year in review
            \n  3. Math movies: Captive
            \n  4. Math puzzle: Cipher
            \n5. Final thought: Imagine <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[125,134,109,129],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12328"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12383,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12328\/revisions\/12383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}