Metroplex Math Circle

Student Book #1 in Game Programming at Amazon

Metroplex Math Circle — Fri, 10 May 2013 11:40:27 +0000

Minecraft for Dummies, written by a 15 year old Metroplex Math Circle student is now the #1 Best Seller in Game Programing at Amazon.com.

Dr. Branislav Kisačanin – Geometry of Triangles

Metroplex Math Circle — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:37:09 +0000

This Saturday, April 20th Dr. Kisačanin will return for another of his fantastic lectures. Triangles factor into almost every math contest in addition to being endlessly fascinating objects in themselves. Here is Dr. Kisačanin’s description of the session with links to resources:

In this talk about geometry of triangles we will see two different proofs of Stewart’s theorem, derive formulas for important cevians, and solve several interesting geometric problems.

We will also look at other important points in triangles (Fermat point, centers of excircles, …) and look at the Euler line, the nine-point circle, and related problems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart%27s_theorem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat_point
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excircle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler_line
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_point_circle

Minecraft for Dummies!

Metroplex Math Circle — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 22:03:06 +0000

Reblogged from Stem4kids.info:

http://www.amazon.com/Minecraft-Dummies-Portable-Edition-Computer/dp/1118537149 I haven't even started writing yet and a lot of you probably already have several questions, so I'll try to make this article a bit smoother by answering those first. 1. What the heck is a Minecraft?
Minecraft is an extremely popular 'sandbox' or open world game, developed starting in 2010 by a small company in Sweden called Mojang. The game quickly grew to a massive player base, with new content being released constantly in the form of free updates.

Texas 2013 MATHCOUNTS Results

Metroplex Math Circle — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 12:36:40 +0000

North Texas and Metroplex Math Circle participants were well represented in both the team and individual results at this year’s Texas State MATHCOUNTS competition. Congratulations to all of the participants.

April 13, 2013 – Dr. Paul Stanford – Primes and Misdemeanors

Metroplex Math Circle — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 14:08:14 +0000

For 2ⁿ – 1 to be prime we also need n itself to be prime, but that is not sufficient. For example, 2¹¹ – 1 is composite even though 11 is prime. However, if you look at tables of Mersenne primes it is interesting to note that if you start with 2 and use that to make a new number 2ⁿ – 1 with n = 2 you get 3, then recycling the 3 you get 7, use n = 7 and you get 127, another prime! How long could this go on?

Let f(n) = 2ⁿ – 1. The iterations you get, starting from 2, are f⁰(2) = 2, f¹(2) = 3, f²(2) = 7, f³(2) = 127, f⁴(2) = 1701411834604692317316873037158884105727.

It turns out these are all prime! But what of the next one??? Well, it may be a very long time before any of us know. The largest value of n for which 2ⁿ – 1 is known to be prime is n = 57885161, and that after a concerted effort using volunteers from around the globe. Not much chance of answering this one in our lifetimes, unless some really new idea arrives.Before you make a hasty conjecture (as has already been done), a cautionary piece of history is in order. If you define a new function to iterate you get some other interesting numbers. Let g(n) = n² – 2n + 2. Then the iterates are g⁰(3) = 3, g¹(3) = 5, g²(3) = 17, g³(3) = 257, g⁴(3) = 65537, and all of these are prime! So, with forgivable excitement, the conjecture was made that all of these will be prime, especially as the next one, g⁵(2) = 4294967297, was much too large at the time for mere mortals to conceive of factoring with their bare hands.

None, that is, until Euler combined his genius with an impish disbelief in Fermat’s conjecture to discover that g⁵(2) = 4294967297 = 641 * 6700417. And since then we have found many more composite Fermat numbers, and no further Fermat primes, leading to the complementary conjecture that all the rest are composite! It seems that we never learn to be humble around these things…

It takes a larger number to be “forever beyond reach” these days. Rather than the now puny 4294967297 we cower before f⁵(2) = 2¹⁷⁰¹⁴¹¹⁸³⁴⁶⁰⁴⁶⁹²³¹⁷³¹⁶⁸⁷³⁰³⁷¹⁵⁸⁸⁸⁴⁴¹⁰⁵⁷²⁷ – 1, and who can blame us?

April 6, 2013 – Purple Comet! Problems and Student Presentations

Metroplex Math Circle — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:15:02 +0000

Join us in the first hour to hear MMC students present some of their favorite problems and mathematical concepts. In the second hour we will work on problems from the Purple Comet! contest and talk about this exciting opportunity to compete with other students around the world.

March 2, 2013 – Dr. Titu Andreescu – More Interesting Problems

Metroplex Math Circle — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:33:40 +0000

With the AMC tests behind us and the AIME to come, don’t miss this opportunity to hear Dr. Andreescu talk about some of his favorite problems!

February 23, 2013 – Dr. Dimiter Nickolov Vassilev – “Inversion and conformal transformations in the plane and 3-D space.”

Metroplex Math Circle — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:54:50 +0000

We will consider angle preserving transformations in Euclidean space and learn about the differences between the 2-D and 3-D cases. Then we will focus on the most interesting case of such a transformation in the plane and how it can be used.

Bring your colored pencils to help drawing some pictures.

2013 Preston Trails Chapter MATHCOUNTS Results

Metroplex Math Circle — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 15:21:58 +0000

Congratulations to all of the teams and individuals from our local MATHCOUNTS chapter who are advancing to state. You will see in the list below many regular Metroplex Math Circle participants:

Team Rank 1: Rice Middle School, Head Coach: Laura Liu

Michael Ma
Jeffrey Huang
Brian Du
Daran Zhao

Team Rank 2: Schimelpfenig Middle School, Head Coach: Chris Mutke

Michael Shen
Jett Wang
Kenny Huang
Anthony Jiang

Team Rank 3: Renner Middle School, Head Coach: Michelle Edwards

Max Bu
Alex Cheng
Rich Zhou
Andrew Gu

Team Rank 4: Fermat School for Math and Science, Head Coach: Titu Andreescu

Vinjai Vale
Adrian Andreescu
Milena Djordjevic-Kisacanin
Jonathan Aberle

Team Rank 5: Hendrick Middle School, Head Coach: Kathleen DeLaVergne

Jason Yu
Annie Zhao
Eeshan Kumar
Joy Li

Team Rank 6: Murphy Middle School, Head Coaches: Clarice Perry and Kim Dau

Jeremiah Budiman
Rishad Islam
Andrew Kwon
Harshal Madhavapeddi

Individual Qualifiers

Eric Zhang, Rice Middle School
Vincent Huang, Schimelpfenig Middle School
Brandon Chen, Rice Middle School
Abhilash Potluri, Schimelpfenig Middle School
Yash Chandak, Coppell Middle School

February 16, 2013 – Dr. Branislav Kisačanin – “A Tour of Mathematical Functions II”

Metroplex Math Circle — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:33:53 +0000

In a follow up lecture on mathematical functions, we will explore more stories and problems related to polynomials, trigonometric functions, and functional equations. Furthermore, we will dive deeper into the original historical context of functions – curves such as cycloids, cardioids, catenaries, circles, ellipses, hyperbolas, parabolas. Finally, we will try to understand why exponential and trigonometric functions turn up in solutions of so many fundamental problems in math, physics, and engineering. Come and learn with us!