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

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

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”

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!

February 9, 2013 – Dr. Tatiana Shubin

This coming Saturday, the Metroplex Math Circle is very fortunate to have Dr. Tatiana Shubin, one of the leaders in the global math circle movement speak to our circle!  We will post more details on the topic of her talk, but no opportunity to hear Dr. Shubin speak should be missed.

In addition to being the Director of the San Jose Math Circle, Tatiana Shubin (shubin[at]math.sjsu.edu) won the All-Siberian Math Olympiad when she was in the seventh grade. Her B.S. is from Moscow State University (Russia), and her PhD is from UC Santa Barbara. She served for 6 years as the California State Director of AMC-8, then became a co-founder of the Bay Area Math Adventures (BAMA), and has been on the BAMA steering committee ever since.

Minecraft for Dummies authored by MMC Student

Long time Metroplex Math Circle participant and Stanford Online High School sophomore, Jacob Cordeiro, has authored Minecraft for Dummies which has just been published by Wiley.

The open-ended nature of Minecraft has made it very popular with young problem solvers and through the use of the game’s various building materials some users have built extraordinary creations.  Jacob applied many of the lessons of problem solving and logic that he learned at the Metroplex Math Circle to the entire book and especially to the fourth chapter.

The book is now available for pre-ordering or download at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Google Books and Wiley.

Please send us news about other MMC students and alumni and let us know how the Metroplex Math Circle is helping them achieve their goals.

February 2, 2013 – Dr. Branislav Kisačanin – “A Tour of Mathematical Functions”

Parabola or catenary?

In this lecture we will retrace the steps of Archimedes, Newton, Euler, and other great mathematicians and learn about important mathematical functions, their properties, history, and applications. We will look at several interesting competition topics that often show up on AMC 10/12, related to exponential, logarithmic, trigonometric, hyperbolic, and other functions. We will also see how these functions turn up in solutions of some fundamental problems in math, physics, and engineering. We will have fun using them to draw important curves: cicloids, cardioids, catenaries, circles, ellipses, hyperbolas, parabolas, and will discover which one of them is brachistochrone and which one is tautochrone.

January 26, 2013 – Dr. Jonathan Kane – “Constructions with Straight Edge and Compass and Other Implements”

Learn all about the classic theory of geometric objects with only straight edge and compass. What can you construct, and what is impossible? Which regular polygons can you construct? What if you have help by being given a fixed parabola? Come with your pencils and be ready to draw (compasses provided, or bring your own)!

To perform well on geometry problems on math competitions it is necessary to have a deep understanding.  This understanding can be achieved by retracing the footprints of the very first mathematicians whose only tools were a straight edge and compass.

Dr. Kane is one of our most popular lecturers and is recently retired from his position as a professor at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater.  Along with Dr. Andreescu he is the co-founder and coordinator of the Purple Comet! Math Meet.  Dr. Kane is also the co-chair of the AIME committee and a faculty member at the AwesomeMath summer camp.

Along with his wife, Jane E. Mertz, Jonathan Kane is the author of several important research papers on the role of culture and gender in mathematical achievement including “Debunking Myths about Gender and Mathematics Performance.”