Vi Hart: Spirals, Fibonacci, and Being a Plant

While we are on break from Metroplex Math Circle for the winter here is a great new video from Vi Hart.

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December 10, 2011 – Dr. Ivor Page – “Thinking as Exercise”

In this talk we will solve problems from multiple areas of mathematics and computer science. We will discuss Euler circuits and paths and their use in designing postman routes, finding Steiner points with soap bubbles, counting cannon balls in stacks, continued fractions, the ubiquity of Fibonacci numbers in Computer Science and nature, problems that are intractable for computers, and more.

Bring your brain!

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December 3, 2011 – Dr. Branislav Kisačanin – “Solving Recursions”

Sequences of numbers are often defined using a recursive relation and initial conditions, for example, the sequence of Fibonacci numbers is defined with F_{n+2} = F_{n+1} + F_{n} and initial conditions F_{1} = 1, F_{2} = 1. In this lecture we will see (a) how to solve various types of recursions (b)How to determine various sequence properties of number sequences directly from the recursions, and (c) how this knowledge can come in handy in many competition problems as well as in the study of computer science.

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