The Math Major

CSU Fresno Mathematics Department

Vol 1. No. 8

Editor: Dr. Larry Cusick.

The Department Web Page

The Math department web page is still under construction. It grows a little every day. You can now find current catalog descriptions for all of our courses, an up to date Spring 1997 schedule, some faculty web pages and many interesting mathematics links. The address for the web page is http://www.csufresno.edu/math/

Math Department Colloquium Schedule

The Math Department Colloquia are a series of talks intended for a general audience. Everyone is encouraged to attend and the talks are directed at people who have a reasonable comprehension of the topics in undergraduate mathematics. Come meet our undergraduates, graduate students and faculty as well as our distinguished guest speakers. Mark March 17 (time to be announced) on your calendar. Joel Hass of the UC Davis Mathematics Department, and prover of the centuries-old "Double Bubble Conjecture", will be the invited speaker. This is a talk you will not want to miss. For more info, contact Dr. Sean Cleary.

Readers Needed

If you are interested in working as a reader (grader), please stop by the department office (PB 381) to fill out an application.

CSUF Math Students Travel to San Diego Conference

The math department sent math majors Tina Attashian, Debby Marshall, Seema Patel and Patrick Villa to the annual Joint Mathematics Conference in San Diego this January. In a future issue of the Math Major, they will talk about about their experience.

PG&E Recruiting Spring 1997

Representatives of PG&E will be on campus Tuesday and Wednesday (February 18 and 19) to meet with science and engineering students, including math majors. They will be in room EE124. For more information, contact the campus Career Development & Employment Services office in Joyal 274.

Web Watch

There is a great place to go on the web for math history: The Mac Tutor History of Mathematics Archive:

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/

You can look up items from the topics list, or do a search. The site contains alot of information--from the Babylonians to Andrew Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. This kind of site is what the web does best.

Outstanding Problem Solver Competition

The mathematics department is offering two $500 awards this spring semester to the most outstanding student problem solver.

Criteria:

  1. To be considered, you must be a full time CSUF student (either graduate or undergraduate).
  2. You must submit at least two correct solutions to a current mathematics problems section of any of the following mathematics journals:
    1. The American Mathematical Monthly
    2. The College Mathematics Journal
    3. Mathematics Magazine
    4. Math Horizons
To Win: Winners will be determined according to the following:
  1. Number of correct solutions submitted and
  2. Difficulty of the problems solved.

Shared awards are possible. That is, if two or more students wish to collaborate on problems, they can submit solutions as a team. Student teams that win would share a single award.

For more information, and problem submission, contact Dr. Larry Cusick, mathematics department, 278-2462.

Sponsored by the CSU Fresno Mathematics Department and the School of Natural Sciences Office of the Dean.

Problem Corner Winners From Last Semester

Congratulations to Anar Ahmedov (1st place--$75) and David Yoshihara (2nd place--$50) for the most correct solutions turned in last semester to the Problem Corner. Anar turned in 5 correct solutions and David turned in 4. Congratulations should also go to the other students who turned in correct solutions: Sherry Lutes, Roden Macalma, Kevin Milam, Bryan Sheldon and Patrick Villa. The Problem Corner continues this semester (below)--so sharpen your pencils!

Problem Corner

Problem 1.7: Find six square numbers whose sum is a square, and the sum of their roots plus the root of their sum is a square.

Solution to Problem 1.7: Perhaps the simplest solution (found by Anar Ahmedov) to the problem is 1, 1, 1, 9, 36, 121. The sum is 169 = 132 The sum of the roots plus the root of the sum is 36 = 62.

The only correct solution to problem 1.7 was received from Anar Ahmedov.

New Problem

Problem 1.8: Suppose you want to telephone your friend, but you cannot remember the last digit of your friend's telephone number (you can remember the rest). You are at a pay telephone that costs $.25 per call and you have two quarters in your pocket. Your strategy is to guess the last digit of the number. What is the probability that you will be successful in reaching your friend with this strategy? Assume that you loose your quarter if either no one answers or it is a wrong number. (It should go without saying that what is wanted is not just the answer--but a proof that your answer is correct.)

Solutions may be delivered to the math department office (for Dr. Cusick) or by e-mail at larry_cusick@csufresno.edu. no later than Thursday February 13, 3pm. There is a $75 dollar first prize and a $50 second prize to be awarded at the end of the semester to the student(s) who submit the most correct solutions.

CSU Fresno Math Department Home Page

California State University, Fresno