Math Movement

Did you know that math helped pick your clothes today? Indeed, you dressed up with math! One particular way this is true relates to the clothes you buy in a store. Your choices are constrained by the selections in the store. To get a sense of what is “popular,” opinion groups rate products via surveys […]

It is October 21, 2011 and around the world have been, are, or soon will be Celebration of Mind events to honor Martin Gardner who was born on this day in 1914. His work and writing, which infused fun into math, touched millions of lives. The Celebration of Mind at Davidson College will be in […]

Last Sunday, the Carolina Panthers narrowly lost to the New Orleans Saints 27-30 in week 5 of the 2011 NFL season. From the score, Cam Newton appears to have led the Panthers to 3 touchdowns and 2 field goals. The score gives a sense of how the game unfolded that afternoon in Charlotte. Or does […]

How can a kiss help us learn Calculus? If you sit and reflect on answers to this question, you are likely to journey down a mental road different than the one we will traverse. We will indeed use a kiss to motivate a central idea of Calculus, but it will be a Hershey kiss! In […]

Today is the Freshmen Cake Race at Davidson College. A few hundred cakes are baked by members of the town and brought to the college before the afternoon run.  The tradition began with the incoming class of ‘34 and their running a mandatory 1.7 mile race. Since then, it has been “On your mark…get set…go […]

In my mime and math show, I usually teach simple mime illusions like touching an invisible wall and catching a mime ball. The illusions are then connected to mathematical concepts. How? Watch the following video and follow along, if you will. For children, this exercise touches on useful concepts of arithmetic and estimation. Further, they explore […]

Recently, I have been asked a number of times for a list of talks that I present on mathematics. While the list will grow, as I’m even creating a new talk next week for a conference on integrating social issues into the curriculum, this can give a reader a sense of topics I present. For […]

Introduction This activity that I created with my wife, Tanya Chartier, is intended for classroom use. I have used it after performing my Mime-matics mime show that introduces mathematical ideas in classrooms. In particular, college students from Davidson College have traveled with me and led the activity following the presentation. In each case, it has […]

Mime visualizes an invisible world. Generally, we expect such silent performers to press against an invisible wall or be lifted by an imaginary balloon. While such ideas can be adapted to teach mathematical ideas, the silence of a mime can also welcome an audience to make connections of their own. The whimsy of a clown can warmly welcome […]

Mime, at least in the tradition of the great Marcel Marceau, is inherently artistic and precise in its physical articulation. Does such a limited overview of mime already set it apart from the logical field of mathematics? I don’t believe so. Mathematicians can be silenced by an elegant proof, which we may describe as beautiful. […]