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Traffic jam mystery solved by mathematicians Mathematicians from the University of Exeter have solved the mystery of traffic jams by developing a model to show how major delays occur on our roads, with no apparent cause. Many traffic jams leave drivers baffled as they finally reach the end of a tail-back to find no visible cause for their delay. Now, a team of mathematicians from the Universities of Exeter, Bristol and Budapest, have found the answer and published their findings in leading academic journal Proceedings of the Royal Society. The team developed a mathematical model to show the impact...

According to M. J. Mcdermott, a meteorologist and Q13 Fox News (Seattle) weather reporter, the ongoing American mathematic illiteracy may be the result of misguided “reformed math” curriculum which fails to teach students the internationally recognized, efficient multiplication and division algorithms that older generations of Americans learned. Instead, children are encouraged to problem-solve without first developing efficient problem-solving techniques in multiplication and division. Math by CalculatorAs McDermott notes in her video, textbooks such as the 4th and 5th grade versions of Everyday Mathematics devote copious pages to non-germane topics such as a full-color 48-page world atlas to assist students in...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Monkeys performed about as well as college students at mental addition, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a finding that suggests nonverbal math skills are not unique to humans. The research from Duke University follows the finding by Japanese researchers earlier this month that young chimpanzees performed better than human adults at a memory game. Prior studies have found non-human primates can match numbers of objects, compare numbers and choose the larger number of two sets of objects. "This is the first study that looked at whether or not they could make explicit decisions that were based...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chimps performed about as well as college students at mental addition, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a finding that suggests non-verbal math skills are not unique to humans. The research from Duke University follows the finding by Japanese researchers earlier this month that young chimpanzees performed better than human adults at a memory game. Prior studies have found non-human primates can match numbers of objects, compare numbers and choose the larger number of two sets of objects. "This is the first study that looked at whether or not they could make explicit decisions that were based...

My 9th grader needs to write a 10 page term paper for her 10th grade honors math class. (Which I find strange). Anyway she is having a difficult time choosing a topic - it cannot be a biography. She was thinking about writing about math used in computer graphics, but she is having a difficult time finding sources that are written anywhere near her level. She needs at least one text as a source - it cannot all be from the internet. Any of you math teachers, general brainiacs, computer geniuses etc. out there who could offer suggestions on a...

Burden of Proof Published On Wednesday, December 06, 2006  9:17 PM By LOGAN R. URY Contributing Writer At 10:02 a.m., the door to Science Center room 109 creaks opens, and 11 young men shuffle in. Some wear worn baseball caps and faded sweatshirts, others jeans and scuffed loafers. Whispering and rubbing sleep out of their eyes, they slowly settle into their seats, filling only two rows of their long and narrow classroom. Class begins immediately as Professor of Mathematics Dennis Gaitsgory dashes in, dressed haphazardly in a button-down over a gray undershirt, most likely plucked from the same pile as...

Do you know what math curriculum your child is being taught? Are you worried that your third-grader hasn't learned simple multiplication yet? Have you been befuddled by educational jargon such as "spiraling," which is used to explain why your kid keeps bringing home the same insipid busywork of cutting, gluing and drawing? And are you alarmed by teachers who emphasize "self-confidence" over proficiency while their students fall further and further behind? Join the club. Across the country, from New York City to Seattle, parents are wising up to math fads like "Everyday Math." Sounds harmless enough, right? It's cleverly marketed...

French "mathlete" Alexis Lemaire showed off his rare mental agility Thursday, claiming a new world record after working out in his head the 13th root of a random 200-digit number in just 72.4 seconds... The number was so long it ran over 17 lines. Lemaire, who says he doesn't consider himself a nerd or a geek, then took just over a minute to identify two quadrillion, 397 trillion, 207 billion, 667 million, 966 thousand, 701 as the 13th root. In other words, the number multiplied by itself 13 times produces the 200 digit number originally generated by the computer... "I...

Community College Bowl by: Malcolm A. Kline, October 30, 2007 Community colleges have tried just about every promotional gimmick short of a “Going out of business” sale. Ironically, given their increasing use of remedial coursework, that might be the most appropriate stratagem for them to use. “Estimates vary, but many community-college educators and experts say that on average between 40 percent and 70 percent of new students entering two-year colleges around the country place into remedial math,” Debra E. Blum reports in The Chronicle of Higher Education. And the news gets even worse. “There are students taking these courses three,...

Like Pasadena, Los Angeles is Exposed to "Utility Math" Jack Humphreville Neighborhood Council - DWP Oversight Committee Like Pasadena, we in Los Angeles are being exposed to utility math. DWP has proposed to raise our power rates on January 1 and July 1, 2008, and July 1, 2009. They have been characterized as "fairly modest" and only "$1.75 a month" and 8.5% over 3 (years) the rate hikes and they are vital to improve our power reliability. Unfortunately, when you take in the "pass thrus," our rates are going up 23%. That is not fairly modest, that is RATE SHOCK!...

A long-lost text by the ancient Greek mathematician shows that he had begun to discover the principles of calculus. ~~~snip~~~ An intensive research effort over the last nine years has led to the decoding of much of the almost-obliterated Greek text. The results were more revolutionary than anyone had expected. The researchers have discovered that Archimedes was working out principles that, centuries later, would form the heart of calculus and that he had a more sophisticated understanding of the concept of infinity than anyone had realized. ~~~~snip~~~~

Source: Harvard University Date: October 2, 2007 Even Without Math, Ancients Engineered Sophisticated Machines Science Daily — Move over, Archimedes. A researcher at Harvard University is finding that ancient Greek craftsmen were able to engineer sophisticated machines without necessarily understanding the mathematical theory behind their construction. Recent analysis of technical treatises and literary sources dating back to the fifth century B.C. reveals that technology flourished among practitioners with limited theoretical knowledge. "Craftsmen had their own kind of knowledge that didn't have to be based on theory," explains Mark Schiefsky, professor of the classics in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences....

That was a week and a half ago. I am thrilled today that almost all of my students can divide and convert fractions to decimals (based on a test). I am scheduling one-on-one tutoring with the other students to ensure that they will be able to do so, too. I realized that what they needed was a recipe, something to follow every time so that it was systematic. I was kind of intimidated that we would get so far behind in the actual physical science material that we wouldn’t be at the level necessary to take the first periodic assessment...

ALGORITHMS sound scary, of interest only to dome-headed mathematicians. In fact they have become the instruction manuals for a host of routine consumer transactions. Browse for a book on Amazon.com and algorithms generate recommendations for other titles to buy. Buy a copy and they help a logistics firm to decide on the best delivery route. Ring to check your order's progress and more algorithms spring into action to determine the quickest connection to and through a call-centre. From analysing credit-card transactions to deciding how to stack supermarket shelves, algorithms now underpin a large amount of everyday life. Their pervasiveness reflects...

The Evolution of Math 1. Teaching Math In 1950: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit? 2. Teaching Math In 1960: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit? 3. Teaching Math In 1970: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit? 4. Teaching Math In 1980: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His...

Mathematics literacy is a new civil rights battleground, according to the renowned activist and political organizer Robert Parris Moses. Using the same ideas and methods that he once used to fight for voting rights in the South, Moses is working to increase access to quality mathematics education through the Algebra Project, a nationwide program that he founded... Today, Moses says, many young people are excluded from full participation in the country's economy because they lack mathematical literacy... The ubiquity of computers makes abstract, quantitative reasoning skills critical to a wide range of job opportunities... Moses founded the Algebra Project...

Two Republican lawmakers said they were “profoundly troubled” by the possibility that the Colorado Commission on Higher Education could soften admission requirements for public colleges and universities at a meeting today. Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita, and Rep. Rob Witwer, R-Genesee, encouraged the commission to oppose diminishing or abandoning its 2010 public college university admission requirements when it meets today at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. “A decision to roll back CCHE’s rigorous college admission requirements would give Colorado the ignominious distinction of being the only state in the nation that is actually weakening educational standards at a time...

Students will face somewhat less stringent admission standards to Colorado colleges in 2010 than previously planned. The Colorado Commission on Higher Education decided Tuesday to keep a fourth year of high school math as a requirement, but modified the requirement to allow courses such as business math, as well as harder courses such as calculus. The commission also reduced the two-year foreign language requirement to one year. The department of higher education, which staffs the commission, will come up with a plan by the end of the year to provide waivers for students who are unable to take all of...

Senate GOP leaders bemoaned freshman Gov. Bill Ritter’s signing of an education bill they say micromanages sex-ed at local school districts, while leaving more urgent reforms on the back burner. Democrats once again are forcing their agenda on local schools, while overlooking legislation they say would have a much more positive effect on the education system. “I don’t understand how Democrats support telling schools how and what to teach their children about sex, but disapprove of creating math and science standards,” Assistant Senate Republican leader Nancy Spence ... Spence, also the ranking GOP Senate Education Committee member, pointed to Sen....

Research shows that girls with 'feminine' names steer clear of 'masculine' maths and scienceParents are being warned to think long and hard when choosing names for their babies as research has discovered that girls who are given very feminine names, such as Anna, Emma or Elizabeth, are less likely to study maths or physics after the age of 16, a remarkable study has found. Both subjects, which are traditionally seen as predominantly male, are far more popular among girls with names such as Abigail, Lauren and Ashley, which have been judged as less feminine in a linguistic test. The effect...