Math Hour | Math Hour Olympiad | Past Events | UW Math Circle |
Each spring, Seattle-area middle- and junior high-school students are invited to participate in the Monthly Math Hour at the University of Washington. The 2024 Math Hour talks will take place in person on the UW campus in ARC (Architecture building), room 147.
Well-behaved parents and teachers are also welcome to attend with the permission of their children. Siblings are free to join in, too.
There will be time for questions and further discussion after the talks.
The talks are free, and registration is not required — just show up! However, registration is required for the Math Hour Olympiad, due to limited capacity: more information will be released through our mailing list.
If you have any further questions or comments, please contact:
Sunday, March 3 2024, 1:00–2:00 PM, at UW in ARC (Architecture building), room 147.
Geometric miracles
Sergey Fomin, University of Michigan.
Abstract: Pick a few points on the plane. Draw several lines through them. Mark some points on these lines, such as the points where the lines intersect. Draw additional lines through some of these points, and so on. Sometimes this process produces miracles: points lying on the same line for no obvious reason. I will explain where these miracles are coming from.
Worksheets from the talk: The following worksheets require Geogebra, which can be downloaded here, or accessed through a browser here. Click on the following to download the worksheets: first worksheet, second worksheet.
Sunday, April 21 2024, 1:00–2:00 PM, in ARC (Architecture building), room 147.
Slicing Space
Cynthia Vinzant, University of Washington.
Abstract: Suppose we lazily slice up a pizza. How many pieces can we make with just a few straight cuts? What if we don't like crusts? What if we had a watermelon? Together we will try to answer these questions and explore some of the beautiful geometry behind them.
Sunday, May 19 2024, 1:00–2:00 PM, in ARC (Architecture building), room 147.
Small Boundaries and Circular Reasoning
Stefan Steinerberger, University of Washington.
Abstract: Many things in nature are approximately round: the earth, my head and an apple being obvious examples. One reason is that round things tend to have a relatively small surface area. This is a very old story that started 2700 years ago with the adventures of Queen Dido in the ancient kingdom of Carthage and took many, many centuries to be resolved. While at it, we are also going to take a really good look at what it really means to be a boundary or a surface. It's clear that a wall is usually the boundary of a room and we also have a good idea of what the surface of an apple would look like. We'll have a look at some crazier examples where it becomes harder to say what a boundary really is, the story keeps going!
The Monthly Math Hour at the University of Washington is supported by the NSF awards DMS-095-3011 and DMS-16000048 and the UW Department of Mathematics.