Joint Mathematics Meetings in Phoenix, January 7 - 10, 2004

December 15, 2003

Providence, RI:

Over 4500 mathematicians are expected to attend the annual meetings of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and Mathematical Association of America (MAA) at the Phoenix Civic Plaza, January 7-10. Researchers will present approximately 1500 papers from all specialties of mathematics. The Meetings website has more information.

Topics : The mathematics involved in biology, business, sports, elections, and the arts. Themes of other sessions include current events in mathematics, mathematics education, technology in education, and the history of mathematics.

Press Room : Room 15 of the Civic Plaza, offering fact sheets, the book of abstracts, the complete program of the Meetings, phone, laptop with Internet access, and a place to conduct interviews. Hours: Wednesday Jan. 7 through Friday Jan. 9, 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., and Sat. Jan. 10, 7:30 a.m. – noon.

Highlights: Addresses by Stephen Wolfram, author of A New Kind of Science ; Eric Lander, a leader of the Human Genome Project; Hyman Bass, former AMS president; and Ann Watkins, former MAA president.

The AMS Public Awareness Office will sponsor Who Wants To Be A Mathematician , a game featuring 10 Arizona high school students competing for the $2000 Grand Prize, Friday Jan. 9, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in Room 38 of the Phoenix Civic Plaza.

A New Kind of Science and the Future of Mathematics. Stephen Wolfram, Wolfram Research, Inc. Wednesday January 7, 11:10 a.m. – 12:00 noon. AMS-MAA Invited Address.
Mathematics has traditionally concentrated on certain kinds of abstract systems. The science that Wolfram has been developing for twenty years suggests a much broader class of systems to study. These systems are not only important as models and methods for science and technology, but also are a rich source of new raw material for mathematical investigations. Starting from simple computer experiments, one finds a remarkable world of new phenomena—readily accessible even at a K-12 level. These experiments lead to frontier problems in many areas of modern mathematics, such as number theory, differential equations, dynamical systems, geometry, logic and recursion theory. The talk surveys core phenomena and principles that have emerged, mentions applications, gives examples of mathematical results, and discusses implications for new directions in mathematics research and education.

Biology as Information. Eric Lander (lander@genome.wi.mit.edu), Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Wednesday January 7, 8:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. AMS Josiah Willard Gibbs Lecture.
Biomedical science is undergoing a historic revolution, driven by the growing technological ability to take comprehensive views of DNA, RNA and protein across tissues, individuals and species. A common theme in the science is that biology is becoming information. Consequently, biology suddenly finds itself with great interest in rigorous methods for interpreting vast collections of information. The challenge is certain to drive a new and fruitful partnership between biology and the mathematical and computational sciences. The lecture illustrates how these themes work and is aimed at a scientifically literate, but not necessarily mathematically literate, audience.

Current Events in Mathematics. Organizer: AMS President David Eisenbud (de@msri.org), Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and University of California Berkeley. Friday January 9, 1:00 p.m. – 5:10 p.m. AMS Special Session.
The recent primality-testing algorithm and the purported proof of the Poincaré Conjecture are among the topics in this session. Each of the four talks includes an overview for the mathematical non-specialist along with information of interest to experts.

Mathematical Art Exhibit. Organizers: Robert Fathauer (rob@tessellations.com), Tessellations Company, Phoenix; Nat Friedman, ISAMA, SUNY at Albany; and Reza Sarhangi, Bridges Conference, Towson University. Thursday January 8, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Friday January 9, 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., and Saturday January 10, 9:00 a.m. – noon.
On exhibit are paintings, prints (both digital and traditional), and sculpture by artists whose work is inspired by mathematics and by mathematicians who use visual art to express their findings. An original print by M.C. Escher ("Fish and Scales") is also included in the exhibit. Optical illusions and unusual perspective systems are employed in several of the works.

Fallacies in Elementary Statistics. Ann Watkins (ann.watkins@csun.edu), California State University, Northridge. Saturday January 10, 10:05 a.m. – 10:55 a.m. MAA Retiring Presidential Address.
The speaker and audience have some fun demolishing several enticing examples commonly used in statistics textbooks to illustrate the mean, median, and mode. A little mathematics, backed up by a little data, shows that these concepts are not as intuitive as they appear.

Mathematics, Mathematicians, and Mathematics Education. Hyman Bass, University of Michigan. Thursday January 8, 3:20 p.m. – 4:10 p.m. AMS Retiring Presidential Address.
There is now a wide appreciation that the mathematical knowledge and sensibility of research mathematicians can be a valuable resource in work on mathematics education. But what it takes for a mathematician to engage productively in the improvement of mathematics education is far from obvious. The lecture probes the question: What is special about what mathematicians can bring to solving problems of mathematics education?, and examines some cases of significant contributions by mathematicians to mathematics education. In each case, specific examples are illustrated, and an inside view of the nature of the mathematical work analyzed.

CINEMATH: Mathematics on the Silver Screen. Charlie L. Smith (charlie.smith@park.edu), Park University. Wednesday January 7, 3:45 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. MAA Special Presentation.
The motion picture is a marvelous tool for introducing many mathematical topics, ranging from the Pythagorean Theorem to the Twin Prime Conjecture. This presentation consists of film excerpts with mathematical content, each followed by an explanation and analysis of the material. A list of movies containing mathematical references is provided.

Joint Prize Session and Reception. Thursday January 8, 4:25 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
The participating professional societies—the AMS, MAA, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and Association for Women in Mathematics—showcase the achievements of mathematicians by presenting prizes for outstanding research, teaching and publications.

Mathematical Challenges in Molecular Biology. Bonnie Berger (bab@mit.edu), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Friday January 9, 11:10 a.m. – noon. AMS-MAA Invited Address.
The rapid accumulation of data from recent advances in DNA technology has opened up new possibilities for biologists, while at the same time unprecedented mathematical challenges have emerged due to the mass of data. One powerful new approach to this problem is based on the comparison of multiple complete genomes. In particular, Berger and colleagues have applied this approach to identifying genes, regulatory regions, non-coding RNA genes, etc. across species in an automated fashion.

Introduction to Mathematical Card Tricks. Organizers: Colm K. Mulcahy (colm@spelman.edu) and Jeffrey A. Ehme, Spelman College. Wednesday, 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. and Friday 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. MAA Minicourse.
Card tricks liven up any gathering and can help convince people that math is fun and that there is a rational explanation for some seemingly impossible events. This interactive introduction features some classic tricks and their explanations.

Mixing Time for the Biased Card Shuffling and the Asymetric Exclusion Process. Noam Berger (noam@stat.berkeley.edu), Cal Tech; Elchanan Mossel, University of California Berkeley; Christopher E. Hoffman, University of Washington; and Itai Benjamini, The Weizmann Institute. Wednesday January 7, 10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
The researchers prove a conjecture of Diaconis and Ram about the order of magnitude of the mixing time for a method of biased card shuffling.

Mathematics and Sports. Organizers: Sean L. Forman, Saint Joseph's University (sforman@sju.edu) and Douglas Drinen, University of the South. Saturday 8:00 a.m. – 10:55 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. MAA Contributed Paper Session.

Among the talks in this session are:

Will the Real Most Valuable Player Please Stand Up? Joseph Evan (jmevan@kings.edu) and Daniel J. Ghezzi, King's College. Saturday January 10, 9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
At the end of every baseball season, a debate ensues over who is the most valuable player in each league. This talk compares two players by creating two teams which are identical with the exception of these two players.

Origami in Undergraduate Mathematics Courses. Organizer: Thomas C. Hull (thull@merrimack.edu), Merrimack College. Wednesday and Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. MAA Minicourse.
Lovely mathematics, from geometry, combinatorics, and algebra, lurks behind the marvelous patterns of origami. This mathematics is easily understood by undergraduate majors, leads to numerous open questions, and offers a great opportunity for hands-on, discovery-based learning.

The Mathematics of Acoustic Paradoxes. Erich Neuwirth (erich.neuwirth@univie.ac.at), University of Vienna. Friday, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. MAA Musical Presentation.
Most mathematicians are familiar with Escher's picture of people going up a staircase but nevertheless returning where they started. There are similar paradoxes in music. There is a tone that constantly goes up in pitch but nevertheless returns to the starting pitch. There is also a rhythm that constantly gets faster, yet ends with the same rhythm as at the start. The audience hears examples of the paradoxes and sees and hears how they are created mathematically.

Math and the Arts. Organizers: Ann Robertson (arob@conncoll.edu) Connecticut College; John M. Sullivan, University of Illinois, Urbana; Reza Sarhangi, Towson University; and Nathaniel A. Friedman, State University of New York, Albany. Thursday January 8, 1:00 p.m. – 3:55 p.m., and Friday January 9, 8:00 a.m. – 10:55 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. – 4:55 p.m. MAA Contributed Paper Session.

Among the talks in this session are:

The Role of Mathematics in the Construction of Musical Scales. Richard J. Krantz (krantzr@mscd.edu), Metropolitan State College of Denver. Saturday January 10, 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
New results in mathematical music theory have yielded an approach for constructing equal-tempered musical scales based on "good-fitting intervals" and generalizing modulation properties of the circle of fifths. The connections between these "good-fitting intervals" and continued fractions have only recently been realized. Recent developments in mathematical music theory are reviewed.

Cardinality Equals Variety for Chords, with a Note on the Twin Primes Conjecture. David L. Clampitt (david.clampitt@yale.edu), Yale University. Saturday January 10, 1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

The Same Transmission Dynamics Drive the Fast Gay and the Slow African HIV Epidemics. Brandy L. Rapatski (blr@math.umd.edu) and James A. Yorke, University of Maryland, and Frederick Suppe, Texas Tech University. Thursday January 8, 11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
HIV entered the U.S. gay population from African sources, yet the U.S. gay epidemic exploded over a decade earlier than the African one. The speaker shows how the same transmission dynamics explain the fast gay epidemic and the slow African one. The resurgence of HIV among young gay men in the U.S. today more resembles the slow African epidemic than the original gay epidemic. Through knowledge of how HIV spreads, we can hope to learn what actions would be most effective in ending the HIV epidemic.

Application of Dynamic Equations on Time Scales to Modeling the West-Nile Virus. Jo Hoffacker (johoff@math.uga.edu), University of Georgia. Wednesday January 7, 4:15 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
Hoffacker discusses modeling the West-Nile virus by way of mosquito populations. Some results comparing the mosquito population using different time scales are given.

Mathematical and Computational Challenges in Brain Mapping. Paul M. Thompson (thompson@loni.ucla.edu) and Arthur W. Toga, UCLA School of Medicine. Thursday January 8, 11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Powerful computer algorithms can now detect disease-specific patterns of brain structure and function. The authors and others have created statistical atlases to measure how the brain varies across age and gender, across time, in health and disease, and in large human populations. They use this reference information to detect brain abnormalities in Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia, including how the brain changes over time, and how it responds to medication. This has revealed surprising patterns that were not apparent in individual brain images, visualizing in detail how disease and development impact the brain.

The Combinatorics of Rigid Molecules: The Molecular Conjecture and Protein Rigidity. Walter J. Whiteley (whiteley@mathstat.yorku.ca), York University. Wednesday January 7, 9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
The speaker presents two related (and probably equivalent) molecular conjectures for the special class of graphs derived from connected molecules in which all bonds at an atom have fixed (rigid) angles. He describes these two conjectures and the significance of rigidity of proteins for a selection of diseases, such as mad cow disease, HIV and cystic fibrosis.

A Double Epidemic Model for the SARS Propagation. Tuen Wai Ng (ntw@maths.hku.hk), The University of Hong Kong; Gabriel Turinici, Inria Rocquencourt Domaine de Voluceau; and Antoine Danchin, Génétique des Génomes Bactériens, Institut Pasteur. Friday January 9, 1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) spread with a puzzling contagion behavior. It is important to identify the causes of this behavior, both for predicting the future of the outbreak and for implementing effective prophylactic measures. The authors develop a model involving two superimposed epidemics to study the recent spread of SARS in China.

Sports-related Concussion: An Application of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. William Eddy, (bill@cmu.edu), Carnegie Mellon University. Friday January 9, 4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Over 300,000 sports-related concussions occur annually in the U.S. The author and colleagues are currently conducting a five-year study of concussion in high school athletes utilizing neurocognitive tests and functional MRI (fMRI). This talk provides an introduction to fMRI, presents some preliminary results, and concludes by discussing some of the major unsolved methodological problems which the study should address.

Mathematical Models of HIV: How Robust Are They and What Are the Limitations of Their Conclusions? Patrick W. Nelson (pwn@umich.edu) and Stanca Ciupe, University of Michigan, and Benjamin Lovegren de Bivort, Harvard University. Friday January 9, 9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

Improving the Accuracy of Segmentation Algorithms for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Rick Archibald (archi@math.la.asu.edu) and Kewei Chen, Arizona Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research, and Anne Gelb and Rosemary Renaut, Arizona State University. Friday January 9, 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

The Dynamics of Two Viral Infections in a Single Host Population with Applications to Hantavirus. Linda J. S. Allen (lallen@math.ttu.edu), Texas Tech University, Michel Langlais, University de Bordeaux, and Carleton J. Phillips, Texas Tech University. Saturday January 10, 4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Making Mathematics Intellectually Enlivening. Michael Starbird (starbird@math.utexas.edu), The University of Texas at Austin. Wednesday January 7, 9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
The mathematical component of students' education can be enlivening, engaging, fascinating, and intellectually stimulating because many mathematical ideas are enlivening, engaging, fascinating, and intellectually stimulating. This talk describes some of the challenges and possibilities in making mathematics come alive for students.

Enticing, Engaging and Enlightening Examples of Mathematical Activities. Thomas Q. Sibley (tsibley@csbsju.edu), St. John's University. Wednesday January 7, 9:00 a.m. – 9:20 a.m.
Events include a donut-coloring contest, tensegrity figures, human knots, and games. All of these activities encourage students to ask questions leading to approachable mathematics in first-year calculus.

Coin Tossing, Confidence Intervals and Theology. C. Bryan Dawson (bdawson@uu.edu), Union University. Wednesday January 7, 10:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
One possible reason for the difficulty students have with confidence intervals is that the instructor and students are often working from different philosophical assumptions. Those assumptions are illustrated using the classical examples of coin tossing and the day of week from a date in history. A suggestion will be given to help overcome these difficulties in the classroom.

What Will it Take to Convince You? Mary M. Sullivan (mmsullivan@ric.edu), Rhode Island College. Wednesday January 7, 10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
The author shares some amusing anecdotes stemming from students' misconceptions and demonstrates a motivating metaphor that has proven to be effective in clarifying conceptions about inference.

Progress Reports on Implementing the Recommendations in the MET Report—A Faculty View. Dale R. Oliver (dro1@humboldt.edu), Humboldt State University and Ginger Warfield, University of Washington. Wednesday January 7, 2:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
In this introduction to a special session dedicated to implementation of the report, The Mathematical Education of Teachers, the presenters outline the challenges facing mathematics faculty in preparing teachers and discuss several efforts that are underway to help faculty meet the challenges.

Fractals in the Classroom: Yale Teacher Workshops (and Course MA 190). Benoit B. Mandelbrot (benoit.mandelbrot@yale.edu), Yale University. Wednesday January 7, 5:15 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
Mandelbrot, a pioneer in chaos theory, describes elementary and advanced summer workshops offered at Yale on fractal geometry for high school and college mathematics teachers.

Building a House: A Quadratic Model. Scott R. Herriott (herriott@mum.edu), Maharishi University of Management. Wednesday January 7, 4:15 p.m. – 4:35 p.m.
Useful applications of the quadratic function are not easy to find. This talk shows that many of the components of cost in constructing a house are either constant, linear, or quadratic. Thus, to know how large a summer cabin you can build on a $20,000 budget, solve a quadratic equation.

Using Legos to Teach Linear Programming. Christopher J. Lacke (lacke@rowan.edu), Rowan University. Wednesday January 7, 10:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.

What Does Conceptual Understanding Mean? Florence S. Gordon (fgordon@nyit.edu), New York Institute of Technology. Thursday January 8, 8:50 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.

National Science Foundation Programs Supporting Learning and Teaching in the Mathematical Sciences. Organizers: Elizabeth J. Teles (ejteles@nsf.gov), Calvin L. Williams, and Lee L. Zia, NSF Division of Undergraduate Education; John Bradley, NSF Division of Elementary, Secondary, and Informal Education; James H. Lightbourne, NSF Division of Graduate Education; and Lloyd E. Douglas, NSF Division of Mathematical Sciences. Thursday January 8, 9:00 a.m. – 10:20 a.m. MAA Special Presentation.

Linking Art, Geometry, and Calculus. Ruth G. Favro (favro@ltu.edu) and David E. Bindschadler, Lawrence Technological University. Friday January 9, 8:15 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.

Using the TI-89 in Math Education: Does it Improve the Students' Performance? Karsten Schmidt (kschmidt@fh-sm.de), University of Applied Sciences Schmalkalden and Wolfgang Moldenhauer, ThILLM. Thursday January 8, 10:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
A project in eight schools is being carried out to investigate the effects that the TI-89 graphing calculator has on math skills. The paper also investigates the effects of the use of computer algebra systems on student performance.

The Deadly Calculations of Dr. Malevolence. Stephen M. Walk (smwalk@stcloudstate.edu), St. Cloud State University. Thursday January 8, 9:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
Criminal genius Dr. Malevolence has unleashed his diabolical Epsilon Plan to take over the world. It is up to you to thwart his evil scheme using nothing more than your wits and Geometer's Sketchpad.

MERLOT as a Forum to Disseminate High-Quality Public Domain or Low Cost Learning Materials. Bernd S. W. Schroeder (schroder@coes.LaTech.edu), Louisiana Tech University. Thursday January 8, 10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
MERLOT is a completely faculty-driven, shared content database, providing links to reviewed public domain or low cost learning materials. This talk discusses the manifold uses of MERLOT's features, including a prediction of how print-on-demand publishing of refereed high-quality texts can improve mathematics education.

Technology and the Mathematics Major. Organizer: Ioana Mihaila (imihaila@csupomona.edu), California State Polytechnic University at Pomona. Panelists: Bernard Banks, California State Polytechnic University at Pomona; Robert J. Lopez, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Waterloo Maple; Olympia Nicodemi, State University of New York, Geneseo; and Kathleen Snook, Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications. Thursday January 8, 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. MAA Project NExT Panel Discussion.
Speakers from both academia and the private sector offer their expertise and advice on how to wisely incorporate technology into the math major, while preserving its spirit.

Visualizing Mathematical Models via Spreadsheets: Part I—Population Models. Deane E. Arganbright (darganbr@utm.edu), University of Tennessee at Martin and Erich Neuwirth, University of Vienna. Friday January 9, 2:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
This presentation illustrates the creation of spreadsheet models for population growth through a difference equation approach. These models incorporate innovative animation effects to create a highly visual demonstration.

Using Hand Held Technology to Address Math Anxiety in the Developmental Mathematics Classroom. Peg Greene (pgreene@fccj.edu), Florida Community College at Jacksonville. Friday January 9, 3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
The majority of students enrolled in developmental courses come into the courses with a high degree of math anxiety. Hand held technology gives the developmental math student the ability to see success and relieve some of that anxiety. Specific examples using hand held technology to address math anxiety are discussed.

Seeing is Believing: Visuals on Demand. Jennifer A. Bergner (jabergner@salisbury.edu) and Donald Spickler, Salisbury University. Saturday January 10, 8:15 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.
The presenter shares some demos developed for calculus concepts using the computer algebra system Maple and discusses the impact these have on student understanding.

Palm Pilot Mathematics & Programming. Olga Yiparaki (yiparaki@us.ibm.com), IBM Corp. Saturday January 10, 8:45 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
What handheld tools promote creativity best? Graphing calculators often polarize faculty. This talk gives an overview of a different approach: using Palm Pilots. Rather than have students press buttons, the speaker has them write MATLAB-like small programs for calculus, linear algebra, and combinatorics.

Are We Getting What We Pay For? Queen Wiggs (qewiggs@yahoo.com), The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. Saturday January 10, 4:20 p.m. – 4:40 p.m.
Have you ever wondered if what you purchased actually weighs what the package states? The speaker examines a particular product purchased at various grocery stores and uses a graphing calculator to find disparities, confidence intervals and much more. You will be surprised at the results!

Loading the Bases: Teaching a Statistics Course with the WWW, the Smart Board, and Baseball. Michael R. Huber (am6996@usma.edu) and Gabriel Costa, United States Military Academy. Wednesday January 7, 8:40 – 9:00 a.m.

Multifractal Cartoons of the Variation of Financial Prices. Benoit B. Mandelbrot (benoit.mandelbrot@yale.edu), Yale University. Thursday January 8, 11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
The overwhelming bulk of financial mathematics still assumes that every financial price (or its logarithm) follows Brownian motion. In fact, none does, even closely. To the contrary, the speaker has moved increasingly close to the facts with three models that include multifractal cartoons. What they show is that interpolation that creates a multifractal form of random self-affinity suffices to create sample paths that represent the facts surprisingly well. Those cartoons combine parsimony with versatility and are useful at every level of sophistication, from high schoolers to experts.

Fractals in the Financial Markets. Marilyn B. Durkin (mdurkin@bentley.edu), Bentley College. Thursday January 8, 11:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m..
Stock market data can be viewed in an entirely different way when its fractal properties are explored. Following a brief description of the background of the study of fractals in financial markets, this talk concentrates on the choppiness index as defined by E.W. Dreiss, which measures something akin to the "fractal dimension" of the market to characterize the trendiness of prices.

MAA Session on Mathematics Experiences in Business, Industry, and Government.
Organizers: Philip E. Gustafson (pgustafs@mesastate.edu), Mesa State College and Michael G. Monticino, University of North Texas. Friday January 9, 8:00 a.m. – 10:35 a.m.

Some of the talks in this session are:

Visualizing Mathematical Models via Spreadsheets: Part II—Retirement Financing. Erich Neuwirth (erich.neuwirth@univie.ac.at), University of Vienna and Deane E. Arganbright, University of Tennessee at Martin. Friday January 9, 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
The composition of a nation's population can be described through a population pyramid that groups individuals into distinct categories such as youth, workers, and retirees. The composition of these groups will change dynamically over the years, influencing the financing of a nation's retirement plans. This presentation implements interactive spreadsheet models for retirement plan financing through recurrence relations. Animated graphics show the effects of changes in the models' parameters. Variations of this demonstration have been used in presentations to governmental decision makers.

The Utility of Catenaries to Electric Utilities. Lila F. Roberts (lila.roberts@gcsu.edu), Georgia College & State University, and Sharon M. Barrs, James P. Braselton and Lorraine M. Braselton, Georgia Southern University. Saturday January 10, 8:00 a.m. – 8:15 a.m.
The problem of suspending a flexible cable between two poles of equal height is of interest to utility companies which must make sure that lines suspended over roadways won't be hit by passing vehicles. A trivial quiz problem leads to an interesting demo and illustrative animation.

Coupon Collecting with Quotas. Russell J. May (r.may@moreheadstate.edu), Morehead State University. Saturday January 10, 2:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
May discusses a generalization of the coupon collector's problem called the under-the-cap game : A manufacturer stamps a letter of a payoff name under each bottle cap, presumably in varying quantities. Consumers buy bottle after bottle of the soft drink, hoping to spell out the entire payoff name. May calculates the expected number of bottles needed to spell out the payoff name, and concisely expresses this quantity as a sum of finitely many terms.

Edward V. Huntington and the Apportionment Debate of 1920-1940. Thomas L. Bartlow (thomas.bartlow@villanova.edu), Villanova University. Saturday January 10, 1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
In 1920 E. V. Huntington developed a theory of inequity in the apportionment of representatives in Congress and used it as a basis for a new method of apportionment, which was adopted in 1941. This is the story of this incursion of mathematics into politics.

Non-monotonic Outcomes in Elections. Anthony Quas (aquas@memphis.edu), University of Memphis. Thursday, January 8, 1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
A voting system is said to be non-monotonic if getting more votes can cause a candidate to lose an election. Quas considers this property in relation to a voting method used in national elections in Australia; in local elections in Cambridge, MA; and in selecting the nominations for Academy Awards.

Computing the Probability of Cycles in a Random Election. Bruce W. Atkinson (bwatkins@samford.edu), Samford University. Thursday January 8, 11:45 a.m. – noon.
A cycle in a tournament is a path which begins and ends with the same candidate, indicating a paradoxical election outcome. Atkinson shows that as the number of candidates increases, so too does the likelihood of a paradoxical election outcome.

Finding Lattices in Responses to Public Opinion Surveys: Theory, Method, and Examples. James A. Wiley (jwiley3@sfsu.edu), San Francisco State University. Wednesday January 7, 10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Fair Enough? Mathematics of Equity. Organizers: John C. Maceli (hilbert@ithaca.edu) and Stanley E. Seltzer, Ithaca College. Thursday January 8 and Saturday January 10, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. MAA Minicourse.

Forming Stable Coalitions from Preferences over Coalition Partners. Michael A. Jones (jonesm@mail.montclair.edu), Montclair State University, Steven J. Brams, New York University, and D. Marc Kilgour, Wilfrid Laurier University, Thursday, January 8, 3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

How Many Squares Are There, Mr. Franklin?: Constructing and Enumerating Franklin Squares. Maya Mohsin Ahmed (maya@math.ucdavis.edu), University of California, Davis. Saturday January 10, 8:45 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Benjamin Franklin constructed three famous squares which have fascinated both expert and amateur for centuries. Ahmed presents a new method of constructing the three squares, and all other Franklin squares, and provides formulas for counting the number of Franklin squares with a given magic sum.

A Stochastic Model of Wind Velocities at the Kennedy Space Center. Brian E. Smith (brian.smith@staff.mcgill.ca), McGill University and Francis J. Merceret, NASA. Friday January 9, 1:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
This presentation describes a project developed at the NASA/US Air Force/ NationalWeather Service Applied Meteorology Unit by Dr. Francis J. Merceret. The study demonstrated that the statistical distribution of wind changes follows a lognormal distribution, thus making the likelihood of potentially dangerous events considerably greater than had hitherto been believed.

Futurama - Mathematics in the Year 3000. Sarah J. Greenwald (greenwaldsj@appstate.edu), Appalachian State University, Tom Georgoulias, Austin, TX, and Marc Wichterich, Aachen University. (program change) Friday January 9, 10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Futurama is a satirical science fiction cartoon that aims its jokes squarely at the top of the brow. Math and science references seem to appear in almost every episode. We present some of our favorite references and examine the motivation for the math and science in Futurama along with the mathematical backgrounds of the writers.

Multiplicative Magic Squares of Order Four. Carl A. Libis (clibis@math.uri.edu), University of Rhode Island. Wednesday January 7, 5:15 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Libis presents a method for generating the 528 essentially different 4 x 4 multiplicative magic squares.

Rethinking Central Configurations. Donald G. Saari (dsaari@uci.edu), University of California, Irvine. Wednesday January 7, 9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
In the Newtonian N-body problem, central configurations are configurations where the velocity vector of each particle is the same scalar multiple of the acceleration vector. In this presentation, some simple geometric arguments are used to describe several properties of these configurations.

The Fibonacci and Catalan Numbers. Organizer: Ralph P. Grimaldi (ralph.grimaldi@rose-hulman.edu), Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Wednesday, 2:15 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. and Friday, 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. MAA Minicourse.
A review of the basic properties of both sequences, along with a survey of applications dealing with chemistry, physics, computer science, linear algebra, set theory, graph theory, and number theory, which shows why the Fibonacci numbers and Catalan numbers are of interest and importance.

Almost All Palindromes Are Composite. Mayumi Sakata (sakata@math.missouri.edu), University of Missouri, Columbia. Wednesday January 7, 5:30 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
Sakata derives a nontrivial upper bound for the number of prime palindromes no larger than x, as x goes to infinity. The result shows that almost all palindromes in a given base are composite.

Numerics and Chaotic Dynamics: Can You Trust Your Computer? H. Kocak (hk@math.miami.edu), B. Coomes, and B. Rosenberg, University of Miami. Thursday January 8, 8:00 a.m. – 8:15 a.m.
Much of our understanding of chaotic dynamical systems is derived from numerical simulations. Numerical computations in the presence of chaos, however, are inherently dangerous as such systems amplify numerical errors at an exponential rate. This talk presents several striking examples of such numerical dangers and outlines several mathematical results on what can be salvaged from numerical simulations of chaotic dynamical systems.

Only Four Colors and An Introduction to Topology . Organizer: Robin Wilson, The Open University. Thursday, 5:45 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. MAA Video Presentation.
Only Four Colors features the origin and early evolution of the Four Color Theorem. An Introduction to Topology introduces the subject of topology to students studying that subject.

The History of Mathematical Technologies: Exploring the Material Culture of Mathematics, Monday January 5, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and Tuesday, January 6, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Organizers: Amy Shell-Gellasch (amy.shellgellasch@us.army.mil), and Glen Van Brummelen, Bennington College. MAA Short Course.
This short course explores the history, development and significance of various mathematical devices throughout history, including sun dials, navigational and surveying devices, and early computing devices. Presenters use actual historical devices when possible. The sessions are a mix of traditional presentations, followed by a hands-on demonstration and question period.

An Illumination of the Aristarchus of Samos' Treatise on the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and the Moon. Katherine E. Northrup (kanorthrup@ursinus.edu), Ursinus College. Friday January 9, 10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Aristarchus is most remembered as having theorized a heliocentric universe 2300 years ago, but none of this work survives. Nonetheless, Aristarchus' one extant treatise based on a geocentric universe presents a geometrical calculation of the ratios of the size and distances of the sun and moon in relation to the earth, which are impressive for a man of his day.

Dispelling Myths while Promoting Math. Judith V. Grabiner (jgrabine@pitzer.edu), Pitzer College. Thursday January 8, 10:00 a.m. – 10:20 a.m. Grabiner addresses five well-known false stories about the history of mathematics, and shows how understanding the "truth" about them promotes understanding of the mathematics involved.

The Flatland Myth. W. F. Lindgren (william.lindgren@sru.edu), Slippery Rock University and T. F. Banchoff, Brown University. Thursday January 8, 10:40 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
The "Flatland myth" is the story of a two-dimensional creature unaware of a three dimensional universe around him. Lindgren considers possible origins of the Flatland myth and reviews its role in the history of mathematics.

Organizers: David E. Zitarelli, Temple University (david.zitarelli@temple.edu ), Joseph W. Dauben, Lehman College (CUNY), and Karen V. H. Parshall, University of Virginia. Friday January 9 and Saturday January 10, 8:30 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. – 3:50 p.m.
Two of the talks in this session are:

Florence Nightingale's Use of Statistical Diagrams. S. Kilic-Bahi (skilic-bahi@colby-sawyer.edu), Colby-Sawyer College. Wednesday January 7, 9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.