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"Political Calculus," by Barry Cipra. SIAM News, June 2001, pp. 6-7.
Many of us accept as given that there are 435 members in the U.S. House of Representatives. In this article, Cipra explains that 435 is not a universal constant and gives details of how the total number of seats in the House is determined and how the size of each state's delegation is established. Names like Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton and Webster enter into the history of Congressional apportionment. The method currently in use was invented by Joseph Hill and refined by Edward V. Huntington (a former AMS vice-president). Peyton Young, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins, calls for a return to Webster's method.
--- Mike Breen
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