6 July 1998 Vol. 3, No. 27
THE MATH FORUM INTERNET NEWS
NuCalc Graphing Calculator| Behind the Numbers-Sills |
Thinking about Choice
NUCALC - GRAPHING CALCULATOR 2.0
http://www.nucalc.com/
Graphing Calculator 2.0 from Pacific Tech is designed to
offer a new way of looking at math, providing symbolic and
numeric methods for visualizing two- and three-dimensional
mathematical objects. It features a variety of 2D and 3D
graphs, coordinate systems, numeric solutions, symbolic
methods, animation, the ability to graph multiple functions,
choices of colors, and texture map surfaces.
The Web site offers a free demo to download, and a guided
tour of mathematical objects:
http://www.nucalc.com/Examples/ExampleB1.html
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BEHIND THE NUMBERS - Jonathan Sills
(for ESPN SportsZone)
http://ESPN.SportsZone.com/editors/sills/
"What happens when exact calculations meet the human,
unpredictable factors that make sports so entertaining?"
Articles by Jonathan Sills, the Zone's resident mathematician,
exploring the gray area between math and sports:
- BASEBALL: "Who's the King of the K?"
http://espnet.sportszone.com/editors/sills/behind7.html
An analysis of pitchers' balls and strikes.
- BASKETBALL: "Is there a better way to rate NBA Players?"
http://espnet.sportszone.com/editors/sills/behind4.html
Point weightings and their overemphasis in individual
ratings.
- FANTASY BASEBALL: "Is it right to bench a lefty?"
http://espnet.sportszone.com/editors/sills/behind2.html
The statistics in fantasy baseball.
- FOOTBALL: "How should we poll?"
http://espnet.sportszone.com/editors/sills/behind1.html
Who's really No. 1 in college football? It's all about
the variance.
- GOLF: "How tough is Q-school?"
http://espnet.sportszone.com/editors/sills/behind6.html
A look at the PGA's method of qualifying members.
- HOCKEY: "Can math help hockey schedules?"
http://espnet.sportszone.com/editors/sills/behind3.html
"The worst job in hockey".
- SOCCER: "World Cup 1998: What's the point of a victory?"
http://ESPN.SportsZone.com/editors/sills/index.html
A combinatoric and probabilistic analysis of recent rule
changes for advancing through rounds of the World Cup.
- STRONGMAN: "How strong is the world's strongest man?"
http://espnet.sportszone.com/editors/sills/behind5.html
The point basis for judging this competition.
Jonathan Sills is a Chicago native who was a Fulbright
Scholar at Oxford. He's done informal consulting with
minor-league hockey and baseball, using math to help
leagues determine schedules. He holds a degree in Civil
Engineering and Operations Research from Princeton
University.
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THINKING ABOUT CHOICE - a math-teach discussion
http://mathforum.org/epigone/math-teach/skysencrel
"Why can't teachers allow children to make at least some
choices in math as we do in other subjects?"
- Mary O'Keefe
"If... the problems at hand are such as to require
real thought, then students need work only a handful -
and the instructor should both require them to express
their thought and engage that thought himself when
grading it. In this case, choice is reasonable."
- Lou Talman
"... one thing I think that many of the experienced
teachers may be forgetting is the amount of work
involved in teaching when you are first learning how..."
- Pat Krivoshein
"What makes a magician masterful is not the choices given
the audience, rather it is the illusion of choices.
- Ron Ferguson
A discussion that touches on using keys to grade assignments,
making homework more thought-provoking, varying the way
students are assigned routine skills, the use of estimating,
the teacher's responsibility to the student, and the kinds
and merits of choice in the math classroom.
For more MATH-TEACH threads, see the Math Forum's Web
archive or subscribe to the mailing list.
http://mathforum.org/discussions/about/math-teach.html
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