Math and Science Fair Project Ideas

Date: 7/3/96 at 14:30:4
From: Megan Barth
Subject: Science Fair Project Ideas

Dear Dr. Math,

Do you have any suggestions about a Science Fair project in the math
category?  I was thinking of doing the probability of getting a 
certain prize in a cereal box or in the McDonalds Monopoly Game.  I 
have  looked in the Dr. Math archives and many other places.

Thank you,
            Megan or DaMariner

Date: 7/4/96 at 0:11:19
From: Doctor Mike
Subject: Re: Science Fair Project Ideas

Dear Megan and all,
  
There are more mathematics project ideas than you can shake a stick at 
in the excellent book MATH PROJECTS FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS (Franklin 
Watts, 1988) by David A. Thomas.  It is about 125 pages long and comes 
both in hard cover and paperback.  Your ideas sound good, too.  Most 
important is to find something so fascinating that you can't wait to 
get back to it!
  
Speaking of how many project ideas you can shake a stick at, one idea 
for a project would be to investigate just how many that is.  Of 
course we are talking about really really big numbers here, but that 
IS the idea. The subject of big numbers gets you to a lot of 
interesting ideas, like what is a GOOGOLPLEX and why it is called 
that, how many grains of sand (approximately!) could fit into a sphere 
the size of the earth, or why there are more prime numbers than any 
particular number. 
  
I hope this helps.     

-Doctor Mike,  The Math Forum
 Check out our web site!  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/