Meeting Sept. 25

Meeting Sept. 25th

So we all met in Bldg 3 Room 148 for Professor Lapuz's lecture/seminar on math philosophy.  I have to say...I was dubious on the actual content of the lecture.  I mean, if you walked down the street and asked someone, "what is math philosophy?" 1. they will either ignore you because you sound crazy, 2. They will give you a seemingly B.S. answer, or 3. they will say, "I did not know such a thing exists."

At this point while reading this, I would ask myself, "what the heck is math philosophy?"  Well, you know what??  You should have actually attended.  This is me guilt tripping all people in the club who didn't go to the lecture.  It was engaging, funny, but most of all, it had Lapuz's awkward yet endearing demeanor.  It's actually what took the talk to the next level.  The subject matter itself perhaps could have been dull, but Lapuz really made it accessible.

There are also a couple of "mathy" type ideas that I took away from the lecture.  There were many aspects that I did not know about because it is not taught in the conventional classes.  There aren't many times where my mind gets blown...well, maybe there are...but nonetheless, I learned some new junk about the world.  Hats off to you Lapuz.

Oh yeah...they had free coffee, too.

Aj OUT!!!

Meeting #4 Minutes (9/18)

Attendence for Math Club Meeting #4

So, we broke more ice.  I am starting to see a trend happening.  The question this week was, "Tell us something interesting about yourself."  I have to say...math people are either really interesting or really quiet.  No worries.  My challenge this year is to bring everyone out of their respective shells by the end of the semester.  If you are reading this, yes, I mean you.  Get ready for next week's breaking bad ice question.

Then, I went over the minutes from last week.  I know, I know.  Many of you are tired of hearing my voice dominate the meeting.  Personally, I never get tired of hearing my voice, so of course I spent as much time on this section as possible.  Similarly, I am taking an entire paragraph in this blog to talk about how I read the minutes from this blog.  Yes, I realize that I just went 2pi.

We watched a video on how Archimedes (one of the most famous mathematicians of all time) could find the area of a circle by just using triangles.  Why is it that all math seemingly always comes back to triangles.  What is wrong with having everything be rectangles?  I think the math gods are trying to give me a sin that I am never going to get away from triangles.

Becca's contribution to the blog (notice that it is all business):
"JMM 2015 might be too expensive, so we brainstormed some ideas for field trips. Diedrik suggested that we tour NASA in Mountain View. Professor Hoffman has suggested Stanford Lectures.
Professor Lapuz and one other person brought up visiting Stanford SLAC, which is the particle accelerator used to read Archimedes' recently discovered text."

We watched a second video until the end of the hour.  The video was a Ted Talk on the Archimedes text that was recovered from a prayer book.  Apparently, this prayer book contained 2 other super important texts in it.  Whichever monk reused these different books and parchment had some high quality taste.  If I were a medieval monk, I guess I would want to use the paper of the most famous books in history, too.  Don't feel bad if you left the meeting early...I sure don't.

Next week's meeting (#5) will be held in 3-148, where we will suspend regular Math Club meeting activity in order to visit a guest lecture about Prof. Lapuz's philosophy in math.

Problem of the Week #5

There is a railroad that spans a V-shaped canyon. It is supported by beams which start at length of 6 ft on either side of the canyon, while the next beam increases by 2 ft, all the way until the center of the canyon, where the middle beam is a length of 246 ft.

What is the total length of all the beams?

The Lost Codex of Archimedes

From the our talk about Stanford's particle accelerator during Meeting #4! (Click here to see my comment on this past week's agenda).

The Story of 1 - Last Time on Math Movie Night

The Story of 1 (One the number) from OReilly on Vimeo.

UPDATED Agenda for Meeting #4 (9/18)

Official Math Club Meeting #4 Agenda

Math Club

4:00PM-5:00PM Thursday, September 18^th, 2014

9-257A

Officers:

Antonia- ICC Liaison

AJ- Secretary

Try- Vice President/Co-treasurer

Rebecca- President

Jesus, Alexis, and the others- Co-Treasurers

Ryan- Commissioner of Publicity

Lee- Propagandist

You- mere minion / worker bee / mathlete drone

Advisors:

Profs. Hoffman and Tong

Website: http://CanadaCollegeMathClub.blogspot.com/

Welcome Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JLXH8W6

Upcoming events:

1.       Next Meeting (#5): Thursday 9/25 4-5pm → Guest Lecture: Ray Lapuz, Professor of Mathematics

Ø  Location: Building 3 (Room TBA)

Ø  Topic: Mathematics in Philosophy

2.       Wednesday 10/1 4:30pm-6pm → Guest Lecture: Math Club Introduces Patricia Millán, Statistician

Ø  Location: STEM Speaker Series, Building 6-102

Ø  Topic: Careers in Math

3.       (Meeting #6) Thursday 10/2 4-5pm → Math Club Casino Kick-Back

Ø  Location: Building 9-257A

Ø  Topic: Hands-On Probability and Logic

4.       (Meeting #7) Thursday 10/9 4-5pm → Workshop: MATLAB for Math Homework

Ø  Location: Building 16-106

Ø  Topic: Math, Computer Science, and Engineering

5.       Saturday 1/10- Tuesday 1/13 → JMM (Joint Mathematics Meetings) Conference

Ø  Location: San Antonio, Texas (details TBA)

Ø  Website: http://jointmathematicsmeetings.org/jmm

Ongoing events:

6.       Best Math Shirt Ever Contest → Winner gets an undisclosed prize...

4:00-4:15	Problem of the week:   What are some other ways to solve this?
4:15-4:45	Everyone—Introductions AJ – Math Club Minutes Antonia – ASCC/ICC Update (Thank you for Friday’s back-up meeting!) Becca – T-Shirt Update: Best Math Shirt Ever Contest Is On-Going JMM Update: ASCC Funding Request Submitted Club Status Update: Club Application/Training Complete! Ryan and Lee—Commissioner of Publicity and Propagandist Update: What have you guys been up to? Come up with any more publicity/propaganda ideas? Jesus, Try, and Alexis—Update from the Treasury: Where we at with money? Everyone—What have you done with math since last week?
4:45-5:00	Mini Math Movie Night: Don’t Disturb My Circles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLZMZ-CT7YU

Week 4 - Problem of the Week!

Calc II - The Washers, the Dryers...

I wanted to share with everyone the wonderful Calc II study guide from Professor Innerst's class, which summarizes the methods of finding volumes through rotation. It may come in handy for those of you planing to take Calc II next semester.

T shirt ideas

On Friday we had a brainstorm on some ideas.  Take a look:

Official Math Club Meeting #4 Agenda (Thursday, Sept. 19th, 4-5pm)

Official Math Club Meeting #4 Agenda

Cañada College Math Club

4:00PM-5:00PM Thursday, September 18^th, 2014

Officers:

Antonia- ICC Liaison

AJ- Secretary

Try- Vice President/Co-treasurer

Rebecca- President

Jesus and Alexis- Co-Treasurers

Ryan- Commissioner of Publicity

Lee- Propagandist

You- mere minion / worker bee / mathlete drone

Website: http://CanadaCollegeMathClub.blogspot.com/

Math Club Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JLXH8W6

Upcoming events:

1.       Thursday 9/25 4-5pm Meeting #5: Guest Lecture- Professor Ray Lapuz

Ø  Location: Building 3 (Room TBA)

Ø  Topic: Mathematics in Philosophy

2.       Saturday 1/10- Tuesday 1/13 JMM (Joint Mathematics Meetings) Conference

Ø  Location: San Antonio, Texas (details TBA)

Ø  Website: http://jointmathematicsmeetings.org/jmm

4:00-4:15             

Problem of the week: TBA

Solve this problem at your own level- but what are some other ways of solving this?

4:15-4:45             

Introductions (Ice Breaker)

What is Math Club?

AJ – Math Club Minutes

Antonia – ASCC/ICC Update (Thank you for Friday’s back-up meeting!)

Becca – T-Shirt Update, JMM Update, Club Status Update

Ryan and Lee—Commissioner of Publicity and Propagandist Update

Jesus, Try, and Alexis—Update from the Treasury

4:45-5:00             

Mini Math Movie Night: TBA

Sept. 11 Meeting's Agenda (last meeting's agenda- I forgot to post!)

Official Math Club Meeting #3 Agenda

Cañada College Math Club

4:00PM-5:00PM Thursday, September 11, 2014

Officers: Antonia, AJ, Try, Rebecca

Absent: Ryan, Alexis

Website: http://CanadaCollegeMathClub.blogspot.com/

Math Club Survey:

4:00-4:15              Problem of the week

Solve this problem at your own level.  There are multiple ways to solve it.

Upon entering a tall building, you are confronted with a problem that has existed since the late nineteenth century—should you take the stairs, or the elevator? If you decide to take the stairs, it will take you 20 seconds to walk up each flight of stairs. If you decide to take the elevator, you will have to wait for 3 minutes for the elevator to arrive, after which it will take 3 seconds to move up each floor. Compute the minimum number of floors for which taking the elevator takes less time than taking the stairs.

What are some other ways of solving this?

4:15-4:20              Problem of the week winner draws raffle ticket from Club Rush to choose $50 Cheesecake factory gift cart winner.

4:20-4:30              Introductions

                                Everyone: Name, major, club position. Why are you here?

4:30-4:40              Everyone: How was Club Rush and the Math Club Bake Sale?

                                Future fundraising?

ASCC Funding?

4:40-4:45              Best Math T-shirt Ever Contest

4:45-4:50              Math Club Scholarships cannot be achieved through fundraising!!!

4:50-5:00              Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Antonio, TX (Conference, January 10^th-13^th, 2015)

http://jointmathematicsmeetings.org/jmm

5:00-6:00              Math Movie Night is tonight!!!!!!! (The Story of 1)

Sept. 11 Meeting

Sept. 11 2014

We took a few minutes to solve the problem.  One of our members solved the problem algebraically and I realized VERY quickly…that I apparently cannot multiply 60 by 3.  Word problems…are tough.  I thought it was interesting that I chose the problem because I thought there would be multiple ways to solve it.  What a misconception.

We are breaking some more ice.  If we continue to do this every week, then I am going to be forced to play “ICE, ICE, BABY.”  We had some new members attending this week.  WELCOME!!!!!!!  We always can use more members.  Did you know…one of our new member’s legal name is “The Real Captain America.”  Welcome, masked Steve Rogers.

Club Rush:  Dude…we had food.  We had charisma.  We pretty much had the campus at our fingertips.  I’m giving a huge thanks to the string of attractive men at our table.  You made some excellent choices with choosing the members that manned the table, Becca.  Also, the general male population really wanted the root beer that we were selling to be actual alcoholic beer.  Sorry, guys…unfortunately, drunkenness needs to happen off campus.

Apparently, we can now do scholarships.  The Amazing Mike has been just a wealth of information concerning this area.

Meeting on FRI??  This meeting will be about future local events.  You know…like seeing a seminar at the amazing university that is right next door to us.  I think the name is Stanford…or something.

Movie night was fun.  "The Story of One" was way funnier than I remember it.  It is campy in a Bill Nye sort of way, and not to the Dr. Who campy extreme.  It was just the right amount of silliness.  If you missed the movie...well, I am disappointed in you.  Imagine me shaking my head and "tsking" you while you read this.  Next week, we will be showing math-like clips during the meeting.  Messege to all the absentees: be there or be a geometric figure with 4 equal angles and sides.

Problem of the Week should be posted soon.  I know everyone is just inching for a new problem.  Calm down.  I will feed the addiction soon.

Aj Out!!

Inter-Club Council (ICC) Liaison Report

On Tuesday, September 9th, 2014 I attended the Inter-Club Council (ICC) Meeting that is held every other Tuesday in the Associated Students of Cañada College (ASCC) Conference Room (5-350):

Image of Agenda

As an ice breaker everyone present was to state their name, the club(s) they represented, and one thing they wanted to see happen this academic year. Answers ranged from clubs collaborating with each other to conduct upcoming events such as Dia de los muertos to the simple fact of wanting to see ALL clubs active (from yours truly). Next, roll call was taken to verify that the clubs whom have turned in their applications were present. As each representative was acknowledged, they were given the option to report on what their clubs were up to, this is what I reported on Math Club's behalf: I mentioned the days and times we met (Thursdays 4pm-5pm & Fridays 1pm-2pm), and how we were having a showing of BBC's documentary the "Story of 1" after our upcoming Thursday meeting; I also mentioned how we had just turned in our Fundraising Request to be allowed to "sale" (donations encouraged) baked goods for $1 in the STEM Center. In addition, I proudly stated that one of our goals was to make Math Club accessible to all math levels. To close it off, I proposed each member take flyers to their math classes, my mistake here was that I did not have enough for everyone therefore I left the small stack I had to ASCC's front desk so it could be view able to those interested in taking one flyer for the time being.

The next ICC meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 23, 2014 from 2:30pm to 3:30pm. Note: The meeting is open to the public, meaning anyone can show up, voice their opinions, and have an impact on how clubs interact.

-End of Report-

Math Club is getting popular

Math Club blog traffic data
Thursday, 9/11/14

Making dat paper

Stay tuned for how much money we've made so far, and to learn about what we're going to do with it :)

Problem of the Week Sept. 8

Solve this problem at your own level.  There are multiple ways to solve it.

Upon entering a tall building, you are confronted with a problem that has existed since the late

nineteenth century—should you take the stairs, or the elevator? If you decide to take the stairs,

it will take you 20 seconds to walk up each flight of stairs. If you decide to take the elevator,

you will have to wait for 3 minutes for the elevator to arrive, after which it will take 3 seconds

to move up each floor. Compute the minimum number of floors for which taking the elevator

takes less time than taking the stairs.

Sept 4, 2014 Meeting

We had a fantastic meeting.  We did some stuff and even talked about some junk, too.

The first 10 minutes were spent breaking ice.  For those people who have an image of an snow cone machine in their head, you're wrong because we don't have one.  Instead, we broke social ice by introducing ourselves.  I know it's not as cool as an ice machine.  Don't hate; we're too broke to buy one.

Prof. Hoffman (aka The Amazing Mike) introduced a game called number talk.  Number talk consists of mentally solving arithmetic problems and discussing with the group how you arrived at the answer.  I know, I know...it may sound weird...well, don't knock it until you try it.  I realized that people's brains work completely differently than mine.  We only gave The Amazing Mike 10 minutes for the exercise.  I have to say, I enjoyed cutting him off.

Next 10 minutes were all about club business.  We gave away the jar of candy to some random dude who guessed the closest amount for the guesstamation.  Awesome job, random dude!!  When we asked him how he came up with a guess, he responded with, "Yeah, so...I just averaged other people's numbers."  Honestly, that is the best strategy I have heard for anything of all time, ever.  I think random dude's name is Daniel Jimenez.  Well played, Daniel.

For the last 25 minutes, we discussed club activities, movies for movies night, and the club rush.  Next week's meeting will consist of a group problem, a math-like video, and some other junk.  After the meeting, we will be watching a math movie for the MATH MOVIE NIGHT!!!  (Imagine the capped words being said in an epic, dramatic voice)  Some ideas for the movie were:

Goodwill Hunting
PI
Proof
Stand and Deliver
Story of 1
21

There also will be a group problem posted before next week's meeting on this very blog.  You can check it out...or not...I won't lose sleep over it.  You just won't be saving the world this week. (If that last statement was confusing, check out the club motto at the top of the blog.)

BRING PACKAGED FOODS TO CLUB RUSH!!!  Also tell Becca what you are bringing, so we can put the items on some boring paperwork.  Remember the time you signed up for...or WE WILL FIND YOU!

I am going to end this blog, not with threats (only this time), but with an awesome picture of us looking (relatively) happy.

Meeting 2 Agenda

Math Club Meeting #2 Agenda

Thursday, September 04, 2014

4-5pm

Advisor: Profs. Hoffman and Tong

Officers: Antonia, Ryan, Alexis, AJ, Rebecca, Try

Attendees: Open to the public

Club information: http://canadacollegemathclub.blogspot.com/

4:00-4:10 Welcome to Math Club Meeting #2 (10 min)

Everyone: Name, major, and why you are here

4:10-4:20 Prof. Hoffman: Number Talk (10-15 min)

4:20-4:25 Rebecca: Review agenda (5 min tops)

4:25-4:35 News from the past (10 min)

AJ: Last meeting’s minutes, Blog

Everyone: Officers: How was STEM Day?

Ryan: Propaganda

Rebecca: Club application, club training, T-shirts, and voting through the Blog

Antonia: Guestamation Jar winners, community outreach and fundraising.

4:35-4:45 Back to the future

Everyone: Math Movie Night – next Thursday?

Everyone: Competition / Math Olympics

Everyone: JMM and other large field trips / conferences

Everyone: Academy of Sciences Field Trip?

4:45-4:55 Fundraising: How will we pay for it?

Everyone: Sign up to volunteer for selling baked goods next week for quick, easy profit

4:55-5:00 Next Meeting

Everyone: What you’re going to do before Thursday?

Post-STEM Day Updates

Hello Math Club Members,

Thank you Ryan, Antonia, Prof. Hoffman, AJ, Caleb, and myself (Your Lord Commander of Math Club) for the work we all did to make STEM Day happen. I really appreciated all of your efforts, since my EPIC class tutees needed my help to study for a math test, and then I myself had a math class and UC Tag workshop to attend. I think it is important that we acknowledge that our Promotional Materials Designer (I forgot his actual title, sorry everyone) Ryan, who used his connections to create professional-quality Math Club propaganda and ICC Liaison Antonia for creating additional propaganda, as well as advocating for the variety of Math Club opportunities that we will be looking into this semester. Additionally, Secretary AJ acted as our tabling spokesperson while juggling her physics homework and Robotics talk. I've attached a picture of her glorious effort.

Math Club Secretary AJ Chlarson tabling for Math Club and Robotics
Cañada College STEM Day, Sept. 3, 2014

As acting President of Math Club, I provided the materials for the Guestamation activity, which we will recycle for Club Rush next week (winners may have to wait to find out until next Thursday), Prof. Hoffman helped set up (I think?), as well as my tabling activity set-up for COLTS Academy 2014. Furthermore, Caleb provided ideas about how to make Math Club more interesting.

Take a look at all the interest in Math Club we generated: Click here to review the Club Interest sign-up sheets.

Please take this moment to take the Math Jam Survey if you have not already done so.

Also, you may want to go take the Anonymous Math Club Ballot, which is due by Friday, 9/5- that is, if you want your vote counted.

Prof. Hoffman, Secretary AJ (and hopefully VP Try?) should attempt to schedule a meeting with me before our meeting on Thursday so that we can discuss the agenda / having someone help me develop a more on-task presentation (I have a tendency to get distracted. It is called ADD.). Please email me at rreus@my.smccd.edu in order to offer your assistance. I would be so grateful.

Remember, our next meeting is Thursday, Sept. 4th, 2014 from 4-5pm. Our back-up meeting will start on Friday, Sept. 5th, 2014 from 1-2pm (assuming it is approved democratically by vote). Prof. Tong has offered to help us run the back-up meetings, since an advisor must be present for all activities.

Thank you for your participation. Remember, we're going to make Math Club fun.

Acting President Rebecca Reus

Math Club survey, data gathered, and a vote due Friday of next week (9/5)

Becca's Math Club tabling at Mini Club Rush,
COLTS Academy, Summer 2014

Hello people (executive branch here),

Math Club Survey will continue to be available at
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JLXH8W6.

You can access the results at 
https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-JF5P6D8L/.

Due to the majority of respondent's availability, I move that we adopt an additional (optional) meeting on Friday 1-2 at the STEM Center for students who cannot make the Thursday 4-5 time.

This change is pending two things: 

1. Advisor availability
2. A 50% majority vote. 

Those who do not vote by Friday will have their votes nulled. Anyone who objects must do so by Friday, 9/2 at 1pm. You can access the ballot here:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WV2LHPS.

Becca