Category: Math

Amherst College Science Center

Can Math be Magical? A Mathemagician Shows How

A flow diagram: The letter N has an arrow pointing up toward N+X and down toward N-X. The resultant for the top is funneled into subtracting X2 from N2-X2, resulting in an isolated N2. The top text says, "WHY? Algebra: (N+X)(N-X) = N2-X2.

By Bibi Hanselman and Bryan Shi On October 16, the Science Center lobby buzzed with a lively atmosphere, packed with students enjoying snacks as they huddled around several of their peers and watched them pull off a variety of card tricks. But among these performers was the true star of the show: Dr. Arthur Benjamin,…

Unveiling the Intriguing World of Curvature and Polyhedra 

By Albina Jambulatova Muratovna  Mathematics often leads us on a voyage into the unknown, where seemingly abstract ideas turn out to be glimpses into the underlying principles of our world. For example, the pine cone is a natural wonder that exhibits a mesmerizing spiral pattern. This spiral arrangement is a striking example of the Fibonacci…

The Beauty Behind Mathematics and Communities: An Interview with Professor Moore

Katherine Moore is a visiting assistant professor of mathematics who came to Amherst this year. She received a Ph.D. in mathematics at Dartmouth College and was a postdoc at Wake Forest University. This fall, she is teaching courses in Calculus and Linear Algebra. What did you do before you started teaching here at Amherst, and…

The Math and the History Behind the Archimedean Solids

In his colloquium “Polyhedra: Plato, Archimedes, Euler,” Professor Robert Benedetto explains the mathematical history of the Archimedean solids – which include geometric forms like the truncated icosahedron, very reminiscent of a soccer ball but with flat faces instead of imposed on a spherical surface – and the proof that defines this set of 13 polyhedra….

The Life of a Putnam Student

The ,William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is the preeminent mathematics competition for undergraduate college students, consisting of two 3-hour sessions, with 6 problems each. The exam is so difficult that the median score is usually only 0 or 1 out of 120. Ethan Spingarn, a sophomore at Amherst College, participated in the 2019 Putnam Competition…