NES

On a math, physics, and computer science comic strip website, I found this one about the days when NES first came out:

Of the many things that me and my two older brothers did as kids, we spent a lot of time playing the "Nintendo Entertainment System" in the basement. I vividly remember when we got this first Nintendo video game system. I'm pretty sure my oldest brother either bought it or got it as a gift. Anyway, my mom would usually get mad because we would be playing it for hours like Paperboy and Super Mario Bros.

Paperboy was by far my favorite game. The best feeling was getting past all the monsters in the sewer trying to eat me and then getting to the end obstacle course. I have to honestly say that I rarely saw that finish crowd cheering for me.



Since I am the little sister, I didn't get to play as much as my brothers and their friends did but I loved to watch. My mom ended up just saying that we could all sit in the basement becuase it kept us out of her hair.

So, having to do with the comic, I totally remember having to take the game out of the system and blowing the dust out so it would start working normal again. It's weird how that doesn't happen nearly as often now with new gaming systems.

My family still stays true to the Nintendo brand. I think we have or have had every system so far. It's pretty ridiculous. We are slowly moving into the world of XBox and stuff.

It's also pretty ridiculous that I'm talking about childhood memories like this one but I honestly have not thought of anything completely related to math for a while. So, I found this comic on a math website. That's how it relates.

The Life of a Statistician

In the book I'm reading, the life of Stella Cunliffe is described in chapter 25. Her "tart wit" got her through many hard times with much success mixed in. After the Great Depression, one of Cunliffe's two jobs was working as a statistician at Guinness Brewing Company. I find this job choice to be very interesting yet awesome for two reasons (and not for the reason you're probably thinking right now). I think it'd be a cool place to work because I could do math while in an unusual job in the first place. Also, I'd like working at the Guinness Brewing Company because I'm sure it smells just as good as the two other breweries I've visited on vacations. I love the dark, bold smell of all that grain being combusted.

Anyway, Cunliffe liked her job there because she didn't like sitting at a desk and looking at data sent to her from field scientists. She liked to go out into the agricultural side of the business and get the data for herself. The author in this section of The Lady Tasting Tea wrote something along the lines that new statisticians should follow the way Cunliffe does things. He says that important information of an experiment often gets lost in the relay of the data back to the analyzer. So, statisticians are none to do it all: getting the data, analyzing it, and telling people about it.

The next part that I find very interesting is all the people that statisticians and mathematicians deal with. Cunliffe said that she and others in her field must be flexible.
"We have to be prepared to switch from helping a microbiologist in the production of a new strain of yeast; to helping an agriculturist to assess the dung-producing qualities resulting from the intake of particular cattle fields; to discussing with a virologist the production of antibodies to Newcastle disease; to help a medical officer assess the effects on health of dust in malt stores; to advising an engineer about his experiments involving a mass-produced article moving along a conveyor belt; to applying queuing theory to the canteen; or to helping a sociologist test his theories about group behavior".

All of these other careers sound very interesting too and I wouldn't mind at all being able to still be a part of all of them even being in a totally different field.

I think it's really cool how much mathematicians get to interact with many different types of people. It's especially important because it's that much more information and resources to use in everyday work from people in different careers.

Also, along with the whole flexibility characteristic is being able to work in different areas and to be creative in any and every area of activity. I think that I could live up to all these "expectations" that are characteristically stereotypes of statisticians and mathematicians. It might take a while to get used to and comfortable with talking to so many people but I think it's definitely manageable.

xkcd.com "Boyfriend Comic"

I found this comic to be pretty relevant to my blog in general and to being a mathematician. The "Boyfriend" comic is kind of like the video I put in last week, "The Math Song". The comic shows a girl using words that basically work into everyday English conversations. And then at the end, she uses a chart which isn't as normal for people. Also, she says "I'm your statistically significant other" which people don't say but it still works out. Actually, she seems rather desperate now that I think of it. The girl is trying so hard to prove that she's the one for him. It's kind of sad...

Anyway, most people don't actually realize that they use mathematical statistics and "equations" on a normal basis. For instance, like in the comic, "...twice as much...". Or, I like to use fractions when talking about specific things. I can't think of any examples right now for that but in my AP Environmental Class, there are several interesting percentages that I like to inform friends and family of. Like how much garbage average humans put in the garbage when it could be recycled or composted.

Scientists use mathematical vocabulary when talking more than in any other profession (other than statisticians and mathematicians, etc, of course).

Math DOESN'T Suck

Contrasting my first posted video, this more serious one caught my eye. It's about a girl, Danica McKellar, who is a famous actress in hit shows like "How I Met Your Mother", is interviewed by Jim Clash. As well as being an actress, Danica is also a math major at UCLA. The part I find most interesting is that she wrote a book called "Math Doesn't Suck". It's written for girls in about middle school who would rather be reading a teen magazine than doing their math homework.

The book let's girls know that math isn't as hard as people say. I think that everyone thinks of math is really difficult just because of preconceived notion. Especially in middle school I could see how this would be a good book to have been written. In middle school, kids want to do what's "cool" or what is said to be easy. From the beginning, people have thought math to be only for geniuses so I guess that just kind of stuck. The book by Danica is about how if you take it step by step, math isn't so bad. It's totally doable.

Danica McKellar started out being an actress and then started taking classes at UCLA. She enrolled in a mathematics course and excelled. A guy behind her one day tapped her on the shoulder and recognized her as the girl from TV and the girl that had the best grade in the math class. He conversed with her about it. That's when she decided that math was her calling. I wish that an occurrence like that would happen so that I know mathematics is what I do or don't want to study. I want an epiphany about math.

I like how Danica can have so many different abilities and have a career for all of them. I kind of want to have a life like hers. She gets to help people through her writings, entertain people on TV and in movies, and even be student in a field that she enjoys. Since I want to continue playing my cello, but not as a major, I think that it will be the equivalent to her being in movies. It's my own special way of entertaining myself and sometimes others (even though orchestra music is usually boring). I thoroughly enjoy playing and improving my skills.

Not many people think that movie stars are good at anything other than acting. Danica definitely isn't a typical person of this generalization.

Women Mathematicians

It is good timing that our perspectives class is currently learning about women in the workforce. Last night I read the part in my book called The Lady Tasting Tea where the author, David Salsburg discusses famous women in history's mathematics accomplishments. The contributions of the specific important women were, oddly enough, not talked about until page 197 out of 309 pages.

The reason for this domination of men is because women weren't really the "brains" of mathematics at first. Many women interested in math were hired to do detailed calculations in the field and were even called "computers". They mainly did the tedious work of the hand-crank calculators. The women got this kind of work because they are generally known to be more patient to check and recheck the accuracy of the math more than men possibly would.

Indeed, women were basically the background of all the work like in pictures of famous mathematician Karl Pearson. But actually, I think that they were ones of the most essential parts of the field. Without the women doing calculations, there could possibly be no improvement of mathematical theories.

This changed in the twentieth century because of Jerzy Neyman. He greatly supported the work of women and helped them publish papers, etc. Only about 30% of statistical journals have women contributors.
This was about the same time that Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa officially had a complete statistics department. It was the first in the United States to be full-fledged. Gertrude Cox, an excellent scientist in the math department and beloved teacher, was involved in starting an alike statistics section at Iowa State’s sister school, North Carolina State at Raleigh. Gertrude wanted to make sure that she was on the list among ten men that also contributed to the department’s creation. The writer of the letter with the list of people was written by George Snedecor who almost forgot to include her but in the end added this: “These are the ten best men I can think of. But, if you want the best person, I would recommend Gertrude Cox.”

This was just one of the many times that women have been “forgotten” because most people in that time were not used to women working with such great prominence in a certain field, especially mathematics.

Wartburg Mathematical Studies

As I look at the long list of required courses for a mathematics major at the college I am planning on attending, I am quite overwhelmed. How am I going to finish all those classes in four years????

But, I love the simple yet satisfying description of the Wartburg mathematics program:
"The mathematics program helps students understand the structure
of mathematics, demonstrate skills, solve problems, and apply
mathematics in meaningful vocations and services."

I enjoy the applied side of math especially if I could pursue a career with something involving the environment. I am greatly enjoying my AP Environmental Science class right now and I am looking forward to researching possible careers in that area.

The US Census

I'm officially over half way done reading "The Lady Tasting Tea" and so far, it has been full of many aspects of math in the world. The most recent part of the book that I've read is about the event that is actually happening now: the US Census. This happens every year and everyone is required to fill it out or else a governmental official kind-of guy comes to your door.

Anyway, this confidential data is used to find the current population of a place. It also serves the purpose of allocating congressional apportionment, electoral votes allowed for each state, and government funding programs. I learned in government class this term that the congressional apportionment is how the state is split up for representatives based on the census' population for a specified area. A representative is assigned for a certain amount of people. States that are less populated have less representatives all together like Vermont. States with a larger population have more representatives for a smaller land area like California and New York.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics also uses the census information and data. They use the census to analyze pay and benefits, employment, unemployment, etc.

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis also uses the 10-year census for the planning of future sources of good economic growth.

All of these bureaus include many statisticians and mathematicians hard at work for the economic and environmental well-being of our nation.

I am thankful for the US Census because it shows that the government does care about the people and is trying to make sure we're all secure in the economy and that government officials are fairly distributed. But, it's good that the census survey is only taken every ten years so that the government is not taken too big of a part in our lives.