MATH 180 - FS: First-Year Seminar

Credits: 3-4

Winter 2019, MATH 180A-01: FS: Close Encounters with the Impossible (3). First-year Seminar. Prerequisite: First-Year class standing only. Are you the type of person who embraces the contradictory?  Is the word “impossible” not in your vocabulary? Would it surprise you to learn that you are keeping good company with, wait, hold your breath, mathematicians? Don’t mathematicians shun contradictions and the impossible? Well some of the greatest discoveries in mathematics were the result of flirting with the contradictory (parallel lines meet, giving rise to perspective in art) and the impossible (the fourth dimension, curved space, infinity … ). Would you like to learn how to take a solid ball, cut it up into six pieces and, without deforming or changing the shape of any of those pieces, put them back together to get TWO solid balls, each the same size as the original? 2 = 1?!  You don’t need to be traditionally mathy (the Urban Dictionary says “mathy” is a word) to enjoy this course. (SC) McRae.

Spring 2019, Math 180-01: FS:A Brief Voyage to the 4th Dimension (4). First-Year Seminar. Prerequisite: First-Year class standing and MATH 102 or equivalent. A beginning look at the geometry of 4-dimensional Euclidean space, including learning some tools for studying 4-dimensional objects, and beginning to understand the difficulties in “seeing” such objects. Students also begin measuring in this 4-dimensional setting. The last week of the course is devoted to group projects and presentations. (SC) Humke.