Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for February 19, 2006 DO THE MATH

As an "old" math teacher, gotta share this article on the "new math"...the math that is "hot" and "sexy"!

Don't know if I can relate to that, but when I got to the last line of the article...

Calculate this: Math is hot

By Eric Hand
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Two Washington University mathematicians are spending their Friday morning in a windowless basement room, discussing the twisted doughnut shape they've drawn on a whiteboard.

"Is this a knot or an un-knot?" asks shaggy-haired Aaron Wiechmann, 26, a low-dimensional topologist dressed in jeans and a brown hooded sweatshirt.

Brad Henry, 25, in a gray hoodie, leans back in a chair and ponders the scribbled symbols. The smell of dry-erase markers hangs in the air.

Math is tough. But as evidenced by the explosion of references in movies and on TV, math is also quite hot.

Whether mathematicians are now cool is another question.

"We're actually very good, socially," Henry said.

Changing the public perception of mathematics is one of the topics this weekend at a conference hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general science society. The group's annual meeting brought about 9,000 scientists, policy makers, educators and others to St. Louis.

Washington University professor Steven Krantz says perceptions have already changed.

"It's partly because so many aspects of life demand math," he said.

On Friday, he took a break from a theorem involving a four-dimensional space called the "worm domain." He left a mostly empty room - chairs, chalk, chalkboard - and returned to his playfully cluttered office.

He says it's easy to see evidence of other scientists' work: beakers and petri dishes, circuit boards and computer programs. But many mathematicians still use pen and paper. Most of Krantz's best work goes on in his mind, while on walks through Forest Park, while watching animals at the Zoo.

That is changing, says Krantz. More is done on the computer. More is done in collaboration. And theorems once bound in dusty journals are finding real-world application in business and government. Popular culture has noticed.

John Nash, the protagonist in the movie "A Beautiful Mind," invents game theory. A math genius in the movie "Pi" uses chaos theory to figure out the forces guiding the stock market.

The TV show "NUMB3RS" is in its second season. The main character, a mathematician played by actor David Krumholtz, helps his older brother solve crimes for the FBI.

Show creator Cheryl Heuton recalled a phone call from executives after the series began: "They said, 'We here at CBS have reached the consensus that David Krumholtz is sexy.'"

Ravindra Girivaru, at Washington University, isn't quite sure if "sexy" always applies. His long hair ran into the open neck of his untucked short-sleeved shirt. He wore New Balance sneakers, a favorite among hipsters.

"Are we better dressed now than before? I don't know about that," he said. "But people are probably getting better paid."

Wall Street has wanted mathematicians for decades, ever since a single formula, discovered in 1970, revolutionized options pricing and the derivatives market. Google recruits mathematicians with billboard teasers that read ".com". Similar to pi, e is an irrational number that begins with 2.718 and goes on forever.

Krantz says he made $15,000 consulting for Natoli Engineering, a St. Charles company that makes molds for drug companies' pills. He calculated precise volumes for unusual pill shapes.

Companies paid people with doctorates in math a median salary of $81,700 in 2004, 53 percent more than the median 1975 salary of $53,300 (in 2004 dollars), according to the American Mathematical Society annual survey.

Businesses want math majors, not necessarily for their specific research but because they see people that can solve hard problems, Wiechmann said.

After he finishes his Ph.D., Wiechmann wants a job at the FBI. He has already interned with the National Security Agency, which needs mathematicians to encrypt and decrypt data.

In the basement room, Wiechmann leaned on a desk as talk drifted to a party planned for Saturday night.

"Are we getting a keg?" Henry asked.