One example:

Another:

More here:

## The Best Jobs of 2014

Check out CareerCast’s list of top jobs.  Here are some top jobs in which the Math/CS department at HSC can help prepare you:

1. Mathematician

2. Tenured University Professor

3. Statistician

4. Actuary

7. Software Engineer

8. Computer Systems Analyst

## New Pi Mu Epsilon Members

Congratulations to the newest members of Pi Mu Epsilon at Hampden-Sydney College!  Pi Mu Epsilon is a national mathematics honor society whose purpose is the promotion and recognition of scholarly activity among students.

From left to right:Linh Nguyen, J.D. Chaudhry, Robinson Sagar, Zack King, Tyler Williams, Branch Vincent, Sasha Obradovic, and Carson Maki.  Not pictured: Nate Shepherd

## Problem of the Month Winner

Dr. Brian Lins (left) and Linh Nguyen (right)

Solutions to this year’s Problem of the Month were presented Wednesday, April 30, 2014.  Student presenters included Casey Grimes, Shawn Stum, Michael Salita, and Francis Polakiewicz.  Professor Robb Koether also presented a solution.  Student Linh Nguyen received a cash prize for correctly solving the most number of problems for the year.  Dr. Brian Lins presented him with this prize.

## Congratulations to the new members of Pi Mu Epsilon!

Left to right: Dr. Marcus Pendergrass, Jay Iqbal, Michael Salita, Braxton Elliott, Franklin Bowers, Watt Mountcastle

Left to right: Dr. Tom Valente, Eric Gorsline, Chris Stockinger, Dr. Brian Lins

Left to right: Francis Polakiewicz, Dr. Robb Koether, Dr. Matt Willis, Grish Makarenko, Erik Schafer, Shawn Stum, JJ Strosnider

Pi Mu Epsilon is the National Mathematics Honorary Society of the United States and its purpose is to encourage scholarly mathematical activities.  We congratulate the new members and current members.  You can check out the organization at http://www.pme-math.org/.

## Want a good job? Do the Math/CS!

The very idea of a “top 5″ list is kind of mathematical, isn’t it?  Check out this list of the top 5 jobs from msnbc.com:

Four out of the five are Math/CS jobs: mathematician, actuary, statistician, and computer system analyst.

Do the Math/CS!

## Pascals Triangle in Five Colors

Here is a color image of Pascal’s triangle, with each number colored based on its value modulo 5. You can see how the pattern is self-similar like the Sierpinski gasket.

## A Neat Multiplication Trick

The following video of “Japanese” multiplication has been floating around the internet recently.

I thought it might make an interesting post to explain how it works. Every part of this trick matches exactly what you were taught to do in elementary school. Check out the following example:

The blue lines in the image above correspond to the digits of 123 and the red lines correspond to the digits of 321. The place where any two lines intersect is exactly where you were taught to put the product of the two corresponding digits. Of course, the product of two digits is the number of times their corresponding lines intersect.

If you think about it, it is easy to see that this method works for any numbers, but you wouldn’t want to multiply 987 × 789 this way! It is also not hard to see that the lines method will almost always be slower, although it might be easier for students to remember.

## The Tau Manifesto

Here is a delightful article on why

$\displaystyle \tau = \frac{C}{r} = \frac{\text{Circumference}}{\text{radius}} = 6.28318...$

would make a better fundamental constant than