08s-09
JOY OF DOING MATH

Kazunori KIKUCHI (School of Science)

Objective
  Mathematics is not only a school subject but also a set of wonderful ideas on numbers, shapes and motions. Such ideas help people think fundamentally about things both in academic studies and in daily lives. And using such ideas, or doing math, is great fun for almost all people, even if they are not good at math at school. The purpose of this course is to help students understand mathematical ideas, use them and enjoy doing math. The selected topics are elementary, but the included ideas are useful at any level in any academic study. This course introduces students of any major to the joy of doing math.

Textbook
  No particular textbooks are used; materials will be provided at each class.

Lecture Outline
  1. Introduction
  2. Secrets in times tables
  3. Quizzes about decimals
  4. Games with fingers
  5. Puzzles of logic
  6. Riddles and visualization
  7. Measuring areas on a sphere
  8. Measuring the volume of a cone
  9. Calculating pi with needles
  10. Counting the number of a set
  11. Arithmetic in calendars
  12. Algebra in music
  13. Analysis of vowels
  14. Geometry with origami
  15. Summary
  (The content and the order may be changed in part.)

Grading
  Class participation 20%
  Essays 40%
  Term paper 40%