Northeastern PRISM

After 45 years of hard work and dedication, it's time to take a well-deserved vacation! Please join the *Mathematics Department as we honor PROFESSOR THOMAS SHERMAN & wish him the best in his retirement Wednesday, October 30th, 2013 12pm-2pm in 509/511Lake Hall

*Family, Friends, & Students are welcome!

Fun Math Facts:

When you flip a coin, what are the chances that it comes up heads? If the coin is "fair" then we expect to see heads 50 percent of the time. But is this really the case?

In an interesting 2007 paper, Diaconis, Holmes, and Montgomery show that coins are not fair--- in fact, they tend to come up the way they started about 51 percent of the time!

The Math Behind the Fact:
Their work takes into account the fact that coins wobble, or precess when they are flipped: the axis of rotation of the coin changes as it moves through space. Previous work by Keller showed that a coin spun about an axis through its plane---with a vigorous throw (large spin and velocity) and caught in the hand without bouncing---actually does come up the way it started 50 percent of the time. But this coin does not precess.

On the other hand, most people flip coins with a wobble.

What Diaconis et al. showed with a theoretical model is that even with a vigorous throw, wobbling coins caught in the hand are biased in favor of the side that was up at start. The amount of biased just depends on one thing: the angle A between the perpendicular vector to the coin and the angular momentum vector (which does not change throughout the coin toss).

Then they proceed to empirically determine the distribution of angle A by observing lots of real people tossing coins and measuring A with the help a high-speed camera. This was enough to show that the bias in coin tossing was at least 1 percent.

You might be asking yourself: why bother with a theoretical model of coin flipping? Why not just ask lots of people to flip coins, look what proportion X end in the same state, and use X to estimate a "true" proportion P? The problem is that to distinguish with any confidence between 51 percent and 50 percent would take about 250,000 trials.

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Freshmen or MATH MAJORS: Create your own CAREER in SCIENCE by joining PRISM check out this web site for more information http://www.math.neu.edu/prism/

PRISM Attracting Students to Mathematics and Science through Interdisciplinary Research and... PRISMis an interdisciplinary program to promote interest in Mathematics, Physics, Biology and the sciences among college and high-school students. The goal is to engage students in the excitement of discovery and research leading to research co-op positions and further undergraduate research opportu...

Welcome Summer Discovery Experience Students!!!!

Putnam Competition on Sat. Dec. 3, 2011, in 511Lake Hall, Northeastern University!

Spring Course--INSC 1190 Exploration and Research: Biology, Mathematics, Physics, and Psychology

Mon, 01/09/2012 - 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Interested in science?

Register now for the one-credit Spring Course -- INSC 1190 Exploration and Research: Biology, Mathematics, Physics, and Psychology

Limited Enrollment!

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http://video.l3.fbcdn.net/cfs-l3-snc6/231935/967/10150180936985806_57648.mp4?oh=059eff3953d7114e509f

Prism will be hosting another study session this Tuesday from 7-9 in 509/511 Lake due to popular request! Come by for more ice cream and more brownies!

This Thursday (reading day) from 7 - 9 pm PRISM will host an open study session for students who want to study in groups with other students in science majors! There will be ice cream and brownies in 321 and 325 Churchill! Be sure to tell your friends!