University of Chicago Math Club

09/20/2022

Henceforth, the president of the math club will be known as the Prime Minister

02/14/2022

In the last post I briefly mentioned that you should go to this week's talk on elliptic curves. Let me reiterate: you should go to this week's math talk on elliptic curves. It's given by our very own Michael Klyachman, and it will be on elliptic curves in different contexts, it'll be fun! It's this Wednesday at 7PM in Eckhart 308. Make sure you see our email on the listhost to sign up!

To convince you to come, Michael has put together the following message:

02/14/2022

Breaking news in the search for even primes! Inspiring math club member Rohan Kapoor believes he has discovered something big! As a reminder, Fermat's Last Theorem states that a^n + b^n = c^n has no integer solutions for a,b,c positive integers, and it was proved by Andrew Wiles in 1995. Rohan believes that a=3599, b=120, and c=3601 is a counterexample to Fermat's Last Theorem when n is an even prime number! While he has yet to go through the entirety of Wiles' proof to see how it breaks down in this special case, we believe in him! He plans to present his findings at the next math club study break (which is not this week, as we have a talk by Michael Klyachman on elliptic curves, which you should definitely go to).

Thank you Rohan for reminding us all why the search for even primes is so important!

02/08/2022

In past years, much of our efforts in the search for even primes have not utilized modern technology to its fullest extent. So, this year, I think that I'm going to try leveraging the power of modern computing, and of course the internet. I've only just begun my search for even primes, but it already appears to be off to a great start!

(please don't look at my tabs and bookmarks, those results haven't been published yet)

01/31/2022

Happy Even Prime Month! Well, it’s still a day away, but can you blame me for being excited? This even prime month is going to be special. It’ll be the first even prime month since 1222 to take place in a year with three 2’s in the number! In fact, the date 2/22/2022 is over 85% 2’s! Maybe it’s a sign that this will be the month when we find another even prime! When was 2 discovered again? Probably right after 1…

Anyways, the opening talk of Even Prime Month will be given by none other than… me! There will be polygons, fractals, binary numbers, prime numbers, and an awful lot of 2’s. If that sounds fun to you, make sure you sign up!

01/24/2022

Hi! For those of you who are unaware, the Math Club's primary channel of communication is our listhost, which you can join at
https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/info/mathclub
if you have not joined already. In the past I have posted talk announcements here on the page, but I will no longer be doing that, or at least I will do it less frequently, and this page will be used for misc. comments. So, if you don't want to miss a meeting, sign up on our listhost!

I will at least say that this week we have a study break in room 308 of Eckhart Hall. Note that this is NOT the room we have been meeting in last quarter, so make sure you go to the right place! Also, due to covid guidelines, we will not have food. If you'd like to come, please sign up here:
https://forms.gle/jPvPYqkM8eqUG3yy6
The form will lock once we reach capacity.

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11/15/2021

Hi everyone,

Unfortunately, Leya cannot make it to the meeting this week, so I will be filling in for her. We will have a talk this week given by our very own Michael Barz on the Riemann zeta function! The talk will be given at 7PM on Wednesday, November 17th in Eckhart 202, as usual. The sign-up sheet is here.
https://forms.gle/wcwCy41gEHhbYQ3p6

Once again, the form will close once we reach maximum capacity. If Michael and the zeta function are somehow not enough to convince you to come, we will have cookies.

Title: Using the Riemann Zeta Function to Turn Number Theory Problems into Calculus Problems

Abstract: The Riemann zeta function plays an important role in number theory. The goal of this talk will be to show how to use the Riemann zeta function to prove Dirichlet's theorem, that in any arithmetic progression, either all the terms share a common factor or infinitely many of the terms are prime. Surprisingly, this very challenging problem of number theory can be converted into a problem of calculus!

I hope to see you there!

Tanner

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11/09/2021

Forwarding a message from Leya:

Hi everyone,

This week's meeting will be a study break at 7PM Wednesday in Eckhart 202. The sign-up sheet is here.
https://forms.gle/Zd1zGxXxCqzaSAkb6

Additionally, if you have any feedback on how the club is run (different meeting times? more talks? fewer talks? different types of meetings?) please fill out the feedback form here.
https://forms.gle/h3VrpejJ5MQBTiAr5

See you guys on Wednesday,

Leya

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11/01/2021

Forwarding a message from Leya:

Hi everyone,

This week's talk will be on Wednesday at 7PM in Eckhart 202, and will be given by fourth-year undergraduate Spencer Miller. The title and abstract are below, and the sign-up sheet is here.
https://forms.gle/4SUbDNFXcVah1vxA6
We will be serving cookies from Insomnia Cookies and will close the form once it goes over the room limit.

Title: Integer Partitions, Generating Functions, and the Generating Functions of Integer Partitions

Abstract: In this not-too-rigorous talk we will start by introducing the basic aspects of integer partitions and generating functions. We will then approach the task of counting integer partitions using generating functions and perhaps apply this to some interesting examples.

See you guys then,

Leya

PS: the list of winter quarter courses is out now.
PPS: Election Day is tomorrow and IL has same-day voter registration. Please vote if you can.

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10/20/2021

Hi again!

We still have plenty of space for today's talk on the cubic formula, so if you want to attend but have not signed up, please sign up here:
https://forms.gle/xkqNxnAp6mYCcDx48

The talk is at 7PM in Ekhart 202, given by fourth year graduate student Josh Mundinger.

Abstract: The quest to understand the roots of a polynomial as a function of its coefficients was the birth of group theory. We'll investigate this by deriving the cubic formula with a minimum of mysterious algebraic transformations. Prior knowledge of group theory is not required for this talk.

I hope to see you there!

Tanner

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