A Cool Story About India's Human Computer Shakuntala Devi

                                                            The video I have attached, that I found on YouTube shows an interview of the astounding Indian mathematician, Shakuntala Devi. When watching the video, there were two main points that stuck out to me.
One of the amazing talents that this woman has is the ability to tell people what day of the week they were born on.  This is shown two times throughout the interview.  Anyone can tell her their date of birth and she can almost immediately calculate what day of the week they were born on.  Although this could be seen as impractical, I think that it is a very neat talent, and I would be interested to tell her my date of birth and see what she says! 

The second thing that intrigued me the most was Shakuntala's goal to inspire others, specifically young adults.  During the interview she talks about her experiences with speaking to high school and college age students who may not have very good mathematical backgrounds.  She expresses the joy it brings to her when the students get so excited and interested in math.  It would be an honorable privilege to get to watch this woman talk about her passion in person.  She inspired me through a five minute video, so I cannot imagine how inspirational she must be in person, for even a half hour talk.

I admire Shakuntala because she has taken her passion, and ran with it.  She is using her abilities and passions to change the world.  Her mind boggling calculations make people think.  She is changing people's perspectives and thought processes. Shakuntala is truly an example of someone making an impact through their strengths. 
Shakuntala is an astoundingly intelligent and admirable woman, who is changing the math world for the better.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Mathematicians Are Born, Not Made. (My argument against)

After reading Ms. Mariner's post, and then reading the interview, something got to me.  I looked again at the few things Ms. Mariner listed at the beginning of her blog, as something that we might choose to write on.  I had never thought about this statement before, but now that I have thought about it, I seem to have a strong opinion that goes against the statement.  The statement, as seen in the title is: Mathematicians are born, not made.

I disagree with this statement.  Yes, I believe that people are born with unique gifts and talents.  I believe that it is possible for someone to be gifted in math. However, I also believe that with hard work and determination anyone can master anything.  It may not come easily, but in order to be a true expert at anything, you have to have drive.  Mathematicians are pro math doers.  It takes drive to get to the level of knowledge about math that they have.  In this aspect, mathematicians are similar to athletes.  Cristiano Ronaldo (a very good professional soccer player) was not born a great soccer player.  Yes, one could argue he is gifted, but that gift is not what makes him a professional soccer player.  Lindsey Vonn is an excellent skier for the US Women's Olympic team.  She was not born knowing how to ski race.  She may have been gifted, but again, that doesn't make her a great skier.  Her drive and determination to be excellent, is what makes her that way.  Going back to mathematicians, they have to have the drive, the passion. If they have the gift, but they have no passion, they WILL NOT be successful.

The man who possesses passion with no gift, will be far more successful than the man who possesses gift with no passion.

Secret, or Not so Secret, Math

At first when Mrs. Mariner asked us where we use math in secret, my mind went blank.  To be honest, I really enjoy math, but the whole "apply what you learn" thing, doesn't usually cross my mind when I am going on about life.  I wish I thought that way, but I'm not THAT smart (; After these thoughts finished crossing my mind, I thought about the question again.

Somewhere that I definitely use math or see math being used, is in ski racing.  I ski race on a competitive ski team that competes at United States Ski Association races.  For my age group, there are certain rules that MUST be followed for these races.  One of the things that is important when choosing a ski that will fit the requirements and provide you maximum success, is the turn radius of the ski.

 For example, for slalom, you do not want to have a ski with a too  turn radius.  In slalom, the gates are closer together and you want to make tighter, quicker turns.  Therefore, you have to make sure that the slalom ski you purchase has the right sized turn radius.  Contrary to a small turn radius, for Giant Slalom, you can have a ski with a smaller turn radius.  Giant Slalom is just what it sounds like it is.  The gates are much farther apart than in slalom and you have more time to make larger turns.

Turn radii are very important in ski racing.  This is a way that math applies to my life that I had not recognized until now.  It is kind of cool to see that something I am so passionate about has math involved in many ways, one of those being what I just talked about.

Grades and Slopes

To be honest, when I read Ms. Mariner's 9% grade post, I wasn't sure where to even remotely begin my own post.  Even when she offered for us to write about the triples, I was stumped.  When reading the math illiteracy post, I almost immediately could think of a creative way to respond.  The 9% post however, was the opposite experience.  That's okay though, because it is good to have to think about things!

Before reading the post, I would have never thought that the grade of hills, ramps, or roads could be a "discussion topic."  It is something that I never really put any thought into whatsoever!  However, once you get your mind thinking, it is a very important aspect of building things such as ramps and roads.  If the grade of a road is too high, cars will not be able to safely make it up and down the road.  If the grade of a ramp, particularly for disabilities, is too high, people that are originally trying to have easier access to wherever they are trying to go, cannot make it up the ramp.

In relation to trigonometry, grade is very similar.  Specifically, the angle of elevation is a huge factor.  The angle of elevation is something that, using trigonometry, we can somewhat easily solve for when provided with the proper information.  Angle of elevation is a large factor in grade because it is how much the new slope is "raised up," from the previous ground level. 

In this picture from the wikipedia site that Ms. Mariner directed us to, you can see that a trigonometrical function that comes into play is the tangent (opposite divided by adjacent).  If you know the angle of elevation and one of the legs, you can solve for the other leg. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grade_dimension.svg 

In the picture, grade is presented as a right triangle.  Woah! That's what we are studying! Hmm.  Could that maybe, possibly have to do with anything at all?
In the picture, the road is the hypotenuse of the right triangle.  The previous ground level is one leg, and the distance from the previous ground level to the slope is the other leg.  We can use the tangent to find the length of the hypotenuse, thus finding how much the slope increases (or decreases depending on your perspective), in a certain distance.

Grades are an interesting topic that I had never put much thought into before, but I am glad that I had the opportunity to now! 

Why are American Citizens so Ignorant Towards Simple Math?

In Ms. Mariner's post about math illiteracy, she brought up some everyday points that I had never thought about before.  One would think that simple things such as 4 quarters (not 3) makes a whole or 100% is the maximum would be easy concepts for someone to grasp.  It amazes me how our society is ignorant to such simple intelligence.  A relatable topic, although not related to math, is when people cannot use simple grammar correctly.  This shows up in speech, but even more so in text messages.  I try my best to send grammatically correct texts and naturally, I do not and have never used any of the text slang such as "u," "lol," "jk," or things of the sort.  In the same manner, our society puts little effort into being mathematically correct.

One large reason that I think we brush off being mathematically correct is because a lot of people do not think that math applies.  They do not think that it is useful.  These (ironically) are the people who cannot do simple math!  However, the issue is not that the math does not apply, it is that people in today's society do not apply it correctly. 

Calculators and other technologies that do simple math for us are magnificent luxuries, but I believe that they also hurt our ability to do simple math.  I appreciate the teachers who, rather than saying "Pull out your calculator!" when figuring out a fairly simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division problem, say "Do it in your head!"  Haviing the ability to do simple mental math is another way that we can apply math to our everyday lives.

It is all about the application.

My First Blog!

In response to the "Jammnpeaches" blog:

I really enjoyed reading this post! It was an interesting task to think about how this might apply to math class.  I believe that an important aspect of the story was that you never know what is going to happen, so why not try it?  When solving a problem in math, do not just give up right away.  You have to give it a try.  You never know what may or may not work, unless you have tried it! I believe that this story was shared so that we can set the tone for an open hearted, willing to try attitude from the beginning of math.  That was super neat!

Math and Me:

Sometime towards the beginning of last year, I decided that I liked math, a lot. Most people, when asked what their favorite subject is, will respond with the subject that they are most successful at.  If you were to ask me what my favorite subject is, I will tell you math.  However, I then will proceed to tell you that math is not my best subject.  For me, there is a big difference.

I thoroughly enjoy math, because, well, it makes me feel smart.  I love the feeling of finding a solution, especially after trying (and failing) many times before.  I like math because it really makes me think.  There are so many ways to get to a result, and I find it simply fascinating to explore the endless possibilities that lead people to (usually) the same result.  It is so neat to see how other people's minds work and when you listen to their ideas and solutions that are different from yours, you will find that you are both correct, even though you reached a solution in ways completely unique from each other.

Last school year, I struggled with Algebra.  I got by with an easily passing grade; however I never fully understood everything that I was taught.  When we moved into Geometry in semester 2, it immediately clicked with me.  Although this is very different from most of my peers, I love proofs.  I love thinking through it logically, and seeing it all make sense.  It gives me a grand sense of accomplishment, when I can find one, or even two or more ways to prove something.

Math may not be easy for me, but it absolutely fascinates me!