Ethics and Math?

A journalism department colleague sent me email expressing concerns about something I am allowing or suggesting members of my class do. The substance of our discussion and disagreement has nothing to do with math, but it did get me thinking.

Is there an ethics of math?

Is there a philosophy of math?

Do any of the questions that those of who live in a qualitative or aesthetic world ask a hundred times a day have any place in the world of math?

I hear mathematicians talk about "beauty" but what are they really thinking about. Same with elegance.

There are, of course right and wrong answers to problems or equations. But do the notions of "right" and "wrong" in a moral sense have any place at all when examining the world through a mathematical lens?

Do pure mathematicians find religious meaning in some numbers?

I'd love to get Prof. Saari on the phone and ask him.

I'd love to get back in touch with Paul Niquette. He thinks about these things.

I guess, now, so do I.

Understanding Change

I went in for my annual physical this morning. Dr. James Reifschneider asked me what I was up to. Among other things, I told him about taking algebra.

He became more interested than usual.

Then he gave me a lecture about how, in his view, you simply cannot begin to grasp change or the nature of change unless you could understand calculus. He said whether it's about biology, astronomy, physics, or whatever, you need calculus to have a clue about what's going on.

He went on to say that earlier in the year he had purchased a book called Calculus for Dummies and was working his way through it.

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Meanwhile, back in class, we had another test and I think I did pretty well. Afterward Prof. John said that I might be in the lead for "most improved player." I got a good laugh out of that because Seth says that is probably the least coveted award -- in the sports world anyway.

Pushing on

(Slow) Progress

I've been thinking and doing more about learning math and less about posting during the past week. Even though I did well on the last test, this week, I felt like I was falling behind.

I spent way too much time at the computer doing practice exercises.

As a result, I now get it about "rational expressions and functions" and "complex rational expressions" and "rational equations" and "division of polynomials."

We have a test on Monday covering all that plus factoring and inequalities.

I'm doing and understanding things that I didn't even know existed back at the end of August. I'm enjoying that, but just so that it doesn't go to my head, Seth reminds me that I am working on about the same stuff that his high school freshmen and sophomores are doing in his classes. However, I point out to him, they are the smart freshmen and sophomores. The ones that aren't in his classes are taking this same stuff with me as high school freshmen.

Just to turn up the pressure, everyone taking Pima College math 122 got an email telling us that if we don't get a "C" or better in this class, we won't be eligible to enroll in college algebra at the University of Arizona.

Perfectionism (not)

As the numbers or equations or functions get more and more intimidating, or at least scarier looking, I'm actually understanding what I need to so. I can set problems up and I know what has to go where, but still, too often, I mess up my arithmetic. I'm not sure I'm getting any better at that.

I've never been a perfectionist and never needed to be. Generally, I think it is a waste of time. You can get lots more done if everything you do doesn't have to be perfect. But in math, it seems to matter. I'm wondering (hoping?) if you get beyond a certain point, it stops mattering, and how you approach a problem matters more. That's one of the reasons I'm curious about calculus. I don't know anything at all about calculus, but in imagining, it doesn't seem that it is precise, that it can give one right answer. Otherwise, why would they need it? Or, I wonder whether most people who use calculus believe an outcome to be the one right answer based on faith rather than fact. I can't wait to find out in a couple of years.

A fun book

I've come across another book (recommended by Marcy, my UA math advisor). It's called The Joy of Mathematics: Discovering Mathematics All Around You. It contains 228 bite sized stories about things you might or might not have been curious about, all from a mathematical perspective.

Things I'm not doing

I called my aunt, Harriet Rochlin, to wish her a happy 85th birthday. She is finishing a book about Jewish women. She has speaking commitments. She has an ongoing research agenda. She says she doesn't have a moment to just reflect and says he hopes that someday she will.

The more I get into this math adventure, the more I feel my list of things to do grow. Mostly little things, some bigger. Here's what I need to do, but haven't (just about this small part of my life):

1. Work on a book proposal about math for journalists.
2. Think about a book about a complete beginner learning about math.
3. Write to Prof. Saari to ask about all kinds of things, and just get a correspondence going.
4. Thank Dr. Jerry for having lunch with me and sharing his story. And ask him whether we could have a formal interview sometime so I can get details on tape and share them with you.
5. Email Prof. Velez to ask for a visit or lunch to talk about math
6. Email Prof. Alexander to ask whether he would be willing to share his story about how a submarine commander became a math professor.
7. Thank Marcy again for visiting with me and being such a good advisor.
8. Get accepted to the University of Arizona again so I can sign up for Math 112, college algebra, for spring semester.
9. Read The Joy of Mathematics
10. Read How to Lie with Statistics
11. Read Math Tools for Journalists
12. Read Numbers in the Newsroom
13. Learn more about my fancy HP calculator
14. And Post to this Blog more frequently

Then, there is tomorrow's test to prepare for.

Mars and More - Dr. Jerry

Dr. Gerard Droege

Friday I enjoyed meeting and having a fascinating lunch with Dr. Gerard Droege, a fellow old guy taking math as an undergraduate.

Hopefully, I'll do a real interview with him sometime, so I'll give a full report then, but I just wanted to introduce him now. Some of the facts here might not be exactly correct because I didn't tape our conversation or even take notes.

Jerry looks to be in his early 50s with already grey hair but a young looking face. He still has young skin. He probably didn't spend much time in the sun as a young guy. He comes on gentle, reserved, but confident and happy enough. I liked him immediately when he came to my office before lunch.

Jerry spend most of his medical career as a small town OBGYN on the east coast. For years he was the only OB in his county and pretty much everyone who needed help, counted on him to be there. He said he never got a full night's sleep. At minimum, there would be phone calls, but often enough he had to head to the county hospital. The baby wouldn't wait.

He spent some time in San Diego working with the poor, but that got difficult once California passed a resolution forbidding Medicaid from paying for the delivery and births of children born to undocumented people.
During all this time Jerry kept up a fascination with math and astronomy.

Finally, after too many sleepless nights and too many hours spent just earning enough money to pay next year's insurance premiums, Jerry decided to go after a dream he was still forming.

But, he knew the dream had to do with math and astronomy. That's how he got to Arizona.

After 22 years in full time practice, Jerry quit medicine on Dec. 31. (If he worked even one day during the following year, the insurance would have cost him $100,000.) On the advice of a trusted scientist friend Jerry decided to apply to the University of Arizona as an undergraduate math major. He was accepted for the fall semester.

Jerry, who is not married and doesn't have children, took a little time to wrap things up and headed to Costa Rica. He spent six months on the beach reading math books and studying about astronomy.

He came to Tucson and registered for calculus. He had taken it in college, but figured he needed a refresher.

Just as he landed in Tucson, the Phoenix Mars Mission was getting under way. Jerry wanted to be part of it. With what I imagine was a perfect combination of chutzpah and naivety, Jerry went to mission headquarters and asked for a job.

Probably realizing there was not that great a need for a burned out OBGYN at mission control, the folks there turned him down.

But, as luck (and good thinking) would have it, Jerry came across a grant to fund students to work in the sciences and astronomy. He applied and won.

He went back and said he had secured his own funding and really wanted to be part of the Mars team. Would they hire him? This time, the answer was yes.

So, Jerry has had quite a ride. He became in integral part of the team with real responsibilities. He says, four or so years ago neither he nor any of his friends or colleagues could have imagined that he would be part of the group responsible for landing a satellite on Mars to search for life.

Nor could he have even begun to imagine that, on the surface of Mars, along with seven others is the name, Gerard Droege inscribed on a sheet of gold.