Theme Announced for Mathematics Awareness Month April 2008: "Mathematics and Voting"
Alexandria, VA (PRWEB) January 3, 2008 -- The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM) today announced "Mathematics and Voting" as the theme for Mathematics Awareness Month 2008.
In a presidential election year, the term "voting" brings to mind national elections. Candidates are vying for attention in debates and primaries, polls are taking the pulse of the electorate, blogs are offering opinions on everything candidates say, and, ultimately, a general election leads to the selection of the next President of the United States. Many citizens are deeply engaged in these processes; others pay varying degrees of attention.
Mathematics, Statistics and Voting
Regardless of their involvement, however, most people wonder at some point: "Does my vote matter? Is the election process fair? Are the votes being counted correctly?" The answers to these questions are incredibly complex, but, fortunately, mathematics and statistics provide the means to deal with the complexity of how votes are cast and counted and how that influences the outcome. For example, statistics provides ways to identify, measure, and address sources of error, and mathematics provides insights into the effect of different voting systems on the outcome of an election.
Voting is not just about electoral politics, however; it's part of everyday life. "Voting" is something that happens in many contexts not related to politics. In any situation in which preferences are expressed--where to have dinner, how to raise money for a charity, who makes the team, etc.--voting in some way occurs. Surprisingly, different voting systems often yield different outcomes.
Resources for this year's Mathematics Awareness Month are designed to help explain what makes these votes matter, as well as how the voting system used affects the outcome, regardless of the context of the voting. At www.mathaware.org, you can view and/or download these articles and essays, as well as a copy of the 2008 poster, "What Makes My Vote Matter?"
About Math Awareness Month and JPBM
Mathematics Awareness Month, held each year in April, was created to increase public understanding of and appreciation for mathematics. It began in 1986, when President Reagan issued a proclamation establishing National Mathematics Awareness Week. Activities for Mathematics Awareness Month generally are organized on local, state and regional levels by college and university departments, institutional public information offices, student groups, and related associations and interest groups.
The JPBM is a collaborative effort of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), the American Statistical Association (ASA), the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).
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Theme Announced for Mathematics Awareness Month April 2008: "Mathematics and Voting"
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Casino games and mathematics. Part 3.
After one more year Thorp published a book (I mentioned it at the beginning of the article) in which he rather in details, in the form comprehensible to any even a slightly literate and sensible person, set the rules of formation of a winning strategy. But the publication of the book did not only cause a quick growth of those willing to enrich themselves at the cost of gambling houses' owners, as well as allowed the latter ones to understand the main reason of effectiveness of the developed by Thorp strategy.
Casino games and mathematics. Part 1.
Can the knowledge of mathematics help a gambler to win?
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Casino games and mathematics. Part 2.
Thorp managed to find out that owners of gambling houses gave their officials rather strict directions with regard to the strategies which they should stick to in the game with visitors. Control over fulfillment of these directions had its initial aim to prevent from a frame-up of a croupier with the rest of the gamblers, a chance of which could not be excluded. Assigned for a croupier strict rules determining his game strategy really substantially reduced a probability of such a frame-up, but on the other hand, allowed an ?advanced? gambler to rather adequately reveal the essence of this strategy and effectively oppose it. For unlike a croupier a gambler needn't show the first of the received cards, as well as isn't enchained by any strict...