S. J. Miller's Pi Mu Epsilon Files
- Centennial Problems: (I'm the senior editor; James Andrews and Avery
Carr are editors): As 2013 marks the 100th anniversary of
Pi Mu Epsilon, we thought it would be
fun to celebrate with 100 problems related to important mathematics milestones
of the past century. The problems and notes below are meant to provide a brief
tour through some of the most exciting and influential moments in recent
mathematics. No list can be complete, and of course there are far too many
items to celebrate. This list must painfully miss many people's favorites. As
the goal is to introduce students to some of the history of mathematics,
accessibility counted far more than importance in breaking ties, and thus the
list below is populated with many problems that are more recreational. Many
others are well known and extensively studied in the literature; however, as
our goal is to introduce people to what can be done in and with mathematics,
we've decided to include many of these as exercises since attacking them is a
great way to learn. We have tried to include some background text before each
problem framing it, and references for further reading. This has led to a very
long document, so for space issues we split it into four parts (based on the
congruence of the year modulo 4). That said: Enjoy!
- First set of 25: years 1
modulo 4: completed:
click here for the problems.
- Second set of 25: years 2 modulo 4: in progress:
click here for the problems.
- Third set of 25: years 3
modulo 4: in progress:
- Fourth set of 25: years 4 modulo 4: in
progress:
-
If you would like to choose a year, or know someone who would, please
contact me at sjm1 AT williams.edu
- Problems for Issues: Starting with the Fall '13 issue, I'm the new
editor of the Problem Session of the
PME Journal
(starting with Spring '14 I'm also in charge of solutions).
Click here to my homepage.