Suppose this blog’s editor Ursula and I want to create a shared secret to use as a password to access this blog post... Lattices, Plane and Not-So-Plane Courtney Gibbons Hamilton College In January 2023, Bill Casselman wrote a great column introducing readers to lattices that imagined them as vectors inRead More →
The nuts and bolts of what I do when thinking about math are very similar to the nuts and bolts of thinking about a policy problem… Math Meets Congress Or, A Mathematician Goes to Washington Courtney Gibbons Hamilton College Thanks to the American Association for the Advancement of Science andRead More →
Polynomials, it turns out, are useful for more than just input-output assignments! Perspectives on Polynomials (it’s a witch!) Courtney Gibbons Hamilton College It was a dark and stormy night… Okay, it was probably more like 3:30 in the afternoon on a crisp fall day back when I was teaching CalcRead More →
I’m pretty sure the etiquette of puzzle creation insists that a “good” puzzle has a unique solution—but bear with me! I promise I’m breaking the rules of etiquette for a good reason! Applied Algebra A Variety Show Courtney Gibbons Hamilton College My interest in applied algebra was a long timeRead More →
What is a prime, and who decides? Some people view mathematics as a purely platonic realm of ideas independent of the humans who dream about those ideas. If that’s true, why can’t we agree on the definition of something as universal as a prime number? Courtney R. Gibbons Hamilton CollegeRead More →