Madison Math Circle

For the site in Spanish, visit Math Circle de Madison

What is a Math Circle?

The Madison Math Circle is a weekly series of mathematically based activities aimed at interested middle school and high school students. It is an outreach program organized by the UW Math Department. Our goal is to provide a taste of exciting ideas in math and science. In the past we've had talks about plasma and weather in outer space, video game graphics, and encryption. In the sessions, students (and parents) are often asked to explore problems on their own, with the presenter facilitating a discussion. The talks are independent of one another, so new students are welcome at any point.

The level of the audience varies quite widely, including a mix of middle school and high school students, and the speakers generally address this by considering subjects that will be interesting for a wide range of students.

After each talk we'll have pizza provided by the Mathematics Department, and students will have an opportunity to mingle and chat with the speaker and with other participants, to ask questions about some of the topics that have been discussed, and also about college, careers in science, etc.

The Madison Math Circle was featured in Wisconsin State Journal: check it out!

All right, I want to come!

Our in person talks will be at, Monday at 6pm in 3255 Helen C White Library, during the school year. New students are welcome at any point! There is no fee and the talks are independent of one another. You can just show up any week, but we ask all participants to take a moment to register by following the link below:

Math Circle Registration Form

All of your information is kept private, and is only used by the Madison Math Circle organizer to help run the Circle.

If you are a student, we hope you will tell other interested students about these talks, and speak with your parents or with your teacher about organizing a car pool to the UW campus. If you are a parent or a teacher, we hope you'll tell your students about these talks and organize a car pool to the UW (all talks take place in 3255 Helen C White Library, on the UW-Madison campus, right next to the Memorial Union).

Fall Schedule

Fall Schedule
Date	Location and Room	Speaker	Title
Oct 7	3255 College Library	Caitlin Davis	How to Cut a Cake (Fairly)
Oct 14	3255 College Library	Uri Andrews	Math, Philosophy, Psychology, and Artificial Intelligence
Oct 21	3255 College Library	Sam Craig	Fractal geometry and the problem of measuring coastlines
Oct 28	3255 College Library	Cancelled	Cancelled
Nov 4	3255 College Library	Sam Craig	Proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, new and old.
Nov 11	3255 College Library	Chenxi Wu	Heron’s method for approximating square roots
Nov 18	3255 College Library	Diego Rojas	Non-Transitive Dice: The Math That Doesn’t Play Fair
Nov 25	3255 College Library	Kaiyi Huang	A geometric investigation into a space shuttle failure
Dec 2	3255 College Library	TBA	TBA
Dec 9	3255 College Library	TBA	TBA
Dec 16	3255 College Library	TBA	TBA

Fall Abstracts

Abstract 10/7

Caitlin Davis

Title: How to Cut a Cake (Fairly)

Imagine you and a friend are sharing a cupcake. How can you cut the cupcake so that each of you gets your fair share? If you've ever shared a cupcake (or some other treat) with a friend, you might have an answer! Now what if you're sharing a cake with several friends? Can we use the same strategy to cut the cake fairly? We'll talk about how math can be used to study questions like this.

Abstract 10/14

Uri Andrews

Title: Math, Philosophy, Psychology, and Artificial Intelligence

People come to understand the truth via a process of arguing. This could be a philosophical debate. This could be an internal dialogue. This could be in a courtroom. This could be deciding with your family where to go for dinner. These are all different forms of argumentation, with different rules for when you are convinced. In a courtroom, you have to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, whereas when deciding where to go for dinner, you might just have to look hungriest to win. These processes can be mathematically modeled. Moreover, this is important for the modern goal of teaching a computer how to think and how to understand human reasoning (Artificial Intelligence).

Abstract 10/21

Sam Craig

Title: Fractal geometry and the problem of measuring coastlines

A fractal is a shape which looks about the same when you look closely as when you look far away. I will show some examples of fractals that arise in math (like the Sierpinski triangle) and in nature (like the coastline of an island) and discuss the difficulties in determining what the length of a fractal means.

Abstract 11/4

Sam Craig

Title: Proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, new and old.

The Pythagorean theorem has been known for thousands of years and over that time, people have found a number of different ways to prove the theorem. We will talk about a proof given by Pythagoras, a proof by US President Andrew Garfield, and a very recent proof (that you might have heard of in the news) by Calcea Johnson and Ne'Kiya Jackson.

Abstract 11/11

Chenxi Wu

Title:Heron’s method for approximating square roots.

We will talk about Heron's method for approximating square roots. This will lead us on a journey through approximation methods including Newton's method, through algebraic concepts like the p-adic numbers, and Hensel's Lemma.

Abstract 11/18

Diego Rojas

Title:Non-Transitive Dice: The Math That Doesn’t Play Fair.

What if I told you there’s a set of dice where winning doesn’t follow the rules you expect? In this talk, we’ll explore the strange and surprising world of non-transitive dice, where the usual logic of “if A is better than B, and B is better than C, then A must be better than C” simply falls apart. Using math, probability, and a little imagination, we’ll uncover why these dice defy intuition and how they challenge our understanding of competition and strategy. Get ready to think about games—and math—in a whole new way!

Abstract 11/25

Kaiyi Huang

Title:A geometric investigation into a space shuttle failure

We know that a circle has the same width in every direction, but is it the only object that has this property? NASA engineers assumed so, which, together with a string of other mistakes, might have led to the tragic failure of their space shuttle launch. Let’s look further into this problem so that we won’t make the same mistake again!

Directions and parking

Our meetings are held on the 3rd floor of Helen C. White Hall in room 3255.

Parking. Parking on campus is rather limited. Here is as list of some options:

• There is a parking garage in the basement of Helen C. White, with an hourly rate. Enter from Park Street.
• A 0.5 mile walk to Helen C. White Hall via these directions, many spots (free starting 4:30pm) in Lot 26 along Observatory Drive.
• A 0.3 mile walk to Helen C. White Hall via these directions, many spots (free starting 4:30pm) in Lot 34.
• A 0.3 mile walk to Helen C. White Hall via these directions, 2 metered spots (25 minute max) in front of Lathrop Hall.
• A 0.2 mile walk to Helen C. White Hall via these directions 6 metered spots (25 minute max) around the loop in front of Chadbourne Hall .
• For more information, see the UW-Madison Parking Info website.

Email list

The best way to keep up to date with the what is going is by signing up for our email list. Please add your email in the form: Join Email List

Contact the organizers

The Madison Math Circle is organized by a group of professors and graduate students from the Department of Mathematics at the UW-Madison. If you have any questions, suggestions for topics, or so on, just email the organizers here. We are always interested in feedback!

• 

  Prof. Uri Andrews

Donations

Please consider donating to the Madison Math Circle. Our main costs consist of pizza and occasional supplies for the speakers. So far our costs have been covered by donations from the UW Mathematics Department as well as a generous gifts from private donors. The easiest way to donate is to go to the link:

Online Donation Link

There are instructions on that page for donating to the Math Department. Be sure and add a Gift Note saying that the donation is intended for the "Madison Math Circle"! The money goes into the Mathematics Department Annual Fund and is routed through the University of Wisconsin Foundation, which is convenient for record-keeping, etc.

Alternately, you can bring a check to one of the Math Circle Meetings. If you write a check, be sure to make it payable to the "WFAA" and add the note "Math Circle Donation" on the check.

Or you can make donations in cash, and we'll give you a receipt.

Help us grow!

If you like Math Circle, please help us continue to grow! Students, parents, and teachers can help by:

• Like our Facebook Page and share our events with others!
• Posting our flyer at schools or anywhere that might have interested students.
• Discussing the Math Circle with students, parents, teachers, administrators, and others.
• Making an announcement about Math Circle at PTO meetings.
• Donating to Math Circle.

Contact the organizers if you have questions or your own ideas about how to help out.

Useful Resources

Archived Abstracts

2023 - 2024 Abstracts

2022 - 2023 Abstracts

2021 - 2022 Abstracts

2020 - 2021 Abstracts

2019 - 2020 Abstracts

2016 - 2017 Math Circle Page

2016 - 2017 Abstracts

2015 - 2016 Math Circle Page

2015 - 2016 Math Circle Page (Spanish)

2015 - 2015 Abstracts

The way-back archives

Link for presenters (in progress)

Advice For Math Circle Presenters

Sample Talk Ideas/Problems from Tom Davis

Sample Talks from the National Association of Math Circles

"Circle in a Box"