Archive for March 28th, 2014

March 28, 2014

Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated

by Janie Jones

As if Calculus hadn’t eaten enough of my life and soul already, the other day Calculus Teacher assigned a “research” paper.

Yes.  Seriously.  I have to write a paper for Calculus class.  On top of the obscene mountains of normal homework Calculus Teacher is so fond of assigning.

Thankfully, it’s not a long one, just two pages with the standard double spaced lines and 1 inch margins and 12 point font.  It’s not the writing of the paper that has me in a tizzy.  It’s coming up with a suitable topic and finding resources to “support” it.

So, I am here begging your assistance.  Any ideas about topics I could use?

It doesn’t have to be about Calculus, as long as it is related to some math subject.

In an effort to get busy, as the paper is due April 15th, I tried skimming the library data base for some ideas.  I read that there’s been some research done on using complex math as a means of helping people with severe handicaps communicate.  Apparently, just thinking about a complex math problem makes your eyes dilate.  So, for people who cannot communicate via normal means, yes and no answers can be given just by thinking of a complex equation, and for example if you ask a disabled person a question and their answer is yes, they might think of a math problem and their eyes will dilate significantly enough that the person asking the question can see the dilation and know their answer to the question asked is in the affirmative.  Very interesting.

According to this study, I must be walking around in a semi permanent state of eye dilation lately.

While this is fascinating, I don’t think there’s enough material to write on this particular article alone.  So, if you can lend me a few brain cells to come up with some topic ideas, I would be much obliged.