MAT 1940 - A MATHEMATICIAN LOOKS AT AMERICANHISTORY

credits: 3.0
Intended to give students an appreciation for the importance of mathematics in a variety of contexts. To this end, we will use mathematics to explore some questions and events in American History. Selected subjects from American History will be discussed in detail. After discussing each historical topic, we will develop certain mathematical ideas or techniques and then apply this mathematics to further illuminate particular aspects of the historical topic. Topics to be discussed will include: “Elementary Game Theory and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” “Elementary Probability and the 2000 Presidential Election,” “Statistical Modeling of the 2008 Presidential Election,” “Apportionment and The Election of 1876” and “Alternative Methods of Voting.” Objectives: Students who have successfully completed this course can expect to: Demonstrate knowledge of the historical events discussed and by critically discussing these events; Use the basic notions and ideas from the field of game theory, particularly the Nash Equilibrium; Identify and apply several methods of apportioning delegates; Demonstrate the ability to calculate the probability of simple events and apply binomial probabilities; Model simple statistical processes using MAPLE, Excel or another computer program and interpret the results; Identify Alternative Methods of Voting and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each; Discuss how a particular mathematical technique may be applied to a historical event and describe the additional information gained from this. Method of Instruction: Lecture and in-class activities. Method of Evaluation: See Course Outline.

Prerequisite(s): SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE MATHEMATICS COMPETENCY REQUIREMENT.