Mathematics and Statistics

Mathematics and Statistics

Fun with Numb3rs:

A Face-to-face Activity of UC Numb3rs Learning Community


Watch TV show Numb3rs and informally chat maths in the real-world.

  1. LOGISTICS.
    • TIME:
      • Educational viewing: 1600-1650 hours
      • Maths/Stats discussion: 1650-1800 hours
    • PLACE: 101 Erskine Building
    • PERIODICITY: Weekly
    • HOW TO JOIN US: If you are a UC student or UC staff or a high school student in Christchurch and want to join us, then JUST DROP-IN or send an email to this address with Subject: join NUMB3RS.
    • The UC Numb3rs Learning Community is organized by MathSoc and used to be synchronised with the free (Community Education Course: Using Numb3rs to Make Sense of Math that was coordinated by Miguel Moyers-Gonzalez and Raazesh Sainudiin.

  2. NUMB3RS Home-fun-work and Activities for:

    • 101: Pilot Friday, May 22, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin - Charlie's Heat Map was reproduced by a least square analysis with Carl Scarrott).

    • 104: Uncertainty Principle Friday, May 29, 2009 (Conductor: Carl Scarrott - on the difference between points spread uniformly at random and those spread to mutually exclude one another at random. Richard Penny of Statistics New Zealand wrote about Interviewer Effect).

    • 103: Vector Friday, June 5, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin - discussion among postgraduates led to a minimum spanning tree as a parsimonious estimate of the viral spread of an interacting particle system model. See Durrett2007 Ch 4,5).

    • 102: Sabotage Friday, June 12, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin).

    • 105: Structural Corruption Friday, June 19, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin).

    • 106: Prime Suspect Friday, June 26, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin).

    • 107: Counterfeit Reality Friday, July 03, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin).

    • 108: Identity Crisis Friday, July 10, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin).

    • 109: Sniper Zero Friday, July 17, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin).

    • 110: Dirty Bomb Friday, July 24, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin).

    • 111: Sacrifice Friday, July 31, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin).

    • 112: Noisy Edge Friday, August 7, 2009 (Conductors: Miguel Moyers-Gonzalez and Raazesh Sainudiin - typos in least-sqare equations found in Cornell mirror of 112).

    • 113: Manhunt Friday, August 14, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin - lunchpackage won for Activity 2 of 112 by Heyang Li).

    • 201: Judgement Call Friday, August 21, 2009 (Conductor: Miguel Moyers-Gonzalez).

    • -------Southern Spring Break-------

    • 202: Better or Worse Friday, September 11, 2009 with pizzas at 1700 hours funded by an external grant from NZ Ministry of Tourism. (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin - Recommended Sage Activity; Play with SAGE worksheet for introduction to modular arithmetic and recursively generated pseudo-random numbers from our 200 level course on statistical computing; Relevant 200 level course: Algebra and Cryptography)

    • 203: Obsession Friday, September 18, 2009 (Conductor: Kenneth Kuhn - presentation on the maths and stats of traffic problems. Recommended Visulaisation Activity: animation clips of chapter 1 on Dimension 2 and chapter 2 on Dimension 3 from Dimensions Mirror)

    • 204: Calculated Risk Friday, September 25, 2009 (Conductors: Miguel Moyers-Gonzalez and Raazesh Sainudiin)

      .

    • 205: Assassin Friday, October 2, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin)

      .

    • 206: Soft Target Friday, October 9, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin - lunchpackage won for fixing typos in Activity 1 of 205 by Lisa Sands).

    • 207: Convergence Friday, October 16, 2009 (Conductor: Miguel Moyers-Gonzalez and Raazesh Sainudiin - this episode and the activities are an excellent primer for random matrices, combinatorics of free probability and enumerative combinatorics).

    • 208: In Plain Sight Friday, October 23, 2009 (Conductor: Raazesh Sainudiin).

    • -------Southern Summer Break-------

    • Term 2: Community Education YNB07: Using Numb3rs to Make Sense of Math 10 sessions.

    • -----------------------------------

    • 214: Harvest Friday, April 30, 2010 (Conductor: Heyang Li).

    • 215: Running Man Friday, May 07, 2010 (Conductor: Robin Candy).

    • 216: Protest Friday, May 14, 2010 (Conductor: Robin Candy and Isaac Manuel).

    • 217: Mind Games Friday, May 21, 2010 (Conductor: Robin Candy).

    • 218: All's Fair Friday, May 28, 2010 (Conductor: Heyang Li).

    • 219: Dark Matter Friday, June 04, 2010 (Conductors: Robin Candy and Isaac Manuel).

      34th Numb3rs Celebration
      34th Numb3rs Celebration

      Celebration of the 34th Activity of UC Numb3rs Learning Community with pizza (sponsoped by UC MATHs & Stats sOCiety and an external grant from NZ Ministry of Tourism) over a Sage-interactive discussion of What can you do with Mathematics and Statistics? by Miguel Moyers-Gonzalez, Raazesh Sainudiin and Igor Rychkov.

    • 220: Guns and Roses Friday, June 11, 2010 (Conductor: Jeroen Schillewaert - marker-talk of Doppler Effect).

    • 221: Rampage Friday, June 18, 2010 (Conductor: Jeroen Schillewaert - Euler formula for the Platonic solids using the physical collections built by Derrick Breach).

    • 222: Backscatter Friday, June 25, 2010 (Conductors: Jeroen Schillewaert and John Bamberg - Bamberg discussed by playing various combinatorial games).

    • 223: Undercurrents Friday, July 02, 2010 (Conductor: Raazesh sainudiin - discussed the NZ shoreline Marine Reserve Allocation Problem to minimize extinction probabilities of Sessile invertebrates using statistical genetics).

    • -------Southern Winter Break -------

  3. PRIZES. If you present the maths/stats content in the reading material that interests you or address a challenge posted on a previous episode during our 10 minutes discussion session (1700-1710 hours) then you will get a ``special lunch package''!

  4. NUMB3RS RESOURCES.

    • Solving Crimes with Mathematics: THE NUMBERS BEHIND NUMB3RS, is the companion book to the hit television crime series NUMB3RS, and is written by Professor Lorden of Caltech and Professor Devlin of Stanford, the lead mathematics adviser on the series. Copies of the book may be borrowed from the Department Library (enquire at Maths and Stats Reception at Level 4 of Erskine Building).

    • NUMB3RS: Local mirror of Math activities related to the TV show, developed at Cornell University. UC Maths/Stats students may borrow DVDs of the first three seasons of NUMB3RS from Maths and Stats Reception at Level 4 of Erskine Building.

Maintained by Raazesh Sainudiin and mirrored by Paul Brouwers.

Last modified on Saturday, 24-Sep-2011 09:22:50 NZST and served on Friday, 10-Feb-2012 11:49:05 NZDT.