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In this issue of the Mathematics Undergraduate Newsletter: - Important dates for the rest of the quarter. - Spring quarter course offering highlights. Important Dates for the rest of the quarter There are not that many, but these are good ones to keep in mind! Wednesday February 20 -Undergraduate Withdraw from a class ends: Deadline to drop with a W (Withdraw) notation, except for emergency reasons. Wednesday February 20 -Add by petition ends: Deadline to add a class by petition ($10 fee) Friday March 21 -Undergraduate removal of incomplete: Deadline to file petition ($10 fee) and submit class work for incomplete grade from preceding quarter. -Spring Quarter Course Offering Highlight This quarter UCSC Mathematics will be offering: Math 145, Chaos Theory Many of you might be wondering, what is Chaos Theory? Well, in mathematics and physics, chaos theory describes the behavior of certain nonlinear dynamical systems that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions (popularly referred to as the butterfly effect). As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of perturbations in the initial conditions, the behavior of chaotic systems appears to be random. This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future dynamics are fully defined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved. This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos. This course will be taught in Spring quarter by Professor Debra Lewis, and speaking from experience, I can assure you this is a course worth taking if you can make the time. Especially since it is only offered every other year! In keeping with the theme of Mathematical Modeling, I thought many of you would find the article “Mathematical Model Of Fruit Fly Eyes Created” from Science Daily interesting. To view, click on the following link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080111175318.htm In closing, I though I would give you all something to think about. You ever wonder if you are giving it your all? That is, did you ever really ask yourself if 99.9% effort was good enough? I know I always though it was, but I never dreamed how wrong I was! Check this out: Well suppose 99.9% is good enough. With theses standards: - Two million plus documents will be lost by the IRS this year. - 22,000 checks will be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next hour. - 12 babies will be given to the wrong parents each day. - 18, 322 pieces of mail will be mishandled in the next hour. - 107 incorrect medical procedures will be performed by the end of the day. - 3056 copies of tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal will be missing one section. There you have it, it has been proven mathematically, that it is in everyone’s best interest to always give 100%!! I hope you are all having a great quarter. Also, be sure to come by and see me if you are interested in hosting the Undergraduate Colloquium. Giving a talk is probably the best way to solidify your knowledge in a particular area. Plus, for those of you signed up for Senior Seminareither this quarter or next, this would be a great opportunity to practice your presentation. Andrea Gilovich, Undergraduate Advisor
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