ANNOUNCEMENTS
MTH 338 — Winter 2016

3/11/16
I will be in my office from 9 AM–12 PM on Monday.
Feel free to slide your hard copy under my office door if I am not there (or if you want to submit your essay over the weekend). You are encouraged to send me an email message telling me that you have done so.
You have met the deadline if your electronic version reaches me by noon, and your hard copy reaches me reasonably soon thereafter. All other late submissions require explicit discussion and approval well in advance.
3/9/16
You do not need to give me hard copy of your essay if the email message that accompanies your electronic submission clearly states that you want me to grade your electronic manuscript.
Be warned that you do so at your own risk, as formatting may appear different at your end and mine. This issue is especially noticeable between different versions of software attempting to read DOC or DOCX files, so you are strongly encouraged to (also) submit as the "official" version a PDF copy whose formatting you have carefully checked.
If you do submit both hard copy and an electronic version, I will treat the hard copy as official unless you indicate otherwise.
3/7/16
Please bring a printed copy of your current draft to class on Wednesday.
3/4/16
I expect to be in my office most of the day on Monday and Wednesday of next week, as well as my scheduled office hours.
Other times are possible.
I plan to be in the MLC computer lab from 4–5 PM on Monday, 3/7.
This would be a good opportunity to work on Lab 4, and/or to ask computer-related questions about your paper.
You may use either Geometer's Sketchpad or GeoGebra for Lab 4.
3/2/16
A drawing showing the use of single elliptic lunes to find the area of a triangle can be found here.
Discussions of hyperbolic lunes can be found here and here.
3/1/16
I expect to be in my office most of the day on Wednesday and Friday this week, including my regular office hours.
2/27/16
I have begun reading through your introductions, many of which are pretty short, without much detail about what you actually intend to do. Exactly which questions are you going to ask? Your rough draft of the full paper is due this week; if you do not yet have a complete list of such questions, I strongly encourage you to see me as soon as possible.
I expect to be in my office most of the day on Monday, 2/29/16. I encourage you to let me know via email when you are likely to stop by; I'll do my best to be there, but I may not be able to confirm beforehand. If I'm not there, try again later.
2/24/16
A java applet for spherical geometry can be found here.
This applet does not appear to allow you to save or print your work, except by taking a screenshot.
2/17/16
As mentioned in class today, I expect to be in my office all day on Monday, 2/22/16.
To be sure of catching me at times other than 1:30–3:30 PM, I suggest making an appointment via email.
2/17/16
On Wednesday, 2/24/16, we will meet in Kidder 108H (the classroom in the back of the MLC).
Also, there will be no class on Friday, 2/26/16.
There is still homework due Friday.
My regular office hours next week (2/24 and 2/26) are canceled.
I will hold "extra" office hours on Monday, 2/22/16, from 1:30–3:30 PM.
I should also be able to respond promptly to questions via email.
2/14/16
I will hold extra office hours on Monday, 2/15/16, from 1:30–3:30 PM.
This would be a good opportunity to discuss your project with me.
You may also collect your graded Lab 2 at this time, so that you can have it back before the midterm.
2/11/16
The midterm will be given in Kidder 350 (from 4–5:20 PM on Wednesday 2/17/16).
2/8/16
There are three parts to this week's (first) homework assignment:
  1. A polished writeup of the elliptic SAS task.
    This is your opportunity to improve on what you wrote for the hyperbolic SAS assignment.
  2. A labeled picture of a circle intersecting the equator.
    No explanation is needed, so long as it is clear where the circle is.
  3. A labeled figure or table showing the distances of the various routings.
    Again, no explanation is needed, so long as it's clear which distance is which.
2/6/16
I will be in my office on Monday, 2/8/16, from 1:30–3:30 PM.
This would be a good opportunity to discuss your choice of topic with me.
You may also collect your graded Lab 1 at this time, so that you can have it back before completing Lab 2.
2/5/16
As announced in class today, the midterm will be Wednesday, 2/17/16, in class in Kidder 350.
2/4/16
You may use either Geometer's Sketchpad or GeoGebra for the first part of Lab 2, which you should complete on your own.
A Geogebra worksheet for the Klein model of elliptic geometry is available here.
I wrote the tools in this worksheet myself this week, so there are likely bugs. Here are some issues that I am aware of:
You may use any means you wish to complete the second part of the assignment.
Right-clicking on Google maps should bring up a menu that includes a distance calculator!
There will be an optional lab session on Monday, 2/8/16, in the MLC computer lab from 4–5 PM.
2/2/16
How does one duplicate angles?
2/1/16
An alternate Geogebra worksheet for the Poincaré Disk is available here.
Chrome may work better than Firefox with these worksheets. My experience is that Firefox will work eventually, but may require several clicks on "Continue" to get started.
Here are some other things we discovered about Geometer's Sketchpad today in the MLC:
Here's a fun thing to try in the Poincaré Disk:
Construct an equilateral triangle. (How?) Measure its angles.
1/29/16
A list of potential topics has been posted here.
This would be a good time to reread my advice on how to write mathematical essays.
A newer version of this document is available here. Both versions are worth reading.
1/28/16
An online JavaScript applet for the Poincaré Disk can be found here.
A more complete set of tools for constructing objects in the Poincaré Disk exist for both Geometer's Sketchpad and GeoGebra, but the applet is a fine place to start your explorations.
You can find a GeoGebra worksheet for the Poincaré Disk here.
The hyperbolic tools can be accessed via the toolbar icon on the right. Note especially the "Compass" tool, which allows duplication of circles.
You may use this worksheet for Lab 1, due next week.
There will be an optional lab session on Monday, 2/1, in the MLC computer lab from 4–5 PM.
1/27/16
A tentative date for the midterm has been proposed: Wednesday, 2/17 (Week 7).
If you have a strong preference for having the exam at another time, please let me know ASAP. Later that week should be a possible alternative; Week 6 or Week 8 might also be possible.
1/25/16
To verify that SAS congruence implies triangle congruence in Lab 0, it is enough to construct by any means a second triangle so that SAS congruence holds, then measure the remaining side and angles. However, the gold standard would be to construct the second triangle using only straightedge and compass.
If you successfully accomplish this task using either Geometer's Sketchpad or GeoGebra, the second triangle should remain congruent to the first when you alter the initial triangle.
Duplicating an arbitrary angle requires several steps...
If you're stuck, try constructing a right triangle.
If you're still stuck, try constructing an equilateral triangle.
You might want to reread RG §2.2, which contains both Euclid's construction of an equilateral triangle, and Euclid's demonstration that one can copy a given line segment to a new starting point.
Try the "Circle by Center+Radius" tool in Geometer's Sketchpad, or the "Compass" tool in GeoGebra.
1/22/16
A sample homework solution can be found here.
1/21/16
Here's the challenge problem from the end of yesterday's class:
As with taxicab ellipses, some taxicab hyperbolas contain 2-dimensional regions. Which ones?
More precisely, how many types of degenerate hyperbolas are there in taxicab geometry?
1/20/16
You may use either Geometer's Sketchpad or GeoGebra for Lab 0, which you should complete on your own.
Geometer's Sketchpad is available in the MLC computer lab; GeoGebra can be used online.
There will be an optional lab session on Monday, 1/25, in the MLC computer lab; do come if you can.
I will be in the computer lab from roughly 3:30–4 PM, and will return at roughly 5 PM to answer questions.
(Why this peculiar timing? Because there is a colloquium involving geometry, which you are encouraged to attend.)
1/19/16
You may find these newspaper articles about court decisions involving taxicab geometry to be of interest.
1/15/16
Next Wednesday's class (1/20) will run until 5:50 PM.
If you cannot stay that late, you are encouraged to stop by my office to briefly go over the extra material covered.
1/14/16
There is a website devoted to taxicab geometry that you may find interesting.
This website is maintained by a former student in this course!
A sheet of taxicab graph paper is available here.
1/13/16
Here's the challenge problem from the end of class:
Can you find two points A and B in Ideal City such that A is closer to the origin than B in Euclidean geometry, but B is closer to the origin than A in taxicab geometry?
Here's another one that I did not mention in class:
Can you find a triangle on the sphere with three right angles?
Finally, as mentioned in class, it is a good idea to include your name as part of the filename when submitting assignments as attachments!
1/11/16
As announced last week, our first meeting is today, 1/11/16, at 4 PM in Kidder 278.
If you cannot attend today's class, please contact me via email to arrange an alternative, or simply stop by my office.
In addition to my regular office hours, I should be in my office most of today, 1/11, and Wednesday, 1/13.
1/4/16
Today's preliminary meeting is canceled, since OSU is closed.
There will be an "extra" class meeting on Monday, 1/11/16, at 4 PM in Kidder 278.
If you are unable to attend Monday's class, please contact me via email to arrange an alternative.
I expect to be in my office most of Monday, 1/11, and Wednesday, 1/13.
1/2/16
Class is canceled on W 1/6/16 and F 1/8/16.
1/1/16
Please read this document with some comments on wordprocessing formats.
Nothing else is as good as LaTeX at typesetting mathematics. Especially if you are planning to become a mathematician, you are strongly encouraged to learn LaTeX. I am happy to help with LaTeX coding questions, but not with installation or editor-specific problems.
You may use any wordprocessing software you wish, so long as I can read the equations.
12/22/15
There will be a preliminary meeting to discuss the MTH 338 schedule on Monday, 1/4/16, at 4 PM in Kidder 278.
Attendance is of course optional, but please come if you can.
The first class meeting will likely not be until Week 2; stay tuned.
There will be a homework assignment during Week 1; again, stay tuned.
12/11/15
To the best of my knowledge, the (old, hard cover) 3rd edition of Roads to Geometry (RG), from Pearson, is identical to the (new, paperback) 3rd edition, from Waveland.
If you're buying a new copy, the paperback is significantly cheaper. If you're buying used, you'll probably only find the former — but do make sure it's the 3rd edition. Either should work fine for this course.
12/6/15
You may find some of the writing resources listed below to be helpful.
12/5/15
A description of some criteria that I will use to evaluate written work can be found here.