MATH LIMERICK

A Dozen, a Gross, and a Score,

plus three times the square root of four,

divided by seven,

plus five times eleven,

equals nine squared and not a bit more.

-- Jon Saxton

CAREERS IN MATHEMATICS

Actuary
Actuaries are hired by insurance companies (life, health, casualty, etc.), pension plans, businesses, consulting firms (business and actuarial), and government agencies. To become an actuary (an Associate or a Fellow), one must pass a series of examinations administered by the Society of Actuaries. The initial exams are primarily mathematics, including probability and statistics, and can be taken while still an undergraduate student.


Computational Scientist
A computational scientist is an applied mathematician who interprets problems arising from the physical sciences and engineering in mathematical form and develops mathematical solutions to these problems. Very large and sophisticated computers are used intensively. Potential employers include government laboratories, the chemical industry, and the biotech industry. 

Operations Research Analyst
Also called management science analysts, operations research analysts help organizations coordinate activities and operate in the most efficient manner, by applying scientific methods and mathematical principles to organizational problems. Computers are used extensively in their work.

Systems Engineer or Systems Analyst
A systems engineer or analyst usually has substantial course work in engineering or another technical field. This enables him/her to apply mathematical techniques to solve the problems unique to the industry of their employer.

Scientific Communication
The scientific publishing industry has a need for scientifically trained individuals for sales and editing.

Software Engineer or Software Consultant
A software engineer generally designs and writes software that performs nonnumerical functions, such as graphics. A background in math and computer science is needed. Employers include consulting firms and large corporations which do their own software development. There is also room in this field for the entrepreneur or consultant.

 Statistician
Statistics is both a very applied field and also a theoretical one. Many, but not all, statisticians are active in both applications and the development of new theory, but the greatest potential in terms of jobs is in applied statistics. Statisticians generally work with people in other fields, therefore communication skills are very important. Statistical
applications nearly always include the analysis of data and hence some knowledge and experience in computing is very important. There are opportunities for statisticians in the government, in industry, business, medicine, and in academia

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE'S CONTRIBUTION TO MATHEMATICS

The rare photograph of Florence Nightingale was taken by Lizzie Caswall Smith in 1910 .The black and white image of the silver-haired nursing pioneer shows her in the imposing bedroom of her home just off London's Park Lane, before her death in 1910 at the age of 90.


Florence Nightingale is most remembered as a pioneer of nursing and a reformer of hospital sanitation methods. For most of her ninety years, Nightingale pushed for reform of the British military health-care system and with that the profession of nursing started to gain the respect it deserved.

During the American Civil War, Nightingale was a consultant on army health to the United States government. She also responded to a British war office request for advice on army medical care in Canada. Her mathematical activities included ascertaining "the average speed of transport by sledge" and calculating "the time required to transport the sick over the immense distances of Canada."

Unknown to many, Florence Nightingale is credited with developing a form of the pie chart now known as the polar area diagram, or occasionally the Nightingale rose diagram, equivalent to a modern circular histogram to dramatize the needless deaths caused by unsanitary conditions and the need for reform during the Crimean War .

The legend reads:

The Areas of the blue, red, & black wedges are each measured from the
centre as the common vertex.
The blue wedges measured from the centre of the
circle represent area for area the deaths from Preventable or Mitigable
Zymotic diseases, the red wedges measured from the centre the deaths from
wounds, & the black wedges measured from the centre the deaths from all
other causes.
The black line across the red triangle in Nov. 1854 marks the
boundary of the deaths from all other causes during the month.
In October 1854, & April 1855, the black area coincides with the red, in January
& February 1855,(*) the blue coincides with the black.
The entire areas may be compared by following the blue, the red, & the black lines
enclosing them.

With her analysis, Florence Nightingale revolutionized the idea that social phenomena could be objectively measured and subjected to mathematical analysis.

A Strange Prime Number - 73,939,133

The prime number 73,939,133 has a very strange property.

If you keep removing a digit from the right hand end of the number, each of the remaining numbers is also prime.

It's the largest number known with this property.

Take a look: 73,939,133 and 73,939,13 and 73,939,1 and 73,939 and 7,393 and 739 and 73 and 7 are all prime!

MAGIC 1089 - A COOL MATH TRICK

• Write down a three-digit number whose digits are decreasing.
• Then reverse the digits to create a new number.
• Subtract the reversed number from the original number.
• With the resulting number, add it to the reverse of itself.

The number you will get is 1089!

EXAMPLE :

• Let us take 532 (three digit number in decreasing order).
• Then the reverse is 235.
• Subtract 532-235 to get 297.
• Now add 297 and its reverse 792,
• The resulting answer is 1089!