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Welcome to MA 391: Composition and Communication at the University of Kentucky!

This semester we are going to be practicing the (sometimes frustrating and always ) important skill of communicating mathematics. At the start of the semester we are going to revisit some topics from calculus and for each of those topics you will pick an example you think really helps explain what is going on. You will design and print a 3d model of that example. Then you will write a blog post (here!) and a description card for your model and participate in the class show and tell.

After spending some time in calculus we will switch over to topics motivated by geometry and topology. You don't need to know anything about these area yet. We're going to look at them since they will be new to many of you, they lend themselves well to visualization projects and my research is in topology!

Popular posts from this blog

Do Over: Integration Over a Region in a Plane

Throughout the semester we have covered a variety of topics and how their mathematical orientation applies to real world scenarios. One topic we discussed, and I would like to revisit, is integration over a region in a plane which involves calculating a double integral. Integrating functions of two variables allows us to calculate the volume under the function in a 3D space. You can see a more in depth description and my previous example in my blog post, https://ukyma391.blogspot.com/2021/09/integration-for-over-regions-in-plane_27.html . I want to revisit this topic because in my previous attempt my volume calculations were incorrect, and my print lacked structural stability. I believed this print and calculation was the topic I could most improve on and wanted to give it another chance. What needed Improvement? The function used previously was f(x) = cos(xy) bounded on [-3,3] x [-1,3]. After solving for the estimated and actual volume, it was difficult to represent in a print...
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Knot 9-31

Knot 9-31 A knot is mathematics is defined as a closed, non-self-intersecting curve that is placed in three dimensions and cannot be the "unknot". The main difference between a knot in the real world and a known in mathematics is that a knot in mathematics does not contain any extra strands. The example following will help visualize this. Today, I have specifically chosen knot 9-31 from the Knot Atlas. This knot is very unique and contains some very interesting properties that we are going to look into. The Crossing Number For my knot today, I chose knot 9-31 from the Knot Atlas. This knot contains 9 crossings! The Unknotting Number The unknotting number is exactly what is sounds like. This is the minimum number of times the knot must be passed through itself to untie it. Luckily, the Knot Atlas is super useful and provides the unknotting number for us, but I still...
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Do Over: Integration for Over Regions in the Plane

Introduction Earlier in the semester, we visited the topic of integration for over region regions in the plane. This was our first experience with taking integration in the third dimension. To do this, we had to use double integrals to calculate the volume of a region between two surfaces. This topic seems relatively straightforward and anyone who has taken a higher calculus class knows of double integrals. Today, we are going to revisit this topic for a couple of reasons. Why Double Integrals Again? As mentioned before, I am revisiting this topic for a couple of reasons. One of the main reasons is due to how the 3D print turned out. Due to the function, I chose, the final rectangular prism was stand alone. When printing, this resulted in a sloppy prism that lacked structural integrity. The image below is a reference to my original design that includes the prism that had the issue. The main cause of ...
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