Program Description
We will use origami folding techniques (on a square piece of paper) to discover how we can chop up a line fairly or at least close to fairly. Students will be expected to provide justifications for the approximation method using their own ideas. (Spoiler alert: continued fractions may lurk its elegant head!) Along the way, they will likely analyze binary representations of decimals or even interpret the process of approximation as a discrete dynamical system. They will also be encouraged to offer a proof of the exact method of division. Finally, we will fold a helix using these ideas to investigate some limiting properties. There will be purely geometric and analytic means of approaching a limit problem, depending on the taste of the students. We shall encourage drawing pictures, providing rigor, or a combination of both.
Eligibility
Open to school students from 10 to 15 years in Bengaluru. Please register using the registration link above, for group participation write to 'outreach@icts.res.in'. Participation is by invitation only.
About the Speaker
I enjoy the interplay of physics and mathematics, and try to see it everywhere around me. My interests are in teaching and understanding problem-solving as a creative process. I am affiliated with the Academic Talent Development Program, University of California, Berkeley, where I teach physics and mathematics, including international students visiting UC Berkeley. I mentor students interested in teaching math and physics and advise teachers on curriculum development as well as develop problems for international physics competitions. I also teach physics at Proof School.
