Mathematical adventures for students and amateurs

Description

How should you encode a message to an extraterrestrial? What do frogs and powers of 2 have in common? How many faces does the Stella Octangula have? Is a plane figure of constant diameter a circle, and what does this have to do with NASA? Is there any such thing as a truly correct map? What patterns are possible in juggling? What do all of these questions have in common? They--and many others--are answered in this book. Some of the authors of the articles in this collection are distinguished mathematicians; some are bright newcomers and others have been well known in mathematical circles for decaces. The table of contents is a veritable "who's who" of active mathematicians. This is a partial record of the Bay Area Mathematical Adventures (BAMA), a lecture series for high school students (and incidentally their teachers, parents, and other interested adults) hosted by San Jose State and Santa Clara Universities in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. These lectures are aimed primarily at bright high school students, the emphasis on "bright", and as a result, the mathematics in some cases is far from what one would expect to see in talks at this level. There are serious mathematical issues addressed here. We hope that this book will capture some of the magic of these talks that have filled auditoriums on these two campuses almost monthly for several years. Join the students in sharing some of these mathematical adventures.