Madison Math Circle Abstracts 2020-2021

Spring 2021
Date	Speaker	Topic
February 1, 2021 at 5-6pm	Connor Simpson	Pick's theorem Pick's theorem relates the area of a polygon whose vertices lie on points of an evenly spaced grid to the number of grid points inside it. We'll do a sequence of examples to discover this theorem, outline a proof, and consider 3-dimensional analogues.
March 1, 2021 at 5-6pm	Colin Crowley	Fractals and Imaginary numbers We'll explore some famous mathematical pictures such as the Mandelbrot set and Julius sets, which are examples of what are called fractals. In a quest to understand where these astonishing pictures come from, we will dip our toes into the world of imaginary numbers. While they are vastly complicated and beautiful, these come from simple equations.
April 5, 2021 at 5-6pm	Aleksandra (Ola) Sobieska	Flipping Pancakes A waiter delivering pancakes must sort disorganized stacks of pancakes before delivering them to guests, but can only use a spatula to do so. How many flips are necessary? Can we come up with a method that will get him a perfect stack of pancakes every time?
May 3, 2021 at 5-6pm	Trevor Leslie	We'll give a gentle introduction to the concept of an infinite series of numbers, with a focus on geometric series. As an application, we'll discuss how to find the area of a fractal---the Koch snowflake.