MATH DAY 2014

I hope all of the 8th graders had a great time at Math Day this year! I know I did. I suppose if you asked one of the students they would probably tell you LUNCH (or maybe the 20 minute stop at the mall for ice cream) was their favorite part.
HOWEVER there were some really cool Math things.
My favorite session was definitely the one about Prime Numbers. I had no idea that the Greeks were so funny about numbers. Did you know that they had this idea about "perfect" numbers? Numbers whose divisors (excluding the number itself) add up to the original number - 6 is a great example - its divisors are 1, 2 and 3. 1 + 2 + 3= 6! Therefore all things 6 are perfect. Apparently there are only 48 perfect numbers discovered so far the latest being discovered as recently as 2013. (28 is another example)
My other favorite and probably my favorite OVERALL was the career talk given by U of M professor (and LR parent) Professor Reisenfeld about the Cassini Spacecraft and its exploration of Saturn. WOW! Blew my mind. All kinds of Vector Calculus (??) involved in getting it up there. This link gives more info if you are interested: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/overview/

Here are some pictures of the LR kids participating!  

Thanks to all of the other Middle School teachers who made it possible for us to go!

~Ms. Chanin