Maths Post #2

Today in history...

We mourn the loss the loss of Ernst Gabor Straus (Febuary 25, 1922 – July 12, 1983) a distinguished Mathematician... Let us now take away a slice of his life.

Ernst Gabor Straus was a German-American mathematician who helped found the theories of Euclidean Ramsey theory and of the arithmetic properties of analytic. His extensive list of co-authors includes Albert Einstein as well as other notable researchers

Straus was born in Munich, Germany, Febuary 25, 1922, the youngest of five children of a prominent attorney, Eli Straus, and his wife Rahel Straus nee Goiten , a medical doctor and feminist. Ernst Gabor Straus became known as a mathematical prodigy from a very young age. Following the death of his father, the family fled the Nazi regime for Palestine in 1933, and Straus was educated at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Despite never receiving an undergraduate degree, he began graduate studies at Columbia University in New York, earning a Ph.D. in 1948 under the advisement of F.J Murray. Two years later, he then became the assistant of Albert Einstein. After a three-year stint at the Institute for Advanced Study, Straus took a position at the University of Columbia, Los Angeles, which he kept for the rest of his life. Straus died July 12, 1983 of heart failure.

Strauss also contributed to the study of Egyptian fractions and external graph theory.

Maths Made Easy...

Guess Your Birthday!

Here's a fun trick to show a friend, a group ,or an entire class of people. Tell the person to think of their birthday... and that you are going to guess it.

Step 1) Have them take the month number from their birthday: January = 1, Feb = 2 etc.
Step 2) Multiply that by 5
Step 3) Then add 6
Step 4) Then multiply that total by 4
Step 5) Then add 9
Step 6) Then multiply this total by 5 once again
Step 7) Finally, have them add to that total the day they were born on. If they were born on the 18th, they add 18, etc.

Have them give you the total. In your head, subtract 165, and you will have the month and day they were born on!

How It Works: Let M be the month number and D will be the day number. After the seven steps the expression for their calculation is:

5 (4 (5 M + 6 ) + 9 ) + D = 100 M + D + 165

Thus, if you subtract off the 165, what will remain will be the month in hundreds plus the day!

~~HAVE FUN~~