Foundations of Mathematics: Math 220 Term paper topics from the textbook • • • • • • • • Infinite products. Non-Euclidean geometry. Irrational numbers. Strange sets. Pathological functions. Permutations. Groups (see an article by Bryan Hayes). Bernoulli numbers. Additional term paper topics • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The golden ratio. Fibonacci numbers. Polygonal numbers. Pascal’s Triangle and its applications. Rational election procedures (Can you set up a voting procedure that cannot be manipulated?). Tilings (for example, the chess problem of the knights). Latin squares. Fractal patterns. Cryptography (secret codes). Error-correcting codes, especially linear or matrix codes. The five color problem (All maps can be colored using at most five colors so that no two countries with a common borderline have the same color. Actually, four colors are enough, but that is beyond this course). Investigate and explain a paradox. For example: – The Prisoner’s Dilemma (How to get the smallest sentence for both). – The Surprise Examination Paradox (Can there be an announced surprise?). – Newcomb’s Paradox. – The Petersburg Paradox. – Zeno’s Paradoxes. The Königsberg bridge problem (Eulerian Circuits). P-adic integers. All printed handouts and web-materials are protected by US Copyright Laws. No multiple copies can be made without written permission by the instructor. 1