The Math In The Animals

People can count different things and we know animals share a lot in common.So I want to discover whether animals have the ability to count. As the saying goes : Dogs are man's best friends. So I did the research on dogs first. There is an experiment to test whether dogs can count. The scientists use two bowls which they are put by different amount of food. They choose 27 dogs as experimental subjects in order to make the test can be more convincing. The result is that most of the 27 dogs choose the bowl with more food. So we can say that dogs have the ability to count.

Not only dogs, there are numerous animals smarter than dogs. Chimpanzees, which share most things in common with humans, can do the count and they can do a lot of things harder than count. Robin birds can also do the same thing. They have the ability to discern between small numbers, such as three and four and can train themselves to count all the way up to twelve. It is so nice to know the funny facts about the animals can learn math by their own way and we can train them to learn more.

Looking forward to the study in Oakland

Finally, I got the transfer acceptance to the main campus in Oakland. I could transfer to the main campus last year with a pre-business major which only required 30 credits last year. I did not choose the business major at first, but in China there is an invisible rule that most parents choose majors for kids. I changed major in my second semester exactly when I found that I did not interest in business at all. In the business classes I had learned, there was too much theoretical knowledge.To learn some more practical knowledge I changed my major to general mathematics.

After finishing 17 credits this semester, I can finally transfer to the main campus. I like the environment here but I think there are more opportunities in a bigger city. I like all the teachers here and my math teacher Professor Thompson is my favourite teacher. He taught me many different ways to learn math and encouraged me when I face difficulties. I love math and I think I made a good choice about changing the major. Although the choice made my transfer delayed one year, I learned more mathematical knowledge than before and I met so many nice teachers. I hope I could have more fun in the main campus and further my study.

The History of Mathematics and Famous Mathematicians

I am interested in all kinds of knowledge in the math field.This week, I did some research on the history of mathematics.  I found out that there was a funny fact that in the ancient era, there was almost no the title of "mathematicians", more of the researchers were only called scientists or engineers. Famous scientists known all over the world like Albert Einstein,Isaac Newton,Niels Bohr and many others can be searched by "Famous Mathematics" nowadays. Although they invented or discovered a lot of things, they still have contribution to the math field.

As I mentioned before, my adviser who is also my math teacher Thompson's favorite mathematician is Leonhard Euler.  He was not only a mathematician but also a  physicist,astronomer, logician and engineer. To my adviser, he is a mathematician but maybe in others' eyes, he can be someone else. The math history has many categories: prehistoric mathematics, Egypt mathematics, Chinese mathematics，Greek mathematics, Indian mathematics, Islamic mathematics, Medieval European mathematics and so on. That is a big work to learn all of the history. I have read few of them but I think I will know the history better when I attend more math classes.

The Mental Arithmetic

This week I watched a Chinese show that was called "Super Brain". The original show is from Germany which is called "Superhirn". The show is to find the most talented people particularly in brain. I was attracted by two children and a women challenged the speed and accuracy of mental arithmetic.

I am interested in math a lot so I try to do the questions shown on the screen. The six-digit numbers were shown only 1 second and then jumped to the next one. I could not even remember those numbers. After watching the show, I decided to search mental arithmetic and hoped to find something interesting. There is a website called windhoff.net/mental_arithmetic. People can practice mental calculation there. I tried several times but I had to use a lot of time to calculate big numbers.

I think there must be some more efficient and more accurate ways to solve the problems so I use the internet and there are many tutorials about training mental arithmetic. Most of the ways are about changing the order, add or minus from the original numbers and so on. It is impossible for us to calculate the addition of subtraction so fast without practicing. The prodigies in the show said he was trained so if we want to get that height, we should make sure that we have time to practice harder and harder.

The Research About Press Release This Week

This week, we had a new press release assignment. It was very fresh to me so I did a lot of research on the press release about math field. Although in the future I may not write press release, it is so funny to write something that audience cares about. At first, I searched the most important events about math happened in 2015. After reading many articles I still couldn't find my source so i changed the topic to Nobel Prize about math in 2015. But to my surprise, the Nobel Prize did not have the specialized prize for math field. So I had to find something new.

At Last, I finally searched a press release about President Obama honored outstanding mathematics and science teachers. Although this is not a prize in the whole world, it is still an important prize in the nation. Each year the award alternates between teachers teaching kindergarten through 6th grade and those teaching 7th through 12th grades. The awardees named today teach 7th through 12th grade. My dream is to become a math teacher, so they are the models that I need to learn from them and try to be one of them. 

The Dying Metaphors Examples

In Monday's class, we talked about the " Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell. The article is about how to write the article in a proper way and use correct words to make the passage clear, precise and creative. Orwell introduces 4 ways of misusing words in the article: dying metaphors, operators or verbal false limbs, pretentious diction and meaningless words.

I find an example online about the dying metaphors. The misuse was found by Michael P. Marks. In some articles, many people may write " the body of the essay" to show the main part of the writing. But now this meaning is known by everyone so that we can not find anything new from this phrase. It is meaningless to use this in the article to describe the importance of the article.

Lets see a more famous example by President Nasheed in 2009. He said in his speech:" I am not a scientist, but I know that one of the laws of physics, is that you cannot negotiate with the laws of physics. Three - Five – Oh is a law of atmospheric physics. You cannot cut a deal with Mother Nature. And we don’t intend to try.This is why, in March, the Maldives announced plans to become the first carbon neutral country in the world. We intend to become carbon neutral in ten years. We will switch from oil to 100% renewable energy. And we will offset aviation pollution, until a way can be found to decarbonise air transport too." In this paragraph, he used the phrase " Mother Nature". We always considered nature as our mom because she brings everything to us. The overuse of the term is boring and lack of imagination. We need to avoid this kind of problems in our writing and be creative all the time.

Chinese New Year

    February 8th 2016, is the Chinese New Year.In China, we have a special calendar which is called lunar calendar. Chinese celebrating their New Year are the same as Americans celebrating Christmas Day. People usually have dumplings at that day and have lunch or dinner with relatives and family. 

    Although I am studying in America now, UPJ has CSSA which we can enjoy Chinese holidays in the school. On Monday the school and CSSA helped our Chinese students to hold a Chinese New Year party. There were lots of food and drinks in the Cambria room. Many professors and international students came and joined us. To our surprise, there was not only traditional chinese food but also hot pot there. The food was really delicious and made me miss my home.

    Like last year, no relatives come to America to visit me in the New Year, but I have many good friends and international students as well as professors having fun in the school. I love the environment here and I can also enjoy the Chinese holidays. My wish is that I can have good grades in 2016 and make more friends.