4----------------------- Feature-----------------
WedNEsdAy, Appil 17, 2002
ThE Ç[ ac I<AMAS P rint
Roll over, Euclid: there’s a ’new’ math on Earth
Pi and Ice Cream lecture dishes out bite-si^ed math tidbits with a smile
ALLISON GERFIN
Copy Editor
Non-Euclidean
geometry
sounded a bit dry. I didn’t even
know there was such a species. But
the first thing I discovered at the
Pi and Ice Cream lecture on April
11 is students learn what is called
Euclidean geometry—the stuff of
high school and undergraduate
math classes. This is not the whole
world of geometry though.
Dr. Karen Marrongelle, a profes
sor at Portland State University
with a Ph.D. in Mathematics Edu
cation, unceasingly smiled with the
love of math during her lunchtime
lecture in Pauling on a rainy Thurs
day. Her enthusiasm was charm
ing and sunny. How could I not
want to learn about non-Euclidean
Geometry?
The gist was this: Euclid came
up with his “Elements of Geometry”
in the 3rd century B.C. This re
flected how the ancient Greeks
viewed their world, and we have
since been following his teachings
to figure all flat-plane and solid
objects. Like, if I walk in a straight
line from Barlow to the cafeteria,
and my ex-boyfriend is going from
the gym to Pauling, will we inter
sect? If so, where? And how far
out of his way will he go to avoid
me?
In the late 17th century A.D.,
mathematicians finally started
questioning Euclid’s theorems, and
a couple of famous math guys fig
ured out non-Euclidean, or spheri
cal, geometry for a little something
Euclid missed—the surface of a
sphere, such as the Earth. Then
we’ll fast forward to Albert
" Like, if I walk in a
straight line from Barlow
to the cafeteria, and my
ex-boyfriend is going
from the gym to Pauling,
will we intersect? If so,
where? And how far out
of his way will he go to
avoid me?”
Einstein: He couldn’t have devel
oped his theory of relativity with
out using spherical geometry, ac
cording to Marrongelle.
And it’s not just the physicists
who love this stuff. Engineers and
manufacturers rely on spherical
geometry to design products and
translate flat blueprints into round
widgets—from hair dryers to
nuclear reactors. It’s also used to
find efficient flight paths for air
planes or anything else following
the Earth’s curvature.
Mark Yannotta, a math instruc
tor, added a point about spherical
geometry that throws out conven
tional wisdom: “Sometimes the
closest distance between two
points is not a straight line.”
Roundness changes everything.
While I might not need this infor
mation on a day-to-day basis, it’s
good to have this long-held mis
conception corrected.
Another mind-blower was that
the sum of the three angles in a
triangle doesn’t always add up to
180 degrees—something I would
have died believing as mathemati
cal gospel if I hadn’t attended. If
you go from Portland to New York
then to Cancun, you not only get
jet lag but rack up more than the
usual 180 in those turns. (I would
tell you how many, but I haven’t
quite figured it out yet.) I needed
the ice cream after these shocks.
Yannotta obtained a grant to
start the Pi and Ice Cream series to
help students connect mathemat
ics to other studies and to life; pre
vious speakers have discussed the
history of math and the role of math
in art. The Mathematics Depart
ment has picked up sponsoring the
series, and next year there will be
two presentations.
It was interesting and actually
mostly understandable (my eyes
glazed only briefly, I swear). Be
tween Marrongelle’s enthusiasm
and scoops of ice cream, it wasn’t
nearly as dry as I expected.
Micro-truck designer breaks competitor
Carnegie Mellon’s 7 year winning streak
SIIADRA BEESLEY
Staff Writer
For seven years, Carnegie
Mellon, a Pennsylvania robotics
college, held first place in the So
ciety of Automotive Engineers
Micro-Truck Baja Design compe
tition. That was before Clackamas
student Mark Neubauer showed
up.
In October 2000, the SAE held
its annual Truck and Bus Show in
Portland. Neubauer heard about
the Micro-Truck design competi
tion from a friend, and decided at
the last minute to enter. When he
left with the first place title and $700
prize, he decided he’d definitely be
back in 2001.
Micro-trucks are remote control
cars, redesigned to be self-mobile.
The creators of these machines
equip the trucks with motors, bat
teries and other self-contained
controls. Competitors are required
to conform to SAE specifications,
but they are given a lot of freedom.
Entries are judged mainly on per
formance,, presentation and de
sign. Although the contest does
include a race, speed has little af
fect on the overall score.
Neubauer explained that design
ing these small machines takes a
lot of work and planning.
“You really have to think out
your vehicles. You can’t just throw
something together and throw it
out on a track,” he said. Neubauer
has been studying electrical engi
neering for two years. His skills
and love for cars have helped him
build vehicles that repeatedly out
perform his opponents.
The 2001 SAE competition was
held Nov. 12-14, and Neubauer
traveled to Chicago to defend his
title. He was very excited to visit a
place almost 1,500 miles away. It
was his first trip outside the Pa
cific time zone, and he was thrilled
to see new sights. He also became
the Baja Design champion for the
second year in a row, once again
preventing Carnegie Mellon from
reclaiming the title.
Carnegie Mellon and Clackamas
were the only two schools that
entered the competition last year.
Neubauer was happy to secure his
first-place position, but he! was dis
appointed that more schools didn’t
compete. The fact that this 14-
year-old tradition may not have a
future concerns Neubauer. He is
encouraging the SAE to do more
advertising and is looking for more
Clackamas students who want to
compete.
Neubauer’s main goal now is to
form a team of students to collabo
rate on a micro-truck design for the
competition this fall, which will be
held in Detroit at the Cobo Center.
Neubauer is eager to share this
opportunity to build, design, and
travel with other students who are
studying engineering or manufac
turing. Any students who would
like to be a part of the team can e-
mail Mark Neubauer at
neubee 12@yahoo.com.
About 40 students and faculty watched Dr. Karen Marrongelle of
PSU use her Vis-a-Vis on a globe to clearly illustrate the esoteric
business of non-Euclidean, or spherical, geometry. The nice doc
explained how this math differs from what we usually learn.
It's the third week, and you're already sick of school?
It could i
be worse!
you could be assembling
toasters in SaskatOOfl.\.
A friendly tip from TldE CI ac I<AMAS P r INT/N
WORK IN A
HELPING
PROFESSION.
PREPARE FOR A CAREER, PREPARE FOR LIFE.
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PHOTO COURTESY OF MARK NEUBAUER
Carnegip Mellon students work on their vehicles at the 2001 SAE
competition Nov. 12-14 in Chicago.
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