Math 112L:
Research Faculty Interactions

Fall Semester, 2018
Thursdays, 11:45 a.m. - 1 p.m., French Science 2231


Professor Hubert Bray                               bray@math.duke.edu
189 Physics Building                             (919)757-8428 (mobile)

Office Hours:  Mondays 2:40 – 3:10
            and Wednesdays 2:40 – 4:10


Syllabus and Course Information


Videos for this class are posted at https://warpwire.duke.edu/w/Qh4CAA/. Note that the videos are in random order - my apologies - so you may have to search the list to find the video you need.

Take notes! You will be allowed to use your notes during your quizzes on these videos on Thursdays in class.


For Thursday, August 30, watch these videos:

2.01 Balancing Risk and Reward in Investments
2.02 The Kelly Criterion: Quadruple or Nothing
2.03 The Gambler's Ruin


For Thursday, September 6, watch these videos:

2.04 Kelly Criterion - Balancing Risk and Reward
4.01 Intro to General Relativity
4.02 The Geometry of Black Holes


Class on Thursday, September 13 was cancelled due to weather.


For Thursday, September 20, watch these videos:

1.01 Types of Ballots in Elections
1.02 Who Wins a Preferential Ballot Election
1.03 Plurality and Instant Runoff Voting
1.04 The Unit Interval Model
1.05 Instant Runoff Voting is NOT Monotone


For Thursday, October 4, watch these videos:


1.06 The Margin of Victory Matrix
1.07 The Borda Count
1.08 The Borda Count is NOT Clone Invariant
1.09 The Borda Count and Nuclear War
1.10 Instant Runoff Borda is Condorcet
1.11 Instant Runoff Borda and the Unit Interval Model

Take notes! The quiz on Thursday is open notes and can cover anything we've done so far.

Also, as described in class, survey 15 people on a question with 15 choices, such as "What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?" Print out 16 ballots, with instructions, which people can fill out by putting a 1 by their first choice, a 2 by their second choice, etc., and a 15 by their 15th choice. Fill out a 16th ballot yourself which you will designate the tie breaking ballot. Then go to www.wevotehere.org, click on "Create an Election" and then "Spreadsheet Election" and then follow the instructions. The web page will think for a few minutes and then return a spreadsheet which you can download which tells you which choice won the election, the ranking of all of the choices, as well as many other things about the election.

Turn in THREE things to me by email, by class on Thursday: The ballot you created, the spreadsheet produced by the web page, as well as a 1 page summary that you write which includes the question, the 15 choices (in order that they were ranked), and what you found interesting about the results. Put "RFI" in your email subject headline (stands for Research Faculty Interactions) so that I know this is homework you are turning in. Be prepared to discuss your survey in class - I will call on random students.

Also, use this format for the files you turn in by email:

XYZ_Ice Cream Survey_Ballot.docx                    (or .pdf, or whatever)
XYZ_Ice Cream Survey_Computer Results.xlsx
XYZ_Ice Cream Survey_Summary.docx              (or .pdf, or whatever)

where XYZ represent your initials and you put the title of you survey where it says "Ice Cream Survey."


For Thursday, October 11, watch these videos:

1.12 The Game Theory of Condorcet Methods
1.13 Worst Defeat
1.14 The Schulze Method
1.15 Ranked Pairs
1.16 Comparison of Vote Counting Methods that use the Margin of Victory Matrix
1.17 What is Democracy?


For Thursday, October 18, be prepared for a quiz on these videos:

1.12 The Game Theory of Condorcet Methods
1.13 Worst Defeat
1.14 The Schulze Method
1.15 Ranked Pairs
1.16 Comparison of Vote Counting Methods that use the Margin of Victory Matrix
1.17 What is Democracy?


For Thursday, October 25:

As described in class, survey two different groups of 15 people on a question with 15 chioces. The goal will be to see if the two groups have different opinions on your question and, if so, what those differences are. Discuss whatever you found interesting about the two surveys in one joint summary document. Did you find a Condorcet choice in each survey? Were there cycles in people's preferences? What surprised you or did not surprise you?

Turn in FOUR things to me by email, by class on Thursday: The ballot you created, the 2 spreadsheets produced by the web page for each of the 2 surveys, as well as a 1 page summary that you write which includes the question, the 15 choices (in order that they were ranked), and what you found interesting about the results. Put "RFI" in your email subject headline (stands for Research Faculty Interactions) so that I know this is homework you are turning in. Be prepared to discuss your surveys in class - I will call on random students.

Also, use this format for the files you turn in by email:

XYZ_Ice Cream Survey_Ballot.docx                                        (or .pdf, or whatever)
XYZ_Ice Cream Survey_Computer Results for Group 1.xlsx
XYZ_Ice Cream Survey_Computer Results for Group 2.xlsx
XYZ_Ice Cream Survey_Summary.docx                                   (or .pdf, or whatever)

where XYZ represent your initials and you put the title of you survey where it says "Ice Cream Survey."


For Thursday, November 8:

On Thursday, there will be a quiz on the Twin Paradox. To prepare for the quiz, review your notes. The quiz will be based on the last Thursday lecture on the Twin Paradox.

The main thing to know is that ``special relativity is a minus sign in the rule of Pythagoras,'' and that the time a person experiences is the length of their world line. We will review this briefly in class before the quiz, but I also encourage you to review by yourself and with your friends beforehand.


For Thursday, November 15:

Be prepared for an open note quiz on these two videos:

3.01 The Rule of Pythagoras
3.05 Special Relativity and the Light Cone

If you are up for a challenge and want even more insight into Special Relativity, you may also watch:

3.02 Rotations and the Dot Product
3.03 Gauss's Geometry and Special Relativity

though you will not be responsible for these videos for the quiz on Thursday.


For Thursday, December 6:

Be prepared for a comprehensive quiz covering all of the material we learned during our Thursday lectures together.

1. The quiz is open notes, but not "open video." Hence, you might re-watch some of the videos and take notes for use during the quiz.

2. You get to take the final quiz with your group of three people. Each person turns in their own quiz, though.