1 Math in the Media NCMATYC 2017

2 The Question of the Ages…Why do we have to know this? Answer: It makes the jokes funnier

3 Modern Family, ABC Television

4 “Dave Barry: A Journey into My Colon and Yours”Dave Barry’s article on the colonoscopy is perhaps the greatest single work of journalistic humor.

5 You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons.) Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes -- and here I am being kind -- like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon. “Dave Barry: A Journey into My Colon – and Yours,” Miami Herald, Feb. 22, 2008

6 The Big Bang Theory: CBC Television

7

8 “When Not Knowing Math Costs You $15,000”ABC Television

9 $50,000 Question for Charity…She called her husband because, … and I quote… “He’s European.” ABC Television

10

11 You Tube Name: “Millionaire Math is Hard”ABC Television

12

13 Double Jeopardy, H$200

14 What we see…

15 What we see… Two cars leave a rest area at the same time and travel north on I-95. One car averages 56 mph and the other averages 64 mph. The faster car reaches the next rest area ½ hr before the other. What is the distance between rest areas?

16 What the student sees…

17 Seismographs record two types of wave energy (P waves and S waves) that travel through the Earth after an earthquake. Traveling through granite, P waves travel approximately 5 km/sec and S waves travel approximately 3 km/sec. If a geologist working at a seismic station measures a time difference of 40 sec between the arrival of the earthquake’s P waves and S waves, how far from the station is the epicenter?

18

19 S waves arrive P waves arrive Time Difference

20 Sumatra, December 2004 File:US Navy N-9593M-031

21 Haiti, January 2010 File:US Navy N-5244H-150

22 Japan, April, 2011 File:US Navy M-0145H-063

23 Napa Valley, California, August 2014Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

24 Source: USGS

25 Traveling through granite, P waves travel approximately 5 km/sec and S waves travel approximately 3 km/sec. If a geologist working at a seismic station measures a time difference of 40 sec between the arrival of the earthquake’s P waves and S waves, how far from the epicenter is the station?

26 P waves reach the station 60 sec after the quake.(5 km/sec)(60 sec) = 300 km P waves reach the station 60 sec after the quake. S waves reach the station 100 sec after the quake. The distance between station and epicenter is 300 km.

27 Coordinates of Seismic Station (km) Distance from Epicenter (km)1 (0, 0) 300 2 (276, 250) 362 3 (-334, -312) 650

28 Figure from United States Geological Survey (USGS)

29 Coordinates of Seismic Station (km) Distance from Epicenter (km)1 (0, 0) 300 2 (276, 250) 362 3 (-334, -312) 650

30 Coordinates of Seismic Station (km) Distance from Epicenter (km)1 (0, 0) 300 2 (276, 250) 362 3 (-334, -312) 650

31

32 Speaking of Disasters…Julie lives here

33

34

35

36 Latitudes Increase y-axis upwards Increase upwards x-axis Increase tothe right Longitudes increase to the left Orientation of coordinate system. (x, y) versus (lat, long) = (y, x) and positive latitude it taken to the left.

37 Find distance between two consecutive points (spherical trigonometry)Divide by 3 or 6 hr to find speed of forward progress. r  3960 mi  Problem reduces to finding the central angle where the points are not oriented due north-south of each other. s = r

38 Find Distance, Given Latitude and Longitudes = r

39

40

41 People on a three-day lockdown in Freetown, Sierre LeoneVolunteers went door-to-door to check on whether anyone had symptoms. Photo: Michael Duff, AP

42 Photo: Dominique Faget, AFP/Getty ImagesHealthcare worker with Ebola victim in Elwa Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia Photo: Dominique Faget, AFP/Getty Images

43 Photo: Tony Nwosu, European Pressphoto AgencySchool children begin screened for temperature Photo: Tony Nwosu, European Pressphoto Agency

44 Photo: Pius Utomi Ekpei, AFP/Getty ImagesMan having his temperature taken before getting on a plane in Nigeria heading for Saudia Arabia Photo: Pius Utomi Ekpei, AFP/Getty Images

45 Source: “Ebola Virus Diease in West Africa – The First 9 Months of the Epidemic and Forward Projections, “WHO Ebola Response Team, “The New England Journal of Medicine,” September 23, 2014

46 Source: WHO: http://apps. who

47 I started with data collection in June because the reporting process wasn’t consistent by WHO. The researchers had to become organized. Data from different countries, small villages, etc. Source: WHO Hard to get the data because the data changed daily: Reclassification Retrospective investigation, Consolidation of cases and laboratory data Enhanced surveillance Data only cover three countries (those with greatest number of cases). Nigeria and Senegal also have several Outbreak

48

49

50 WHO started tracking the outbreak in late March 2014 with 86 cases in Guinea. They think it started from a two year-old who contracted it from an animal. Which country has outbreak best under control?

51 Why are mortality rates different?Which country has outbreak best under control?

52 “Naïve estimates of the CFR (case fatality rate) derived from the ratio of recorded deaths to recorded cases significantly under-estimate the true CFR since the final clinical outcome of over half of the reported cases is not known.”

53 Death Rates (%) 95% confidence interval

54 Measure of Contagion… Basic reproduction number, R0, of an infection is the number of cases that one case generates on average over the course of its infectious period in an otherwise uninfected population.

55 Vaccinations?... One simple model suggests that the proportion of the population that needs to be vaccinated to prevent sustained spread of the infection is given by:

56 Vaccinations?...

57 Google Flu Trends http://www.google.org/flutrends/about/how.htmlNice application of frequency distribution for key search terms. The search terms such as “flu symptoms” or “cold versus flu” have greater frequency when people are sick with flu-like symptoms. And it’s interesting that the spikes in search queries precede actual confirmed cases of the flu. So people do the search at the first onset of symptoms, and it’s only when symptoms get worse that they see a doctor and their case of the flu is confirmed.

58 Talk about the writers on the Simpsons.

59

60 From Wolfram Alpha…

61 Among the Writers… J. Stewart Burns: BS Mathematics, Harvard University MS Mathematics, UC Berkley David S. Cohen: BS Physics, Harvard University MS Computer Science, UC Berkley Al Jean: BS Mathematics, Harvard University Ken Keeler: BS Applied Mathematics, Harvard PhD Applied Mathematics, Harvard University Jeff Westbrook: BS Physics, Harvard University PhD Computer Science, Princeton University

62 The Big Bang Theory: CBC Television

63 Julie Miller