Who's going to MathCamp 09?

LadyKn1ght

Well, at least Leonid's last name wasn't Zhou Razz

...

Ack, I wish they'd send out the acceptances so more people could post here, introductions are interesting... maybe I'll try and get some more returnees to post.

**Posted:** Wed May 06, 2009 2:18 pm

leoxnlin

...*cough* smart people *cough*

Well, if I ever get accepted,... I'll always wonder how...

And... you can get an idea of what my name is from my username...

and Darmani: I'm sure you'll enjoy Hofstadter's GEB.

**Posted:** Wed May 06, 2009 3:22 pm

_________________
Wilt thou forgive me for my patheticness? maybe

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/weblog.php?w=1097
*sigh*

sussurrus23 · New Member Offline Joined: 06 May 2009 Posts: 1

All right. I'm Sonya (Levitova if you want to get technical, but no one can pronounce my last name properly so I don't use it much). This will be my second Mathcamp and I have to say that I'm very excited to go back. Anyway (I'll probably reiterate that at various points during this novel - also, I use parentheses a lot). Oh, I'm a sophomore (two more years of high-school - shoot me now). I live in Boston, which is sort of the greatest city ever. Not only do I love math - no kidding - I am a language geek. Majorly so. I speak Russian fluently, have taken six years of French and desperately want to learn Japanese, Thai, Hindi, Korean, Tamil, Arabic, Turkish, Mandarin, Italian, German, Spanish... the list goes on. I'm hoping to corral a few people into teaching me something this summer. I can't call myself a hardcore math person. I'm not. But math is really really cool.

In particular, geometry. That's a broad field, I know. But in particular inversive and projective geometry. Both are extraordinarily beautiful in my opinion (Desargues Theorem? I get a rush just thinking about it).

Now some more about things that aren't related to math or linguistics:

Music: So the label "alternative" really bothers me. Really really bothers me. Because my entire iTunes library basically falls under that label. But I listen to very varied stuff. I mean seriously. Noah and the Whale and Daft Punk are not the same thing. But yes. I am a music junkie. I really am. I also listen to a lot of music in languages I don't understand, mostly Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. Don't ask me about K-pop. You will get your ears talked off. Some favorite artists of mine: Her Space Holiday, Daft Punk, Mindless Self Indulgence, Death Cab For Cutie, DBSK, Noah and the Whale, The Beatles, MGMT.

Debate: I love it. I love yelling at people and getting shiny medals for it. I went to world championships this year as part of Team USA. I'm hoping to have a few debates at Mathcamp. Basically, debate is what (all) I do when I'm not procrastinating, doing math, or reading xkcd.

Sports (or lack thereof): I don't do sports. I'm not athletic. I do however play Ultimate. I swim sort-of competitively, I've danced ballet for seven years (never again). I also currently dance flamenco. I do go to an all-girls school, so no partner dancing, but I'm not awkward around guys (I'm awkward in general, but hey, it's Mathcamp, we're all a little weird) - I have too many siblings and guy friends.

Books: Terry Pratchett. It's a little embarrassing but I adore his books. They're such good reading material. Neil Gaiman is great too. I've recently read The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, which was excellent. What else? The Great Gatbsy. The Catcher in the Rye. Ceremony. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I'm also very fond of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. I like classics - The Three Musketeers is one of my favorite books - but I love new and great authors - Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (if you're homophobic, not for you).

Arts: I love to draw. I love to paint. I love oils and watercolors and acrylics and charcoal and pencil and pastels and photography and and and... you get the picture. There's been an art show or two, but nothing major. I have a dA account, but there's nothing special on there. I also enjoy singing.

The computer: I'm a Linux person. I own a Mac. I don't like Windows very much. http://xkcd.com/528/ summarizes my feelings towards Vista pretty well (and yes, I had the comic number memorized).

Politics and religion: So my parents are supposedly Jewish but we're really chill about everything. I describe myself as an atheist Jew but I'm not sure I'm even that. Let's put it this way. Culturally Jewish, no religion whatsoever. Science: it works, bitches. In terms of politics, I am very liberal. As in, if I see elderly men protesting outside an abortion clinic, they. go. down.

And lastly, some random factoids: I blush really easily. At everything. And for some reason, people feel the need to inform me that my face is beet-red. I burned myself really badly with an iron when I was two. Um, apparently I have a very quiet voice. I am not aware of this. I like silver rings and brightly colored sneakers, but I wear a lot of black. I watch anime on the blagotubes, but not a lot of it. (Mushi-shi is glorious, as is Deathnote, at lest before Ep.26. I am also a proud Narutard.) I swear. A lot. I don't know how important this is, but people always seem surprised when I tell them: I'm bisexual. That doesn't mean I'm going to jump everyone in my path. I tend towards straight, but I have had a girlfriend. All right. I think you guys probably know enough. If not too much. I'll stop rambling now and sounding like a prat. See you at MC09!

**Posted:** Wed May 06, 2009 3:56 pm

caffeineboy

I'm Taylor Sutton, returning this year after having been to Mathcamp last year.

Maybe sometime when I get less busy/lazy I'll write something more.

**Posted:** Wed May 06, 2009 4:08 pm

_________________
$\displaystyle\sum_{i=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{F_i}={}\displaystyle\sum_{i=0}^{\infty} \left(\frac{F_{4i+1}+L_{2i+1}+1}{F_{4i+2}} ...$

laughinghead505

Woah you guys wrote a lot... I'm Alina Kononov, going into 12th at the Illinois Math and Science Academy, second year at MathCamp. I can't wait to meet everyone!! Very Happy

**Posted:** Wed May 06, 2009 6:01 pm

_________________
-Laughinghead505 Smile

e=mc2.kroll · P versus NP Offline Joined: 19 Sep 2008 Posts: 32

**Posted:** Thu May 07, 2009 7:39 am

Darmani · Poincare Conjecture Offline Joined: 04 Apr 2008 Posts: 126

1) I apologize for my vague terminology. When I said "the fun of G for an infinite period of time", I was thinking $\int_{t_0}^{\infty}Fun_Gdt$ , with $Fun_G$ a constant, but I suppose a more correct statement would be $\int_{t_0}^{\infty}Fun_G(t)dt$ , with $Fun_G$ a function of $t$ , which is basically your statement.

2) I said "asymptotically just as fun as." You'll quickly learn at Mathcamp that that means that $lim_{n\rightarrow\infty}\frac {\int_{t_0}^{n}Fun_{Mao}(t)dt}{\int_{t_0}^{\infty}Fun_G(t)dt} = 1$ . But wait! That statement only works under my previous false assumption that $Fun_x(t) = k$ where $x$ is any given game and $k$ is some constant. I suppose that would be a flaw in my proof. Luckily, my proof still works if the fun value of Mao is positive, which is a true statement.

And Mao which includes playing G for an infinitely long period is still Mao -- all the rules are still active the whole way through.

(And this is analysis using the assumption that fun is a scalar quantity.)

Edit: Just remembered, f(x) is asymptotic to g(x) really means $lim_{x\rightarrow\infty}\frac {f(x)}{g(x} = k$ for some finite nonzero constant $k$ . Pretend in the above that it means $lim_{x\rightarrow\infty}\frac {f(x)}{g(x} = 1$ .

**Posted:** Thu May 07, 2009 8:46 am

Zeph · Hodge Conjecture Offline Joined: 29 Jul 2008 Posts: 77

Hmmm... I really hope they send out decisions tomorrow... the suspense is killing me! I hope I get in.

**Posted:** Thu May 07, 2009 5:37 pm

benzi455 · Poincare Conjecture Offline Joined: 02 Jun 2008 Posts: 225

Suspense! And, good Lord, looking at all the amazingly multi-faceted and interesting people who are applying, I hope I can get in!

**Posted:** Sat May 09, 2009 8:30 pm

e=mc2.kroll · P versus NP Offline Joined: 19 Sep 2008 Posts: 32

finally have time to respond to this ^^

**Posted:** Sun May 10, 2009 4:00 pm

Darmani · Poincare Conjecture Offline Joined: 04 Apr 2008 Posts: 126

I'm probably going to need to read that again to follow along, but now I really want you to get into camp. Razz

**Posted:** Sun May 10, 2009 7:52 pm

Darmani · Poincare Conjecture Offline Joined: 04 Apr 2008 Posts: 126

There's some atypical language in the above post which gave me trouble (when I first read "each time a figure is taken," I thought it meant "each time the present value of the fun function is recorded" -- I take it you meant what we call "piece"), and I still don't understand how the chess/Mao hybrid is clearly more fun than Mao, nor what the word limitation has to do with anything. But I would like to point out that I've been aware from the start that my original proof applies to all Nomic games (games where players can make their own rules), meaning, in theory, all Nomic games are the most fun and are just as fun as each other.

**Posted:** Mon May 11, 2009 5:22 am

firebat03

Anyway...
I'm Josh A. There were three people named Josh at camp last year, but we each had distinct last initials, so it wasn't too bad. I hear there were more in previous years too, but this will only be my second time at MC. I like the number seven and the letter psi and the color orange. In terms of math, I like combinatorics the most, especially graph theory, though any math is fun. I live in Canada, though my favorite television show is the Colbert Report, and a while ago I lived in France for 3 months. Apparently I'm okay at chemistry and biology, but I prefer physics and CS. Oh ya, and I go to the University of Toronto Schools. Hope to see you all at camp this summer!

**Posted:** Mon May 11, 2009 3:09 pm

benzi455 · Poincare Conjecture Offline Joined: 02 Jun 2008 Posts: 225

Your proof is wrong! Mao is not the funest game ever. Here is my counter-argument:

Suppose Mao were the funest game ever. Then, by Webster, Mao is lamentable; doleful. But if Mao is doleful, then it cannot possibly be fun. Then, simply choose euchre, which is fun. Euchre is therefore more fun than Mao, a contradiction.

**Posted:** Mon May 11, 2009 3:09 pm

ycz9000

Leon Zhou here. Looks like camp has the potential to be very interesting this year... (By the way, the zh- diphthong in Chinese is pronounced more or less the same as j (as in "John Conway") is in English, or dʒ in IPA.)

This'll be my second year at camp, I live in San Diego, I'll be in my senior year next year. Hobbies include what seem to be standards for Asian males at Mathcamp: cubing (somewhat well), juggling (not very well), Super Smash Bros. [Melee] (fairly well), and pen spinning (yay!).

Looking forward to more awesome board and card games (working on ruleset for Egyptian Mao Huh?

), puzzle hunt, relays, and random entertainment, though also hoping to do more math than I did last year. And sleeping a bit more. And maybe learning Foodtongue. Hm.

Any more San Diegans coming this year? I know several alumni from last year are...

**Posted:** Mon May 11, 2009 7:38 pm

_________________
A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems. ~Paul Erdos

leoxnlin

**Posted:** Tue May 12, 2009 8:40 am

_________________
Wilt thou forgive me for my patheticness? maybe

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/weblog.php?w=1097
*sigh*

Zeph · Hodge Conjecture Offline Joined: 29 Jul 2008 Posts: 77

Heck yes! I got in Mr. Green

I'll post an intro later (I'm at school right now >_>) but I'm not as interesting as you guys anyways. But dang, I got in! Smile

**Posted:** Tue May 12, 2009 10:13 am

A.J · New Member Offline Joined: 20 Sep 2008 Posts: 11

I got in too...

I think it is because I solved all of the qualifying quiz, I am not sure.

But yeah, I am not sure f I can go or not.

But in case I am going:

I am Amlesh Jayakumar from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

I am in grade 11. I am the head of math and computer science club at my school. I play the oboe.....and I was on tv for reach for the top Mr. Green

so, if I am going, I'll see some of you there

**Posted:** Tue May 12, 2009 11:50 am

junggi

oh hey i got in
maybe i should write a lengthier intro

**Posted:** Tue May 12, 2009 12:30 pm

_________________
Mathematics is like checkers in being suitable for the young, not too difficult, amusing, and without peril to the state.-Plato

shelly32494

LEON! [zeph] yayyy ;]

hey, :O i got in too XD yayyy.
not sure if im going yet. [waiting on promys i guess. and seeing debate camp schedules]

but in case i do go...

im michelle yang [*gasp* im a girl Razz

] from madison wisconsin [yes. there are a lot of cows. no. i dont live on a farm. -.-] i'll be a rising junior. besides math, i really like debate/speech & music. xD oh and i went to amsp last summer [i highly doubt anything can top that.... ^_^]

so if i go, i'll cya there. ;]

**Posted:** Tue May 12, 2009 12:46 pm