Inside

IIMS NEWS October 2004 Page 1 IIMS NEWS ______________________________________________________ Being the newsletter of The Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences Assembled with care by Freda Anderson with the vital assistance of Merrill Bowers, the contributors and readers ______________________________________________________ Contents From the Head of IIMS ........................................................ 1 News of the people ............................................................... 2 Long lost and now found children ....................................... 2 To Realize ............................................................................ 3 Dates in History ................................................................... 4 October research news and views ....................................... 5 2004 IIMS postgraduate activities....................................... 7 The Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach ....... 8 Industrial mathematics initiative in Thailand ..................... 9 Perplexing puzzles ............................................................... 10 Laughter lines ...................................................................... 11 Wordles ................................................................................ 11 People puzzle ....................................................................... 12 Notices ................................................................................. 13 Thank you to the contributors this month. We’ve a contribution by the Postgraduate Student Committee – an insight into learning from experience. Academic activities and advice. Mick Roberts had his cake and ate it too! Some thoughts for living in the present plus special historical moments. Humour and fun. Depending upon the origin of an article English and American spelling may be found together! From the Head of IIMS Robert McKibbin Staff News Arrivals Welcome to Gaven Martin, Professor of Pure Mathematics. Gaven brings a world class academic history with him and a reputation in his field that will enhance the strength of the Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences. He comes to Massey‟s Albany campus after more than 15 years at the University of Auckland, the last three years as a James Cook Fellow. Gaven was awarded a Personal Chair at Auckland in 1992 at the age of 33 and is understood to have been the youngest Professor in the recent history IIMS NEWS October 2004 Page 2 of New Zealand at the time. His research areas are in non-linear analysis and low dimensional topology and geometry. The citation at his election to a Fellow of the Royal Society of NZ in 1996 said he was widely regarded as the top pure mathematician in New Zealand. He has received numerous grants and fellowships and many distinguished visiting positions at top international universities. He is a Council member of the Royal Society of NZ, Chair of the Mathematical and Information Sciences panel, a director of the Mathematics Research Institute and a board member of NZIMA, a Centre of Research Excellence. He is managing editor of two international research journals. Gaven comes with three Postdoctoral Fellows on external funds: Dr Richard Evans (NZIMA funded), and Drs Mark Harmer and John Holt (both NZS&T funded). Gaven's study is IIMS3.23, while the Postdocs will be in IIMS2.13. Welcome (back) to Dr Rezaul Hasan, Senior Lecturer in Computer Engineering. Rezaul's study is IIMS3.20. Rashid, meanwhile, has moved to IIMS3.21. Dr Fahkrul Alam will take up his Lectureship in CE in January (IIMS3.19). An impending "going" I regret to let you know that Lorri O'Brien, our IT Manager, has given notice of her intention to resign from the end of February. She will be sorely missed. We will have a function to farewell Lorri in due course. The process to seek a replacement for Lorri is now underway. The process for the appointment of the Chair in IS is in the shortlisting phase. Bird Brain or clever Pukekos?? Every morning when the Pukekos spot the red car and they hear my call – which is... „puk puk pukie‟ shouted several times, they run down the hill and across the car park to the car and then follow me to the grass where I feed them. I am told by staff in Massey Contact, that they call me the Pukeko lady. PS The one in the skirt is not a Pukeko. Merrill Long lost and now found children submitted by Tom Moir You could never tell by looking at me in the face but my Father‟s mother was a Cree Indian from Churchill Manitoba, Canada. In this frozen Polar Bear wilderness my Grandfather had set out, about 1916, to help run the Hudsons Bay trading company. He was a trapper and traded with the local people in the area. My Grandfather Henry-Cook Moir, had come from a large farming family in Netherley, North-East Scotland. Many members of his family had emigrated abroad – including one to New Zealand, one to South Africa and one to India. It was quite common for newcomers like my Grandfather to marry the local Indians. He married a lady called Christine Massan (they took western names) They had four children, two of whom survived because my Grandmother simply gave them up to my great Aunt in Scotland who reared them. How do you give up two sons? This was the supreme sacrifice for a mother. The mortality rate amongst children was dire in those days in that sort of climate. News of the people by Merrill Bowers Merrill Bowers collates this material on general news relating to IIMS people. IIMS NEWS October 2004 Page 3 Before she parted with her two boys, she gave them some beadwork to remind them of their origins. My father was 4 and his brother 6 when they left Canada. Both spoke Cree when they arrived in Scotland. (See picture of Christine and her two sons.) I have now a new branch of the family in Canada with emails coming in daily from Cree half cousins I had never heard of. It is a sad story which has a happy ending. CBC are talking about doing some sort of documentary on our family. The Glasgow museum researcher, Alison Brown, has already written one paper on the origin of the beadwork and is writing a second paper. Watch this space. To Realize by Galkadowite Senaratne To realize The value of a sister Ask someone Who doesn't have one. To realize The value of ten years: Ask a newly Divorced couple. Shortly afterwards my Grandfather died in his early thirties of pneumonia and all contact with the Cree side of the family was lost. Previously he had written letters to his two sons describing his adventures. My sister and I always wondered what had happened to our Grandmother and whether she re-married. Before I left Scotland in 1999 I left my share of the beadwork with the Glasgow Museum and art gallery Kelvin Grove, as I thought it too precious to be in my possession. One of the researchers there tried to track down its origin and made a fair job of it, travelling to Canada and talking with the local Cree. She was about to give up tracking down my Grandmother‟s relatives when she got some unexpected help from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Just a few days ago in early November I received an email from her with the contact details of two direct descendants. It turns out my Grandmother re-married and had four more children, one of which still lives! To realize The value of four years: Ask a graduate. To realize The value of one year: Ask a student who Has failed a final exam. To realize The value of nine months: Ask a mother who gave birth to a still born. To realize The value of one month: Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby. To realize The value of one week: Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper. To realize The value of one hour: Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet. To realize The value of one minute: Ask a person Who has missed the train, bus or plane. IIMS NEWS To realize The value of one-second: Ask a person Who has survived an accident. October 2004 Page 4 To realize The value of one millisecond: Ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics. To realize the value of a friend: Lose one. Time waits for no one. Treasure every moment you have. You will treasure it even more when you can share it with someone special. the only Soviet General never to be defeated. Slowly the Germans forced their way into Stalingrad. The combatants faced each other across a street or from one room to the next in a ruined building. Panzers were very vulnerable in the narrow roads, hemmed in by piles of rubble. Soviet troops knocked holes through the walls of adjoining houses so they could move the length of a street under cover. As days changed into weeks, the ferocity of the struggle never abated. Casualties on both sides were horrendous, but each time enough reinforcements arrived to ensure that the stalemate continued. The Germans used elite “Engineer” platoons, skilled in the use of demolitions and able to produce smoke screens to cover advances across exposed streets. The Soviets made use of snipers who would perch for hours in vantage points, picking off German soldiers. This aspect of the battle is excellently portrayed in the film “The Enemy at the Gates”. A German officer wrote “we have fought for fifteen days over a single house, with mortars, grenades, machine guns and bayonets. We have lost 54 dead. The front is a corridor between burnt-out rooms; it is the ceiling between two floors. Ask any soldier what half an hour of handto-hand struggle is like and imagine Stalingrad; 80 days and 80 nights of hand-to-hand struggles. By day Stalingrad is an enormous cloud of blinding smoke, lit by reflecting fires. And when night arrives, the dogs plunge into the Volga and swim desperately for the other bank. Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones cannot bear it for long; only men endure.” Although the German juggernaut drove slowly forward, the tanks were being lost at a rate that could not be replaced. Because a substantial part of the German army was many miles away, fighting in the Caucasus, infantry reinforcements for Stalingrad could only be found by denuding the units defending the long, vulnerable supply line stretching back westwards. Much of the defense of this line was entrusted to poorly equipped German allies – Hungarians, Romanians and Italians. General Zhukov was well aware of the weakness of the German rear areas. He fed just enough reinforcements into Stalingrad to keep the Germans occupied while steadily accumulating the rest of his forces and, in particular his artillery, in two groups – one group about 100km to the north of the city and the other about 60km to the south. The Germans were so preoccupied with Dates in History by Chris Scogings 23 November 1942 The turning point of the Second World War In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. By December they had made enormous gains, captured over a million Soviet troops and were established on a front line running from Leningrad to Rostov on the Black Sea. The Red Army counter-attacked during the winter and drove the Germans away from Moscow but the line in the south remained substantially unchanged. During 1942, as the winter and the Soviet counterattacks ebbed, the Germans made new plans. They would strike in the south with two army groups – one moving south-east, into the oilrich area of the Caucasus mountains, the other moving initially due east and then sweeping north to encircle the Soviet armies around Moscow. The pivot for the second group would be the city of Stalingrad on the Volga River. During August, German troops attacked Stalingrad but it was well defended and the initial attacks failed. More troops and aircraft were moved up and the city was heavily bombed which resulted in nearly every wooden building being burnt to the ground. But the huge concrete industrial areas still stood: the Tractor Factory (now producing tanks), the Barricades arms plant, the Red October steel works – all became fortresses. Both sides fed in reinforcements, including General Zhukov – rd IIMS NEWS October 2004 Page 5 the battle in Stalingrad that they were unaware of the Soviet build up on their flanks. On the 19th November, the Red Army unleashed a massive artillery barrage followed by a strong tank attack on the Italian and Romanian Armies. For three days the German front broke up on both sides of Stalingrad, as the generals struggled to pull infantry out of the maze of city streets to protect the rear. On the 23rd November, Soviet troops captured the huge bridge over the Don River at Kalach, over which passed every ration and every bullet for the German spearhead in Stalingrad. Tanks from the northern Red Army group crossed the bridge and headed south where they made contact with tanks from the southern group moving north. The Germans in Stalingrad were trapped in a pocket 40km from east to west and 20km from north to south. The nearest friendly troops were 60km to the west. The first link in the chain that was to throttle a quarter of a million German soldiers had been forged, and the turning point of the Second World War had arrived. his new position, contained some general advice that I would like to share. Aitken writes: "At times you will have to give a general lecture to a non-student body. In such a case study the prospective audience. If they are largely "non-technical", your address can be nontechnical; that is, don't bother about mathematical niceties, etc.; quote them if you like, and say they can be studied at leisure elsewhere or in due course; confine your talk to applications and interesting and simple examples. Divide up the time, too, and keep an eye on your watch. The main thing is to have something for everybody. Avoid, too, any appearance of being rushed or hassled. The "technical" talk, to researchers and experts in a special line, is a completely different matter. Here you need 50 minutes or an hour, and need not be afraid of entering into mathematical minutiae, etc.; though once again you should divide up the time and keep your watch in view. Even the way you write your notes is a help; one side of a sheet only, sheets of equal and not too small size, numbered with large figures. Detach each as you finish reading it, and quickly lay it to the left, not even turning it over, while uncovering the next sheet. If it is typed, it may be better. Also never turn back; you may have to look back; that is why the previous sheet is left unturned. (You may say of course that I myself do not always conform to these precepts I am giving you; well neither I do, but never mind!)". It seems hard to believe that this was written 55 years ago and even though many of us now use modern tools such as PowerPoint to deliver presentations, the advice is still sound. On another matter, all academic staff should consider participation in at least the local professional society linked with their discipline and take the effort to attend and present papers at the associated annual conferences and meetings. There is funding available within the Institute to facilitate this and it is to your advantage to take the effort to get to know others in your field, and to let others know what you are working on. The establishment of a "network" in your field is important. You are all recommended to also take advantage of the overseas duties funds to attend international conferences either as conference leave or when you are on duties overseas. Take time to become familiar with the overseas duties regulations. The manual is available on the web. Go to the website http://policyguide.massey.ac.nz/Procedure.asp October research news and views by Jeff Hunter I was recently contacted by a colleague in the U.S. who had retired and was disposing of some of his surplus material. He had a photocopy of correspondence between A.C. Aitken, a famous New Zealand mathematician, and his PhD student, A. A. Rayner. He considered that the material was too valuable to throw out. (The originals are held at the University of Otago Library.) Aitken was at the University of Edinburgh and Rayner was off-campus. The correspondence, which was sent to me, was fascinating. The advice and recommendations to Rayner were superb. The material covered substantial integration of matrix theory and statistics and although one did not have the correspondence from Rayner to Aitken it was clear that an excellent working arrangement evolved. Rayner completed his PhD and returned to New Zealand before leaving to the Natal Agricultural Research Station in Pietermaritzburg. The last letter in July 1949, sent to South Africa congratulating Rayner on IIMS NEWS October 2004 Page 6 and click on the link "Procedures for Overseas Duties. The funds that the university make available for you are allocated for use within each septennium (seven year period) and if you don't use the funding it is lost and cannot be carried forward to a subsequent period. Activity during October 2004 Mick Roberts Mick Roberts was an invited participant at an international conference in mathematical biology entitled Design and analysis of infectious disease studies, held at the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach in October 2004 Chris Scogings Attended the IASTED International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems (PDCS 2004) at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he presented a paper entitled ”Parallel Synchronization Issues in Simulating Artificial Life”. Graeme Wake Invited speaker by Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, where he gave seminars, lead workshops and gave advice on the initiative to develop Industrial Mathematics in Thailand. Hawick, K. A., & James, H. A. (2004). SmallWorld effects in wireless agent sensor networks. International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Systems, E-Commerce and Agent Technology. Cat 1. Accepted. James, H. A., Hawick, K. A., & Scogings, C. J. (2005, January 31-February 3). Teaching students how to be Computer Scientists through student projects. Paper presented at the Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE2005), Newcastle, NSW. Cat 5. Accepted. James, H. A., & Scogings, C. J. (2004, November 4). Parallel synchronisation issues in simulating artificial life. Paper presented at the Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems, Boston, MA. Cat 5. Accepted. James, H. A., Scogings, C. J., & Hawick, K. A. (2004). A framework and simulation engine for studying artificial life. Research Letters in the Information and Mathematical Sciences, 6, 143-155. Cat 6. Hawick, K. A., & James, H. A. (2004). Managing community membership information in a small-world grid. Research Letters in the Information and Mathematical Sciences. Cat 6. Accepted. James, H. A., & Hawick, K. A. (2004). Scientific data management in a grid environment. Research Letters in the Information and Mathematical Sciences. Cat 6. Accepted. James, H. A. (2004, June 6). Data mining in applied computer science. Paper presented at the Data Mining Workshop, Massey University, Albany, NZ. Cat 14. James, H. A. (2004, September 2). An introduction to parallel supercomputing with helix. Paper presented at the Parallel Computing Workshop at BioInformatics Conference, Massey University, Albany, NZ. Jones, B. (2004, September 7). Modeling microarray data with mgaussian graphical models. Paper presented at the International Conference on Bioinformatics 2004, Auckland, NZ. Cat 14. Laing, C. (2004, September 2). Spiral waves in nonlocal equations. Paper presented at the New Zealand of Mathematics and Its Applications, Raglan, NZ. Cat 14. Parsons, D. (2004). Java for experienced programmers: KiwiPlan. September 1-October 11. Research Output at IIMS Collected for September 2004 Barczak, A. L. C. (2004, October 4). Experiments with object tracking in the presence of partial occlusions. Paper presented at the Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences Postgraduate Conference, Albany, NZ. Cat 7. Cooper, S. (2004). Sums of squares and sums of triangular numbers. University of Singapore, September 1, Singapore. Cat 14. Ghosh, M. (2004, September 15). Seasonal population dynamics of ticks and its influence on infection transmission: a semi-discrete approach. Paper presented at the Landcare Research Conference, Queenstown, NZ. Cat 14. IIMS NEWS October 2004 Page 7 Rashid, M. A. (2004, 12-15 August). Education export from New Zealand to Bangladesh: Issues and opportunities. Proceedings of the Conference on Internationalisation of Education in New Zealand: Successes, Challenges and Opportunities, Auckland. Cat 5. Rashid, M. A. (2004). Performance of voice over frame relay. Research Letters in the Information and Mathematical Sciences, 6, pp 41-45. Cat 6. Rashid, M. A. (2005). Evolution of ERP systems. In Encyclopaedia of Information Science and Technology. USA: Idea Group. Accepted. Roberts, M. G., & Heesterbeek, J. A. P. (2004). Mathematical models in epidemiology. In J. A. Filar (Ed.), Mathematical Models, in the Encyclopaedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS). Oxford, UK: Developed under the Auspices of the UNESCO, EOLSS. Cat 4. Roberts, M. G. (2004, September 2). Integral cell lines. Prog Biophysics Mol Biol, 85, pp 353-368. Cat 1 Wake, G. C., & Shah, A., A. (2004) The existence of steady states to a combustion model with internal heating. Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications. 5(3), pp. 421-439. Cat 1. Wake, G. C. (2004, September 2). Distributeddelay differential equations. Paper presented at the Institute Meeting, Raglan, NZ. Cat 14. Wake, G. C. (2004, September 16). Modelling of structure of cell populations symposium, Queenstown, NZ. Cat 14. 2004 IIMS postgraduate activities by Tony Meyer equation models for the dynamics of epidemics. Paper presented at the Thematic programme on dynamical systems and numerical analysis, Raglan, NZ. Cat 14. Wake, G. C., Chase, J. G., Shaw, G., M., Lin, J., Doran, C.V., Hann, C. E., Lotz, T., & Broughton, R. (2005). Targeted glycaemic reduction in critical care using closed-loop control. Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics (DT&T), ISSN: 1520-9156. Accepted. Wake, G. C., Chase, J. G., Shaw, G. M., Lin, J., Doran, C. V., Hann, C. E., Robertson, M. B., Browne, P. M., Lotz, T., & Broughton, R. (2004). Adaptive bolusbased targeted glucose regulation of hyperglycaemia in critical care. Medical Engineering and Physics. Cat 1. Accepted. Wake, G. C., van-Brunt, B., & Marshall, J. C. (2004). Holomorphic solutions to pantograph type equations with neutral fixed points. Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, 295, pp 557569. Cat 1. Wake, G. C., Basse, B., Baguley, B. C., Marshall, E., & Wall, D. J. N. (2004) Modelling cell population growth with applications to cancer therapy in human Genesis Mostly as a result of attending the Australian Conference on Artificial Life, at the end of last year, Mathew and Tony had decided that a series of short, informal seminars would be fantastic for IIMS to have in 2004. The original intention was mostly to have these for Computer Science staff and postgraduates, and the motivation, was to both have a better understanding of what everyone else was doing [altruistic], and to get more practice in giving presentations [selfish]. The idea was mentioned to various people in Computer Science, and eventually made its way elsewhere. Concurrently, the Institute had decided that there should be a seminar series for postgraduate students in the Institute and that the "Beyond Graduation" event should be replaced by a postgraduate conference. One student from each of the disciplines (and the Albany Postgraduate Advisory Committee Representative - Matthew) would be coerced into a committee that would organise these events. And so the Informal/Postgraduate Seminar Series and Inaugural IIMS Post-Graduate Conference were born. Postmortem Both events are well over now, and we feel that they were both an overall success. Matthew and Tony (and hopefully others!) certainly have a better understanding of what research everyone is IIMS NEWS October 2004 Page 8 doing, and lots of people (including a number of the postgrads) have managed to practice giving presentations. The seminar series was extremely well supported by staff (thanks again!), although student support wasn't so strong, unfortunately. In fact, in the beginning we had to get extra chairs into the room each week (don't tell any fire wardens) and even at the end the room was still mostly full. Along the way there were some very entertaining and informative talks. It looks like the series will continue again next year, although probably on a different day. The plan is to replace the carrot (afternoon tea) with the stick (compulsory participation), so hopefully student involvement will strengthen. We hope that staff will continue to give seminars, however, as we believe that they're a great addition to the Institute's line of events. The format is likely to remain the same (two talks, 15 minutes each), although incorporating some question time, and there could be a room change (IIMS Lab 3 isn't popular, and a venue close to Quad A would be good for a trial - the trouble is that there aren't many feasible rooms). The Future The conference, too, was a success, and we are pleased to announce here for the first time the call for papers for the 2005 IIMS Postgraduate Conference. For those of you who are postgrads, this is your chance to have an early think about what you might want to present next year. For everyone, it's a chance to let next year's postgraduates know exactly what is required right at the start of the year. http://www.massey.ac.nz/~iimspg/conference/ call.html We have quite a few changes planned for the 2nd conference: venue change (to the Atrium), later in the year (very start of study break), later submission dates, a better submission process & templates with a more comprehensive review, and more. One always contentious issue is prizes. Apart from the simple question of whether there should be prizes or not, there are many issues about how they should be judged and what the prizes should be for. Unfortunately, the presentation of the prizes this year gave the impression that there was a prize for each of the disciplines - this was most definitely not the case (at least, it was not the instructions given to the judges!). We felt that one-prize-perdiscipline would be unfair given the large disparity in the number of students in each discipline, and would ignore the possibility of more than one of the best posters/papers coming from students in the same discipline. (That the prizes did end up being more-or-less one-perdiscipline is, admittedly, somewhat suspicious, but let's assume that was a coincidence). For next year, apart from minor clarifications, we plan to offer a "first conference" prize for the best paper presented by a student who has not attended any conference before (probably most of the 700 level students, maybe the 800 level ones, and very early PhD students). For the posters, we plan to have one prize for the poster with best visual presentation and content (partly for those that aren't able to be there on the day). We also hope that we will be able to convince the ‟Research Letters„ editors to publish the best conference paper in an issue of RLIMS. If you have any suggestions for the postgraduate activity next year, which you haven't already suggested, please do so! In addition, apart from Joanne, the members of this year's post grad committee aren't able to continue next year (as they don't have a full year of study left), so any suggestions about postgraduate students to coerce into the role would be great - PhD students are not required, any postgraduate will do. You can still reach the committee via iimspg@massey.ac.nz. 2004 IIMS Postgraduate Committee: Alastair Nisbett, David Munroe, Joanne Mann, Matthew Walker, Tony Meyer & Vai Yoganothan. The Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach by Mick Roberts The Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut (Mathematics Research Institute) is on a heavily forested hillside overlooking the village of Oberwolfach-Walke in the Black Forest in Southern Germany. The Institute hosts research workshops in all areas of mathematics. Typically each meeting lasts one week, is organized by two or three international stars, and is attended by about forty to fifty invited participants. On 17-23 October it was the turn of „Design and IIMS NEWS October 2004 Page 9 Analysis of Infectious Disease Studies‟ (organizers Niels Becker, ANU; Klaus Dietz, Tübingen and Niels Keiding, Copenhagen); so as the semester finished I flew to Singapore then Frankfurt, took an inter-city to Offenburg, a local train to Hausach, a railcar to Wolfach and a taxi to the MFO. The workshop was informally organized, each person who wished to speak was allocated forty minutes with half the time for presentation and the rest for vigorous discussion. Workshop hours were 9.00-12.00 and 4.00-6.00, with time in the afternoon for a walk in the forest. Less structured discussion groups were also arranged for the evenings. The lecture facilities are first class and the library excellent, containing 41,000 books and subscribing to 470 periodicals. Sufficient computers are available to give everyone access to the internet and to the usual mathematical software, but most of these are Sun workstations running Unix which slowed some people (including me) down. The Institute publicizes that no Microsoft products are supported. Some brave souls plugged their notebooks into the LAN with varying degrees of success. The Institute provides accommodation and food free of charge to all participants. You are issued with a named serviette cover on arrival. These are colour-coded so that the staff know who requires vegetarian, dairy free, etc. meals; and they are randomly distributed so that you don‟t sit with the same person all the time. The gong is sounded to summon guests to meals. Despite that formality a relaxed honesty prevails: none of the rooms are locked and everything from wine to postage stamps is available with cash to be placed in a wooden box, or the amount owed noted on a sheet. On Wednesday afternoon all participants had to walk 8 kms through the forest to a neighbouring village for black forest cherry cake, then 8 kms back. On Thursday a musical evening was declared, with representatives from each country required to make an offering. Happily David Scott from Auckland was present and performed some commendable Schumann lieder; he then lowered the tone by joining the Australians in a rendition of „The redback on the toilet seat‟. Another Oberwolfach tradition is that all participants write a summary of their current research in the record book, in their own handwriting. This was strictly enforced, and it puts you in some very good company. In fact, the meeting itself puts you in good company and the Institute provides the perfect environment for the development of collaborative research. As well as the workshops there is also a „Research in Pairs‟ programme where groups of 2-4 can work together at the institute on approved projects. Details are available at http://www.mfo.de/. If anybody gets a chance to join an Oberwolfach workshop in their research area I would recommend that they take it, it was a rewarding and stimulating week. Industrial mathematics initiative in Thailand by Graeme Wake Massey University at Auckland's Centre for Mathematics in Industry has just completed a twostaged process to assist the Thailand Mathematics community to prepare an Industrial Mathematics Initiative for their country. Professors Robert McKibbin and Graeme Wake from Massey's Centre made extended visits in May and October respectively at the invitation of Thailand's Chulalongkorn University. Both gave seminars and conducted workshops on this theme. Professor McKibbin also was an invited speaker at the National Mathematics Conference of Thailand in May in Chiang Mai and Professor Wake assisted the Co-operative Research Network in Mathematics (Thailand) to present their case for Thai Industry Federation support of a sustained initiative in this area on Monday 18 October. The Centre will endeavour to continue to support this programme as it develops. A synergy is likely to emerge with the local Mathematics in Industry Study Groups for Australasia which are currently being run by Massey's Centre until 2006. IIMS NEWS October 2004 Page 10 More on 'The hole through - and age of the Earth' by Scott Whineray The 'hole' problem, discussed by Tom Moir and friends in the last issue, is a happy hunting ground for physics lecturers setting SHM problems at 200 level. The question generally runs like this: Imagine a straight, diametrical hole were drilled through the Earth and an object dropped into it. What time would elapse before the object reached the antipode and with what speed would it pass through the Earth's centre? Assume the Earth is a perfect sphere, of uniform density, and not rotating. [42.1min; 7.9km/s - also the speed required for an Earth-skimming satellite] If the lecturer were feeling prickly the question could be sharpened to this: If the hole were straight but not vertically directed - so it emerged not in Spain but at, say, Sydney - what time would elapse before the dropped object emerged at Bondi beach? [The same time as before] ......... Chris Scogings, in his 'History' column discusses the Age of the Earth, and touches on another favourite, related, 200 level problem, generally framed like this: The supernova event responsible for the production of uranium on Earth must have produced the 238 and 235 isotopes in equal quantities. Given that uranium ore now contains 99.3% of the 238 isotope, the remainder being 235, and the half lives for 238 and 235 are 4.5 x109 yr and 7.1 x 108 yr, respectively, determine how long ago the supernova event occurred. [6 x 10 yr] This is significantly larger than the accepted value of 4.5 billion years for the age of the Earth. Perhaps it took 1.5 billion years for the dust to gather into the solar system? Incidentally, repeated mathematical simulations of the dust accretion process show that, on average, six planets are formed. As 9 solar systems go then, ours is normal; which is a bit of a let down for those of us, like myself, who thought we were, in universal terms, special. Perplexing puzzles by Robert McKibbin The Prisoner's Dilemma - Resolved A prisoner is taken into room which has two doors. One leads to freedom, the other to certain destruction. There are two guards in the room. One guard always tells the truth, and the other guard always lies. The prisoner does not know which is which. The prisoner is allowed to ask one question of only one of the guards. What question should she ask in order to ensure she can become free? Answer: A Way Out of The Prisoner's Dilemma: "If you were the other guard, which door would you say leads to freedom?" Then, take the other door. ………… The ‘odd-ball’ puzzle below will continue until a correct answer is sent to Robert An "odd-ball" puzzle You are given 12 ball-bearings (metal spheres) that all look and feel exactly the same. However, one is very slightly heavier or lighter than the others, which all weigh exactly the same. You are given a balance, and must find the "odd ball out", and whether it is lighter or heavier than the others, in no more than 3 "weighings". How do you do it? Note: A balance (like an old chemical balance) allows you to only qualitatively compare weights, not to measure weights. ………… New Puzzle A chicken-and-egg problem If a hen and a half laid an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs would one hen lay in a week? IIMS NEWS October 2004 Page 11 Laughter lines submitted by David Wilton A panel of doctors were asked to vote on the new hospital issue. The Allergists voted to scratch it the Dermatologists preferred no rash moves the Gastro-enterologists had a gut feeling about it the Neurologists thought the administration had a lot of nerve the Obstetricians stated they were laboring under a mis-conception the Ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted the Pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!" while the Pediatricians said, "Grow up!" The Psychiatrists thought it was madness the Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing the Radiologists could see right through it the Internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow but the Plastic Surgeon said "This puts a whole new face on the matter" the Podiatrists thought it was a step forward but the Urologists felt the scheme wouldn't hold water the Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas the Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no. In the end, the Proctologists left the decision up to some asshole who didn't give a crap! ......... Canadian liquor manufacturers have accepted the Health Canada's suggestion that the following warning labels be placed immediately on all varieties of alcohol containers: WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is a major factor in dancing like a loony. WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them. WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to think you can sing. WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to believe that ex lovers are really dying for you to telephone them at four in the morning. WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you can logically converse with members of the opposite sex without spitting. WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may create the illusion that you are tougher, smarter, faster and better looking than most people. WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to think people are laughing WITH you. WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may be a major factor in getting your ass kicked. WARNING: The crumsumpten of alcohol may Mack you tink you kan tpye reel gode. Wordles submitted by Freda Anderson Hijacked from my partner‟s end-of-year class fun for his ESOL students; enjoyable for IIMS too, I hope. Perhaps you‟d like to make up your own. Answers: First one given to establish the directional thinking. Others in the next issue. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. SIDE SIDE BAN ANA Answer: Side by side. YOU / JUST / ME ONCE A TIME NOON LAZY DEAL 2UM +2UM WHEATHER TIMING TIM ING 8. 9. WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you are whispering when you are not. IIMS NEWS October 2004 Page 12 People puzzle submitted by someone ?? Last Month An honourable mention for Carlo Laing for the first correct answer. Last month was of course Graeme Wake or was it this person? Double-take!! Ask Graeme for an explanation! This Month We’ve got two lovely photos for this month’s time-travel to the past – no hints, as apparently last month’s was too easy!! No. 1 A delightful couple – now celebrating their 40th Wedding Anniversary Who are they? and... No. 2 Who is this? Prize: For the first correct answer emailed to f.anderson@massey.ac.nz - an honourable mention in next month’s newsletter or simply a fun guessing game amongst yourselves! IIMS NEWS October 2004 Page 13 Notices Mathematics-in-Industry Study Group 2005 This is being organised by the Centre for Mathematics in Industry, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand. Auckland DATES: Monday 24 – Friday 28 January, 2005 VENUE: Massey University (Albany) – It immediately precedes the annual Applied Mathematics Conference (ANZIAM 2005), in Napier, New Zealand. Auckland DIRECTOR: Professor Graeme Wake g.c.wake@massey.ac.nz ADMINISTRATOR: Nikki Luke n.luke@massey.ac.nz http://misg2005.massey.ac.nz IIMS NEWS October 2004 Page 14