August 23, 2010

Professor Chartier has some fun math to show you! 

This summer, Dr. Chartier started an occasional blog called Math Movement which already has several fascinating short entries.  He includes videos from ESPN's show Sport Science that feature Dr. Chartier's mathematical calculations about home runs in baseball, the new soccer ball, and the bicycle kick in soccer!  You can also read about how he got involved.  Or maybe you like doodling and want to consider how mathematics can answer a question about an image of the (old) Davidson spirit mark wildcat.  Dr. Chartier says, "I intend to focus my entries to mathematics and progress or movement that occurs in my teaching, research, writing and performing."  You can also find a column of his recent  Tweets.  We will put a link to Math Movement in the lower-right corner of the department's home page.  Check it out every once in awhile!

The MAA has just published the book Mathematics and Sports where Dr. Chartier is an author on two of the 25 articles.  His titles are:

• Bracketology: How can math help? (in the basketball section)
• Bending a Soccer Ball with Math (in the soccer section)

Former student Erich Kreutzer '10 is a co-author on the Bracketology article along with research colleagues Amy Langville and Kathryn Pedings.  Congratulations to Dr. Chartier on the publication.  It is a great way to get a little deeper into topics touched on in his blog.