Snagging incoming Math Students

Maybe something with the Mandelbrot Set? If you have access to a computer and projector displaying one of the many YouTube videos pertaining to it would probably be pretty enticing and would attract at least a few students.

 

Drawings like the ones by Escher are always nice to show. And they are mathematically very deep!

 

Pretty girls on the table? :)

Less interesting will be putting some math jokes

 

I was going to suggest candy

 

Can add one good looking guy too :) If you cannot think of many ways of beating physics people, one straight forward and simple way is to hire some people from arts .

 

Build one of these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v2xnl6LwJE

 

Doughnuts!

No, wait. ...

... Knot shaped Doughnuts!

 

I'm reminded of "Flight of the Conchords." The poor little New Zealand booth next to the outstanding Australians.


I can't really think of a demonstration that isn't more physics or engineering than math. There are lots of amazing visual representations of different math ideas, but a bunch of posters isn't really going to knock anyone's socks off.

Oh! Get a couple of people from the fencing club/team (if such a thing exists), have some blown up images of Thibault's Academie de l'Espee, and provide a demonstration of his style based on "logic and geometry." Have large diagrams on the floor to illustrate the connection to his manual. Maybe include a poster about Galois and his demise in a duel. Although, on second thought, maybe advertising a grisly end isn't the best way to lure people in.

Perhaps it's over the top, but if you're going to pander, pander with style. (And stick it to those darn gnomes over at the physics table.)

 

How about coffee cup shaped donuts?

 

Try the efficiency angle:

Get next to the physics table again.

Grab everyone who leaves their table looking interested and convince them that a second degree in math would be only a few extra classes :)

Honestly, that is what pushed me to study mathematics initially. Turns out I enjoyed it.

 

I don’t know, but can you do something like this? Something sort of pre-prepared so passers by could participate, changing bits, and so be involved in creating a quite harmonic on-going small sound and light show. It could get attention if it were fairly loud and up-beat with some up to date instrument sounds, and some good looking matching visual displays of the music made.


http://www.robertinventor.com/software/3.0/index.htm
http://vimeo.com/impromptu/videos/sort:plays

 

I think glorifying some of the encryption techniques used in internet and security as well in communication would be really cool. A poster about what people did with stuxnet and flame on the cryptography end explaining how it works and how it enabled access to computers would be really cool. You could include a picture of an exploding centrifuge and link how it was made possible by mathematical work.

You could also describe in a poster how important this type of mathematics is for new technologies like quantum computing, to show that mathematics can stand on its own merits with relevance and practicality in today's world.

I would also try to glorify some famous modern proofs like Fermat's last theorem and the prime number research people are doing. One issue I always had with interest in mathematics is that it seemed to be dominated by dead people's work. A sort of a historical picture story of what the problem was and all of the steps, loopholes, and processes that went into solving that problem would be really interesting. The wikipedia articles on Andrew Wiles and that proof are pretty fascinating. It would be important to stress the difficulty, ingenuity, and seemingly unrelated works being pieced together to achieve the proof.

You could also find some good mathematical videos on youtube and have them play on loop on a flat screen in the background. One could be of the videos traveling into a fractal.

I can't explain it, but the mystery and sophistication of these fields intrigues me as a spectator and really helps me appreciate mathematics. A lot of people find mathematics mysterious, and if you can entice people in that way they may take a strong interest.

 

That's why I became a mathematician- all the free candy!

 

A pretty girl walking across a table in stilleto heels on a very windy day could do the trick. Taking into consideration the torque created by the wind, her moment of inertia, and the fact that she solves triple integrals in her head quickly enough to maintain her balance is a pretty impressive feat!