Hergert Numbers @ Trinity Christian College

This Thursday, I'll be heading out to Trinity Christian College to speak to their Math Club about inflection points. The content of my talk was assembled from four papers published between 1938 and 1968. For anyone interested, I've posted these papers at the URL's found below.

Ewing paper (1938)
Bruckner paper (1962)
Walker paper (1956)
Mulcrone paper (1968)

Since I'll be talking about inflection points and Hergert numbers just happen to be candidates for inflection points, there's a high probability that Hergert numbers will be mentioned at some point in the afternoon. 

Los Numeros de Hergert!

Here we find College of DuPage Calculus student Joel Swanson displaying his Hergert Numbers pride while sailing near Loreto, Mexico. Not only is this the first Hergert Numbers appearance in Mexico, but it also represents the spreading of the word since Joel's Calculus teacher does not have a direct connection to me. So, that's at least two degrees of separation!

On a related note, a former student of mine was recently visiting his high school math teacher and the teacher, who I don't believe I've ever met, had heard of Hergert Numbers. We're on our way!

Keep the pictures coming!

Hergert Numbers @ Disneyland!

Forgive me, but I'm way late getting this posted. This is my sister-in-law Becca at Disneyland around December 15th. She got her Hergert Numbers shirt for Christmas last year (2011) and was waiting for just the right place to debut it. When she made plans to go to California, she promised that she'd take it along and find a noteworthy place to get her picture taken. She definitely picked a good one! I believe this is the first appearance for the Hergert Numbers at a Disney theme park.

Another Hergert Numbers Christmas

Just when you thought we had exhausted all possible Hergert Numbers photo items, we present the Hergert Numbers Rubik's Cube. Yes, each side has a different picture of someone (not all me) in their Hergert Numbers shirt. As if solving one of these things isn't hard enough, you first have to figure out what side the square you're looking at even belongs on! This is sure to provide hours of enjoyment.

Hergert Numbers at AMATYC 2012

It's taken me forever to get this posted, but I'm finally putting up the pictures from our trip to the 2012 AMATYC Conference in Jacksonville, FL last month. On our first day in town, we headed out to St. Augustine to do some sightseeing. Above, you see Mrs. Hergert Numbers in front of the original Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. This was her contribution to our vacation plans.

We spent the next day on campus at Jacksonville University (my alma mater). As we were walking across campus, we stopped to talk to Dr. Peter Ryan who is the only math teacher left from my time at JU. We had a nice conversation about math teaching for about 45 minutes. Of course, I took a few minutes to tell him about Hergert Numbers and sent him on his way with a handful of HN business cards.

On Friday night, I stopped by a table in the hotel bar where a couple Illinois folks were seated. As I was about to leave, I paused to give a plug for Hergert Numbers to the people I didn't know at the table. A woman from Kansas took one look at my business card and exclaimed, "You're Hergert? Ha ha!!"

The following day was my talk on inflection points. I was pleasantly surprised to get about 40 people in attendance, which is not bad on a beautiful Saturday afternoon that was much more conducive to listening to the waves come ashore than listening to some guy ramble on about Calculus.

That same day, we left for home but only got as far as Charlotte, NC before a canceled flight extended our trip for a day. Since I was out of clean clothes, I broke out one of the Hergert Numbers t-shirts that I brought to the conference to sell. So, from now on I'm definitely bringing a spare Hergert Numbers shirt with me when I travel!

Hergert Numbers AMATYC Talk

On Saturday November 10th, I'll be giving a talk at the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) Annual Conference. The title of my talk is "What's an Inflection Point?" and will look at the various definitions of inflection point that have appeared in Calculus textbooks over the years. I'll also talk about the efforts of a math professor to convince people that the term "flexpoint" would be a better word for what we currently call an "inflection point". If I get the chance, I may throw in a mention of Hergert Numbers.

The content of my talk was assembled from four papers published between 1938 and 1968. For anyone interested, I've posted these papers at the URL's found below.

Ewing paper (1938)
Bruckner paper (1962)
Walker paper (1956)
Mulcrone paper (1968)

Hergert Numbers @ MathFest 2012

I had the pleasure of watching Ellen Borgeld (on the right) & Elizabeth Meena (Hergert Numbers' #1 proponent) deliver a fabulous talk on Arrow Path Sudoku Puzzles this morning at MathFest 2012. You can view their presentation here.

Not surprisingly, my Hergert Numbers t-shirt sparked many conversations with folks who walked up to me with quizzical looks as they tried to figure out just what it meant. So, I retold the story of the origin of the shirts and gave out this web address many times throughout the day. It was a hallmark day for "spreading the word"!

So, if you're new to Hergert Numbers and you want to get involved, all you need to do is send me $11, a shirt size & color preference, and you can become a part of the Hergert Numbers movement. And if you already have more t-shirts than you could ever want, you can still support the cause by adding the term "Hergert Numbers" to your mathematical vocabulary. After all, that's what this is really all about!