Category Archives: Math Explorations

I work out a problem or propose a new solution method.

Tiling-Cubical Solids : Felted Platters-Wooden Boxes

Posted on December 13, 2023 by jrh794

My crafty side needed attention. Hence the following. Here are some boxes I made out of Port Orford Cedar and Combed Cedar siding. The cube has a sliding dowel hidden latch so it must be oriented in a certain position for … Continue reading →

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ChatGPT Takes a Precalculus Essay Test

Posted on February 28, 2023 by jrh794

Test days were good days. They were learning days. At least during those hours, students were actually thinking (mostly) about math. They were also good days when I was a student. I got to solve problems and skip the daily … Continue reading →

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Dirichlet Distribution in 4D

Posted on May 19, 2022 by jrh794

I use a four parameter Dirichlet distribution for my Rubrics as Data explorations. I “knew” that its behavior would be “similar” to the three parameters distributions shown in my last post, but I wanted a visualization. A 3D simplex is … Continue reading →

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Dirichlet Distribution in 3D

Posted on March 4, 2022 by jrh794

I wanted to better understand the Dirichlet distribution that I was using for my prior in my “Rubrics as Data” model but couldn’t find a set of images that showed the variety of surfaces different alpha parameters induce. So I … Continue reading →

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Rubrics as Data – Part VII

Posted on March 3, 2022 by jrh794

This is a progress report on my “Rubrics as Data” explorations. The intention is to get estimates for a stratified population using ordered categorical data (rubric scores) from subpopulations. Search on “Rubrics as Data” for earlier blog posts on my … Continue reading →

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Rubrics as Data – Part VI

Posted on September 15, 2021 by jrh794

The idea for this series has been to use rubric measurements of a specific skill from a sample set of students to conclude something about the performance of the entire population of students. I was on a committee that measured senior … Continue reading →

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A More Precise Dad Joke

Posted on August 23, 2021 by jrh794

Turns out it is hard to go straightforwardly from OneNote to a WordPress post. Here is an image of the post I meant to post when I first tried.

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Rubrics as Data – Part V

Posted on August 5, 2021 by jrh794

I want to pursue the ideas in Rubrics as Data Part IV a  bit further.  We start with ordered categorical data that measures some type of complex behavior that we imagine has an underlying continuum.  Because the behavior is complicated … Continue reading →

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The Original Hamiltonian Cycle – Continued

Posted on April 1, 2021 by jrh794

My latest discovery as I played with my wooden dodecahedron (read here for context) was a cycle that when repeated just once starting at the same vertex with a different edge covered all thirty edges. By the reasoning in the … Continue reading →

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The Original Hamiltonian Cycle

Posted on January 25, 2021 by jrh794

William Rowan Hamilton of quaterion and “the Hamiltonian” fame also has his name attached to a graph theory object call the Hamiltonian cycle or circuit. Think of a road map. Your object is to visit each city on the map … Continue reading →

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