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# MARTIAN MATH IS SCIENCE FICTION¶

MM @ Reed (Earlier Edition)

This was a class held at Reed College in 2018. I, Kirby Urner, was the instructor. I had an assistant, Jude, starting on the 2nd day. We did a combination of computer-based and hands on activities. I created a relaxed atmosphere. Some students booted games or explored related topics. The main activities were:

• enhancing Juptyer Notebooks or starting new ones from scratch
• cutting out A-modules from templates and folding them up
• assembling C6XTY "soccer balls" (this turned into a time test contest)

Martian Math is an introduction to some mathematics against the backdrop of science fiction stories. I go over some of the history of science fiction involving Mars, including by visiting a website associated with a previous version of this class. We also talk about current research and explorations involving Mars.

Is there life on Mars?

Lets think about what might happen if:

In [1]:
from IPython.display import YouTubeVideo

Out[1]:

### SYMBOLS¶

Astronomers inherit symbols for the planets from Astrologers.

By 2018, Pluto had been demoted from planethood, mainly because the solar system consists of myriad "celestial" bodies bigger than Pluto.

### MARS IS SMALLER THAN EARTH¶

In [2]:
planets = ("Mercury", "Moon", "Venus", "Earth", "Mars", "Jupiter", "Saturn", "Uranus", "Neptune", "Pluto")
for planet in planets:
print(planet)

Mercury
Moon
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto


### SPEAKING OF PLANETS...¶

This is a Jupyter Notebook (note spelling). In Martian Math, we'll be learning how to create them and change them.

Here's a link to a Markdown Cheatsheet.

### More Resources¶

Where can I find some pictures?

Where do I get the toys and kits?

Where might I get the software?