For this year's Mathematics Open Day on September 28, 2024, over 150 pupils from grades 7 to 12 were guests at our department. In two plenary lectures in the lecture hall and seven grade-specific workshops, students were able to get to know and try out different areas of mathematics.
The motto of the day was “Hands-on mathematics”. In a first lecture, Prof. Benjamin Stamm demonstrated how much mathematical modeling and problem solving skills are necessary to make something as commonplace as GPS really work on a cell phone.
For a second lecture, Prof. Thomas Püttmann from the Ruhr University Bochum demonstrated mechanical calculators and mathematical models built with fischertechnik and explained how they work. In addition to that, there were workshops on set theory and continued fractions in grades 7/8, workshops on paradoxes of traffic planning, mappings and continued fractions on the computer in grades 9/10, and workshops on complex numbers and zeros of polynomial in grades 11-13.
The Mathematics Open Day has been organized in this form by the Mathematics Circle since 2004.
