Math Is Fun Forum

xzfelm

Member

Registered: 2008-06-11

Posts: 1

suggestions for maths presentation

hello

can anyone think of some interesting maths topics that i could do a talk on for 5 mins or so?
ideally an interesting topic.
i'm at A level standard

Cheers,

Xz

John E. Franklin

Member

Registered: 2005-08-29

Posts: 3,588

Re: suggestions for maths presentation

To prepare for this, I would examine the molecule: "imidacloprid", a pesticide/insecticide.
Also look at "methane", "saccharin", using wikipedia.org.
After looking at a bunch of molecules, start to formulate methods to describe these
geometrical "graphs", like create a mathematical language to describe the shapes.
Then present your method, and perhaps mention whether there already exists other methods
that are already present in mathematics or chemistry.
I don't know...  Just a thought...

---

igloo myrtilles fourmis

Ricky

Moderator

Registered: 2005-12-04

Posts: 3,791

Re: suggestions for maths presentation

That's part of my summer job, Ganesh!  In chemistry, the current way to model molecules is quite straightforward.  A popular format is known as PQR: position, charge, radius.  Position is given with (x, y, z) coordinates in angstroms.  For biological molecules, there are extra flags which allow you to tell what amino acid an atom belongs to.  That way, you can define the amino acid once and use it multiple times by specifying the location of the first atom.

There are also various formats to explain the topology of the molecule: what atoms are bonded to others, where there are triple bonds, and so on.  All of it is fairly elementary.  For example:

1 2 1 3 2 3

Would mean atoms 1 & 2 are bonded, 1 & 3 are bonded, and 2 & 3 are bonded.

As you can see, there is certainly room for improvement the file structure.  But I just use these things.

xzfelm, I would try to help, but I don't quite know what "A level standard" is.

---

"In the real world, this would be a problem.  But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist.  So we'll go ahead and do that now..."

Daniel123

Member

Registered: 2007-05-23

Posts: 663

Re: suggestions for maths presentation

xzfelm, I would try to help, but I don't quite know what "A level standard" is.

Generally, age 16-18.

Last edited by Daniel123 (2008-06-15 12:55:26)

John E. Franklin

Member

Registered: 2005-08-29

Posts: 3,588

Re: suggestions for maths presentation

Fascinating summer job!  Thanks for that explanation!
I also just noticed "SMILES" as another notation.
Take care.

---

igloo myrtilles fourmis