This blog is an experiment of sorts. It’s designed for RM students, primarily those in my current classes. The content I post will always be mathematical in nature and will often relate to topics we’re covering in my classes. I won’t set up separate blogs for each of my classes for two reasons.: (1) I’m not sure I’m ready for that level of commitment and (2) I think you will benefit from reading things that might be “over your head” (though don’t let that scare you, all mathematics is accessible). In fact, many times I’ll post something unrelated to anything I’m teaching. You can always feel free to skim posts, and interacting with this blog will never be required.

It’s my hope that you will interact with this blog, though. Please comment as much as you can (keeping in mind that I do moderate comments). I want this to enrich our mathematics inside and outside the classroom.

The title of the blog, “Random Walks,” is meant to be a double entendre: The posts will be my mathematical excursions, and I hope it will make you more aware of what being a mathematician is actually like. A mathematician is one who “plays with meaningless marks on paper” (David Hilbert). We often don’t give students opportunities to do what mathematicians do, and that’s to play. The second meaning is a technical one. A random walk, in the one-dimensional case,  is movement along a line, taking n steps, the direction of each step being determined by a flip of a coin.

Thanks for visiting the blog.