Welcome to this week’s Math Munch! And… happy Sequence Day!

If you didn’t know that today was Sequence Day, don’t feel bad– I didn’t know until I ran across this article written by Aziz Inan, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Portland. Why is today Sequence Day? Well, because all of the digits in the sequence 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 appear in today’s date– 3-4-2015!

This particular Sequence Day isn’t super special. There will be another one with the exact same sequence on April 3 (4-3-2015). But, according to Aziz, April 3 will be the last Sequence Day of this year– and the last until 2031! Aziz made this chart of all the Sequence Days that will happen this century. There are 48 all together– and if you look carefully at the chart, you may notice some interesting patterns.

See how the Sequence Days mostly occur at the beginnings of decades, in the first half of the month, and never later in the year than June? Why do you think that might be? Also, the last Sequence Day of the 21st century is in 2065. That means we’ll have to wait almost 40 years for the next Sequence Day after that– until 2103! But, in the scheme of things, this actually isn’t so bad– there were no Sequence Days at all in the last century. (Why might that be?)

We all know about days like Pi Day (coming up soon on 3-14-15 — and it’s a special one because we’ve got those two additional digits this year!), but, as Aziz likes to show, lots of days can be mathematical holidays– if you just look carefully enough. Maybe you’ll find a mathematical holiday of your own! If you do, let us know. We love any excuse to have a party!

Next up, you think penguins are cute, right? Well, take a look at this:

You may have heard the narrator say, “Something more organized is going on.” Well, several mathematicians wondered what that more organized thing was… and it turns out to be very mathematical!

How many penguins do you see?

Francois Blanchette, a mathematician at the University of California, Merced, had the idea to use math to study how penguins keep warm while watching penguin movies like this one. He studies the math of something called fluid dynamics, which, basically, is how things like water and air flow. Francois and several other mathematicians at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany noticed that when one penguin in a huddle moves just a little bit, it triggers a chain reaction in which all of the other penguins move in an organized way to keep warm. Their tiny movements cause the huddle to organize into the best shape for all penguins to keep warm during the cold of winter.

Huddle up, little guy!

Scientists and mathematicians are only now realizing all of the amazing ways that math comes into play in the lives of animals, especially in large groups. It seems that penguins are only the beginning! To learn more about the organization of large groups of animals, I suggest you check out this awesome PBS documentary about animal swarms.

Finally, we haven’t heard from Vi Hart in a while. If you’ve been feeling the need for some math art fun in your life, check out this video I dug up from the archives. Origami meets Pythagorean Theorem– what could be better?

Stay warm, and bon appetit!