Albion College Mathematics and Computer Science Colloquium

 Title: Rational Approximations of $\sqrt{2}$: An Introduction to Isosceles Almost Right Triangles Speaker: David Friday, '04 Instructor Mathematics Macomb Community College Clinton Township, Michigan Abstract: While visiting the Calculus and Physical Sciences Tutorial Lab at Grand Rapids Community College, a question was posed: for what values of $n$ will the sum of the first $n$ positive integers be a perfect square? A thorough investigation of the problem and the introduction of the concept of an isosceles "almost" right triangle yielded a number of interesting results. One of the results involves a sequence of rational numbers that converges to $\sqrt{2}$, yielding some excellent approximations. Location: Palenske 227 Date: 10/11/2012 Time: 3:30 PM

@abstract{MCS:Colloquium:DavidFriday'04:2012:10:11,
author  = "{David Friday, '04}",
title   = "{Rational Approximations of $\sqrt{2}$:
An Introduction to Isosceles Almost Right Triangles}",
address = "{Albion College Mathematics and Computer Science Colloquium}",
month   = "{11 October}",
year    = "{2012}"
}