Albion College Mathematics and Computer Science Colloquium

 Title: Not so sinister after all: How mathematical models can explain the resilience of the left-handed minority Speaker: Mark. J Panaggio Assistant Professor Mathematics Hillsdale College Hillsdale, MI Abstract: Every human population in recorded history has been predominantly right-handed with a small left-handed minority that persists often despite intense societal pressure to conform. Although numerous explanations for individual handedness have been proposed, none of these explanations can account for this population-wide bias. In this talk, I will present a minimal mathematical model describing competition between groups of left- and right-handed individuals in a population that can explain our right-handed world. Analysis of the equilibrium states of this dynamic model will shed light on why most humans are right-handed, why most animals are not, why left-handed athletes overachieve in baseball, why they underachieve in golf and will demonstrate that even simple models built using tools from calculus can provide meaningful into the behavior of complex systems. Location: Palenske 227 Date: 11/3/2016 Time: 3:30 PM

@abstract{MCS:Colloquium:MarkJPanaggio:2016:11:3,
author  = "{Mark. J Panaggio}",
title   = "{Not so sinister after all: How mathematical models can explain the resilience of the left-handed minority}",
address = "{Albion College Mathematics and Computer Science Colloquium}",
month   = "{3 November}",
year    = "{2016}"
}