Who will be our next president?

Patrick J. Buchanan George W. Bush Al Gore Ralph Nader

What if you voted by awarding points and counted their totals?

What if you ranked the candidates instead of voting just for your favorite?

Why is negative campaigning working?

What does Mathematical Game Theory have to do with political campaigns?

What is the power of the president of the United States? Of a senator?

What weight does the president carry in passing laws?

What are they talking about when they say “margin of error” in a poll?

How come they can only poll 1,000 people and be so sure of the results?

This and more in this exciting introductory mathematics course.

REGISTER FOR

Professor: Iztok Hozo Fall 2000: M110
Satisfies Arts and Sciences Group I Mathematics Requirement

Description: This course teaches math majors and non-majors, especially those in humanities, the accessibility and beauty of mathematical thinking. It assumes minimal prior knowledge of college-level mathematics (no calculus). The underlying philosophy involves focusing on conceptual aspects of mathematics in the context of important real-world questions in political science. The course deals with several main topics:

• Voting systems, Social Choice (Social Welfare).,
• Sample Surveys (The Gallup Survey), Statistical reasoning,
• Political power (European Economic Community, Power of the U.S. President, Power of a Senator),
• Models of international conflict (Arms Race, Cuban Missile Crisis, The Yom Kippur War),
• Game Theory (zero-sum games),