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ABOUT JAYWALKING In one issue of last year’s ZIT, a well written article was warning against the dangers of jaywalking, the act of crossing a street in a wrong way, either on a red light or diagonally. Despite all the qualities of the article, I believe it failed to address one crucial aspect of the situation: why do we jaywalk The answer, of course, is because “In any triangle, the sum of the lengths of any two sides is greater than the length of the third.” Ring a bell Well, that’s what your 7th grade teacher calls “L’inégalité triangulaire” and I know you must hate it when your math teacher utters trivialities in such an arcane way. There is a reason why we do it, but let’s not get into that here. Better to take an example. Let’s say you come out for lunch and want to get a pizza. After badging out, you quickly reach the corner of 75th Street and York. A red light. No problem there. You walk straight along York until you reach 76th Street. Let’s sayy you walk att a leisurely pace of 5 feet per second. That means you gained 7 seconds on a 41-second walk. Is it worth it Well, , you have to consider that during the 34 seconds of your crossing, you were exposed to oncoming traffic. And you know what In 34 seconds, a car going at 30 miless per hour (the speed limit in the city) travels more than 0.283 miles or 1496 feet. That’s about 500 yards, which is the length of five football fields. Do you think you can see that far And do you think all those cars respect the 30 mph limit At 50 mph the car covers 8 football fields in half f a minute. Okay. Now I see your objections coming. First, the time difference of 7 seconds is wrong because I didn’t count the waiting time for the light to go green. Granted, those red lights can be long. But, on average, you should expect to wait about 45 seconds, even less if you consider that the light wass already red on 75th Street and you walked up Now comes the tricky part. You are at the southeast corner of 76th and York and, of course, it is still red to crosss York. Oddly, it is also red to cross over 76th. That’s something I’ve seen only in New York, red both ways for pedestrians. Anyway, be honest, I know and you know that you will cross 76th streett on red, first because it’s a streett and it doesn’t take that long, and second because it’s a one-way street, and you think you can easily check for oncoming cars. That’s your first jaywalk right there. Now you should be on the north side of 76th Street (use a map if you find it hard to follow). Here is what you ought to do: wait for the green light, cross the 40 feet of York Avenue, take a sharp ninety-degree turn to the right and walk 164 feet to Batman City. (Yes, this is a field study. You could have seen me pacing the distances.) But, no, you prefer to do it diagonally because according to “l’inégalité triangulaire”, it is the shortestt path. But how short is that Well, good old Pythagoras tells you that the diagonal is a bit less than 169 feet. So instead of 204 feet (164+ +40), you’re down to 169, an improvement of 35 feet. York forr a few seconds during which, the red light moved closer too green. Of course, if the light had been green at 75th Street you would have crossed York right away. End of discussion. Secondd objection. You’re thinking: ”Well, I’m not stupid. I know I’m in danger on the street with a red light so I don’t jaywalk. I actually jayrun or at least jaytrot.” Alright, let’s be reasonable and assume you can speed up to 10 feet per second, thus reducing your crossing time by half. Let’s add it up: about 17 seconds to cross diagonally against 86 seconds (45 seconds waiting time plus 41 seconds walking) ). Yes, you actually saved more than a minute. So there you are! In order to save one minute of your lunch period (and not two minutes becausee everybody knows you’re not in such a hurry on your way back from lunch), you’re ready to spend 17 seconds on an avenue filled with buses, taxis and bikes. Don’t be ridiculous! Be smart. Don’t jaywalk ! David Soquet 4
ART AND MATH AT THE LYCEE In 7th grade math class, students learn about point symmetry, that is symmetry with respect to a central point in a figure. For several years, 7 th grade students have been working on a six-week project that culminates in a detailed and colorful tessellation. This project reflects work done in parallel with the art department which, in 7 th grade, studies broader tessellations. Tessellations in math are slightly different than tessellations in art. In math, each drawing must satisfy the demands of point symmetry, that is to have a central reflection point. The colors must also respect this symmetry! Tessellations in art, rather, are images that repeat themselves over and over again. The drawings produced in 5e1 include snowmen, frogs, imaginary animals and geometric figures. They reflect the different talents and the extraordinary imagination of our students. Vivianne Kurzweil Images of this issue of Mathgazine are productions of 5 e 1 students. ART ET MATHEMATIQUES AU LYCEE En mathématiques, les élèves de cinquième apprennent la symétriee centrale, c’est-à-dire la symétrie par rapport à un point. Depuis plusieurs années, certains élèves de 5 e travaillent sur un projet de 6 semaines qui culmine par la réalisation d’un pavage détaillé et multicolore. Ce projet reflète un travail effectué de façon parallèle avec le département d’art qui, en 5 ème , fait étudier les tessellations. Les pavages en maths sont légèrement différents des tessellations en art. Chaque pavage effectué doit satisfaire les demandes de la symétrie centrale, c’est-à-dire avoir un centre de symétrie (au milieu de l’image). Les couleurss doivent elles aussi respecter cette symétrie! Les tessellations satisfontt plutôt à la demande de reproduction d’une même image sur une certaine surface. Les pavages en 5 e 1 comprennent des fuseaux, des bonhommes de neige, des grenouilles, des animaux imaginaires et des figures géométriques. Elles reflètent les différents talents et l’imagination extraordinaire de nos élèves. Vivianne Kurzweil Les images de ce numéro de Mathgazine sont les productions des élèves de 5 ème 1. 5
Page 1 and 2: MATHGAZINE M2 ème numéro Eil 2012
Page 3: A PROPOS DU JAYWA ALKING … Dans u
Page 7: L’HISTOIRE DU UN Peut-être êtes

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