Ithaca College

Jason Hamilton (Biology) and Tom Pfaff (Math) will talk on "Inflection Points and Polar Bears"

• noon Thursday, December 3
• Williams 302

“Can Calculus help us understand current real-world problems?  In a word, yes! In this talk we will explore the connections between global change ecology and first-semester calculus concepts.  Calculus provides us with crucial tools to understand the rates of current global temperature increases, and more importantly, the consequences of these changes.  Using basic tools such as curve fitting, tangent lines, and analysis of inflection points, we will show how the quantitative results of calculus can help us understand and possibly mitigate the detrimental effects of climate change on arctic wildlife such as polar bears.”