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MATHEMATICS LEARNING CENTER

PI MU EPSILON
New York Beta Chapter
Hunter College

Each semester, PME sponsors a Math Jeopardy competition at Hunter College. Jeopardy is a TV game show where the problems are given in the form of an answer and the answer is given in the form of a question. There are 5 categories and 5 problems for each category. Each problem is actually an answer to a question. The contestant must guess what the corresponding question is for the given answer. For example:

Answer: It is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.

Question: What is Pi?

Each problem has a time limit of 3 minutes. Contestants will be placed into teams of 3 and they can work together to arrive at an answer. Anyone with a knowledge of Calculus II should be able to answer all the problems. Everybody is welcome to participate. A prize is given to the winning team.

Current Members

Pi Mu Epsilon was founded on May 25, 1914. It was the outgrowth of a mathematics club at Syracuse University. Professor Edward Drake Roe, Jr. had seen the benefit of intercollegiate cocurricular activities in Europe and suggested that idea to his club at Syracuse. He became the first Pi Mu Epsilon President, serving 1914-1929. The history of Pi Mu Epsilon was published in early volumes of the Pi Mu Epsilon Journal. Here is an anecdote from Pi Mu Epsilon's history:

The tenth Chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon was established at Hunter College in New York City on Saturday, May 30, 1925. The installing officer of the Chapter was Pi Mu Epsilon's first President, E. D. Roe. In my files I recently found Professor Roe's June 4, 1925 letter to the Secretary-Treasurer reporting on the installation. I would like to share with you a few sentences from that letter:

Professor Loustau found some interesting things from our PME history:

Every now and then, as I look through our old files, some history comes alive. In the summer of 2006 I came across a note from the early 1930s in one of the Chapter files. The note apologized to the Secretary- Treasurer for a check paying for the membership certificates that was not honored because between the time the check was written and the time the check was deposited, the bank had defaulted. I guess this happened often during the great depression.