Harold Reiter

Professor of Mathematics
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Contact Information

Department of Mathematics
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
Office: Fretwell 345A
Office Hours for fall 2012:
Tuesday and Thursday mornings, 8:45-10:30 and by appointment

Telephone: (704)-364-5699 home
(704) 687-4561 office
FAX: (704) 687-6415
Electronic Mail: hbreiter@uncc.edu

Index to this web site:

Math 1120, Business Calculus In fall 2012 I am teaching sections 6 (at 11 TTh) and 9 (at 2 TTh), both in Fretwell 128. Two other websites I recommend for students in this course are listed below. In case you're having trouble, for example, with the Chain Rule or max-min problems, watch a video at Kahn Academy at no cost. Also, try JMT's utube.

The Charlotte Teachers' Circle began in September 2006 for high school and middle school teachers. It meets once or twice each month. We're a part of a national network of teacher circles. Sad to report, the Charlotte Teachers Circle is no longer meeting.

I'm proud and excited to have worked during the summer of 2010 at the Academy for Mathematics, Science, Arts and technology, AMSAT, in Bangalore, India and I hope to do it again sometime. In 2012, I expect to work at MathWorks (see essays) in June and at Epsilon Camp and MathPath, in July and August, two programs I highly recommend. Also, check out MathZoom, IdeaMath and Awesome Math.

Here's a link to the Exploring Fundamental Concepts in Elementary Mathematics that I've developed for the camps and workshops mentioned about. The essays are based on the idea that mathematics should can be developed well when students are motivated by rich exploratory problems that are easy to understand but require the development of mathematical structure to solve.

I've enjoyed conducting seminars for the Davidson Institute on two occasions. Here's the link to the September 2011 seminar on KenKen.

I'm looking forward to hosting the third Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival at UNC Charlotte on March 24, 2012. The prize problems are here. Middle school teachers in the Charlotte area are encouraged to pick a prize winning female student based on their work on the these problems. Teachers and parents can register students for the day at the website above. The national website is Julia Robinson is maintained at Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.

Buy my book The Contest Problem Book VII for in pdf form ( $49.95 at Amazon). You can buy it from the MAA or at The Art of Problem Solving Website
American Mathematics Competitions AMC 8, AMC 10, and AMC 12
Other Current Activities
Mathematical Things to do
Websites of Mathematical Organizations
Websites of Mathematical Interest
Websites with Mathematical Problems
The UNC Charlotte Math Competition
Summer Opportunities for Pre-College Students
Mathematics and other programs for university students
Newspapers and other web sites of general interest
Websites of Philatelic Interest
General Information about me

Other Current Activities

I founded and currently volunteer at meetings of The Charlotte Math Club
I founded and currently volunteer at meetings of The Mecklenburg Math Club
I'm excited to organize the Julia Robinson Math Festival Day on March 27, 2010 at UNC Charlotte. This great day is designed just for middle school girls.
My daughter Ashley Ahlin and I have agreed to co-edit the problems section of The Pi Mu Epsilon journal. Your undergraduate level problems are hereby solicited.

The North Carolina AMC homepage
The UNCC Math Contest.
In October 2009, I was awarded the W. W. Rankin Award for excellence in math education at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics. I'm very grateful for this award. The citation is here.
A paper by Dan Kennedy that pretty well sums up the way I feel about teaching and testing. It appeared recently in Mathematics Teacher
Papers I wrote from August 2000 to August 2001 about teaching and learning. Its mainly intended for Math 1100 students, but also applies to other classes My philosophy of teaching, part 1 and
My philosophy of teaching, part 2
I have recently taught the following courses:

Math 1100, College Algebra (Fall 1999; Spring 2000; Fall 2000; Fall 2001; Fall 2002; Fall 2007 online course )
Math 1102, Introduction to Mathematical Thinking, (Spring 2002; Fall 2006)
Math 1120, Business Calculus (Spring 2002; Spring 2003; Summer 2003; Spring 2004; Summer 2005; Spring 2006; Fall 2006; Spring 2007; Fall 2007; Spring 2008; Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, sections 8 and 10; Spring 2010, sections 1 and 2; Fall, 2010, sections 6 and 9; Spring 2011, sections 1 and 2; sections 6 and 9, Fall 2011. )
Math 1165, Discrete Math (Fall 2002; Spring 2003, Fall 2005; Spring 2007)
My course Introduction to Number Concepts is an online Blackboard-Vista course. Students can access the content material at Number Concepts
Math 1241, Calculus 1 (Spring 2004)
Math 1242, Calculus 2 (Fall 2004, Spring 2005, Fall 2005, Spring 2006)
Math 3166, Combinatorics (Spring 1999)
Math 6105, Problem Solving in Discrete Mathematics Summer Workshop in Discrete Math for CMS Teachers, summers, 2001-2006.
Combinatorial Games, (Summers, 1992, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99) Summer Ventures in Science and Math
I enjoyed leading a seminar for the Charlotte Teachers Institute entitled Understanding Fundamental Ideas in Mathematics at a Deep Level. during the fall of 2009.

I completed my term as past president of the National High School and Two-year College Honor Society (after serving as president for the two years 2001-2003) in July 2004 Mu Alpha Theta. I thoroughly enjoyed representing MAO at the International Science and Engineering Fair ISEF in May 2004. For a picture of me with the 2004 ISEF-MAO Scholarship winner, Andrew "Drew" Matteson of Amarillo, TX, click here
In 2005 I wrote the Autumn Math Challenge, a contest for college in the Midwest. Click here to access the scores and here to access the test. The solutions are here.
In 2006 Arthur Holshouser and I wrote the Autumn Math Challenge, a team contest for undergraduates in the Midwest. Click here to access the scores and the ranking. Click here to access the test. The solutions are here.
The website Johns Hopkins/ CTY webmagazine Cogito recently interviewed me.
You can access my problems published in the Sunday (London) Times Problems
In May 2003, and again 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2011, I was appointed to the Presidential Awards Selection Committee.
In July 2003, I was appointed to the College Board CLEP Mathematics Committee.
In August 2002, I was awarded the Paul Erdos Award by the World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions at its biennial meeting. The citation is here. The WFNMC brings together mathematicians who use mathematical problems and challenges to stimulate learning at the pre-college level. For pictures I took on my August 2002 trip, check Australia Trip
In June 2005, Betty and I took a Grand Circle Cruise of the lower Danube from Constanta, Romania to Budapest, Hungary where we met our daughter and her family. The cruise pictures are at Cruise2005
I completed my second term as a MathCounts question writer and as chair of the QWC in 2003-2004. In 2008 I was appointed to be one of seven judges. The judges are responsible, among other things, for the masters round at the nationals.
I have served on the State (of NC) Contest Committee for many years.
I completed my duties as chair of the AMC 12 (and AMC 10 for 2000) Contest in 1999. See American Math Competitions. I still serve on several panels of the AMC.
I completed my term as the chair of SAT II Mathematics committee of the Educational Testing Service in August 1999. I have been a 'Reader' for the AP Calculus papers in 1978. To find out more about the College Board and ETS, see their websites. I especially enjoyed the 2004 reading. Click here for two photos taken at the reading in Fort Collins, CO. The whole table of readers and just me.
I am currently serving on the ETS/College Board CLEP (College-Level Examination Program) Pre-calculus Committee, Sept 2002-present.

Stereograms from Magic Eye.

And

Optical Illusions.

Also, I like playing mathematical games like

SET,

chess, and

bridge.

I've almost completely given up sudoku in favor of Kenken. Also see NYTimes. Even my two grandsons John and Peter love Kenken. I especially recommend this to elementary school teachers. Also, see my paper KenKen.

I have begun writing a regular column called My Favorite Problems in the Journal Mathematics and Informatics Quarterly.
During the summer of 2000, my daughter Ashley Ahlin and I gave a workshop at Iolani School in Honolulu for MATHCOUNTS coaches.
My research papers since 1989.

American Mathematics Competitions

The North Carolina AMC homepage
The American Mathematics Competitions.
For a paper by about the history of the American High School
Mathematics Exam and the new (February, 2000) AMC 10, see
The American High School Mathematics Examination: A 50 year Retrospective.
The following exams were produced by the AHSME committee during the years 1994-2000 of my chairmanship.

My wife Betty and I enjoyed very much our work on the IMO2001 Local Arrangements Committee. See IMO 2001 hosted by the United States July 1 to July 14 in Washington DC and at George Mason University.

Mathematical Things to do

A great website with lots of interesting stuff: Planet Math
Here's a website with some cute problems well done by Jason Batterson.
If you're thinking about working on a PhD, OnlinePhD.org is a website you should visit.
Interactive Mathematics
Logic Puzzles at Master Math
Nancy Blachman's Math Delights
Problems by Nick Hobson.
A great website for learning mathematics and mathematical humor
Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles
Natural Math
A great way to learn trigonometry
Jim Propp's SELF-REFERENTIAL APTITUDE TEST
Kevin Brown's great website of mathematical papers MathPages
Daniel Scher's Java Sketchpad Page
John Rausch's website
David Levine's site for Game Theory
Jeff Erickson's Games Website
Combinatorial Game Theory
Websites for Combinatorial Games Combinatorial Games Page
Roger A. McCain's Strategy and Conflict: An Introductory Sketch of Game Theory
Martin J. Osborne's What Is Game Theory?
Does .999...=1?
Can you figure out how this works? Fido Challenge.
Can you figure out how this works? The Mind Reading Crystal Ball.

Websites of Mathematical Organizations

I highly recommend The Art of Problem Solving
The Mathematical Association of America
The American Math Society's E-math
For an index of US Universities University Home Pages
The World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions for mathematicians who use mathematical problems and challenges to stimulate learning at the pre-college level.
NRich from the UK has some great problems for middle and elementary students.
Page for undergraduate opportunities.
The North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics NCCTM
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics NCTM

Websites of Mathematical Interest to Students and Teachers

I highly recommend The Art of Problem Solving including the online courses.
My dear friend (and mathematical daughter) Jane Chen has written a problem solving book for MathCounts coaches and students called Twenty Problem Solving Skills for MATHCOUNTS.
MathPro Press has an incredible index of published problems.
I've almost completely given up sudoku in favor of Kenken. Also see NYTimes. Even my five-year-old grandson John loves Kenken. I especially recommend this to elementary school teachers.
United Kingdom Mathematics Trust
Simon Singh's Website is full of interesting mathematical ideas.
A great site for high school and undergraduate level problems by Nick Hobson.
The High School and Two-year College Honor Society Mu Alpha Theta.
The Mathematics Forum at Swarthmore
At UNC Charlotte, I directed and taught in the program Summer Ventures in Science and Math, a state (of NC) funded four week residential program for high school juniors and seniors.
Mathematics On Stamps, Philamath
Jim Kuzmanovich's Math and Mathematicians on Stamps
The North Carolina SDPI math website and calendar of events
The US Department of Education's list of Math related web sites
The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics is a two year residential magnet high school for science and mathematics.
Canadian Mathematical Society's KaBoL
Financial Aid Information for college students.
Index to Mathematicians Biographies
Mega Mathematics
Letter to parents of home-schooled kids by Vicky Kaseorg.

Websites with Mathematical Problems

I highly recommend The Art of Problem Solving including the online courses.
Geometry Step by Step from the Land of the Incas by Antonio Gutierrez. This is a lovely award-winning website.
The National High School and Two-year College Honor Society Mu Alpha Theta.
The UNCC Math Contest. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can see each of the past seven years contest problems. The entire database of problems is available. See EducAide Software web site.
Math Competitions Archive is a great network of Olympiad and Putnam problems, maintained by Kiran Kedlaya
A great site for high school and undergraduate level problems by Nick Hobson.
Results and Problems from recent International Math Olympiads .
The Virginia Tech Regional Mathematics Contest Competitions Archive has problems and solutions for most of its years of existence.
Results and Problems from recent South African Mathematics Olympiad .
Here's a website listing of unsolved mathematical problems.
You can access my problems published in the Sunday (London) Times Problems.
International Math Talent Search
Wisconsin Math Talent Search contains problems from the WMTS program.
Great Plains Math League contains problems from the GPML program.
For more problem sites see Math contests for high school and pre-high school students below

Math and Science Competitions Scholarship Opportunities for High School Students.

Intel (formerly Westinghouse) Science Talent Search and
The new Westinghouse Science Talent Search sponsored by Siemens Foundation
The Davidson Foundation sponsors the Davidson Fellows Program recognizing extraordinary talent development
The Clay Mathematics Institute Olympiad Scholar Program and Clay Research Academy

Summer Opportunities for Pre-College Students

Science Services Student and Teacher Program Index
American Math Society Index to Research Experience for Undergraduates Summer Programs
Summer Math Camps and Programs for High School Students
Summer Ventures in Science and Math is a state (of NC) funded four week
residential program for high school juniors and seniors.
The Johns Hopkins CTY and SET programs
United States of America Mathematical Olympiad(USAMO)
Anders Kaseorg's unofficial Moppers Website
Duke University's TIP program
Boston University's highly acclaimed Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists PROMYS
The Arnold Ross Summer Program at Ohio State
Hampshire College Summer Program HCSSIM
Math Camp
The Research Science Institute RSI
The United States Computing Olympiad USACO
The International Physics Olympiad IPO
The International Chemistry Olympiad ICO
Lots of great ideas at SIAM
The Northwestern University CTD program
The Earthwatch Institute
Oxbridge Academic Programs Quest Scholars Program at Harvard and
The Quest Scholars Program at Stanford.

Opportunities for College Students

Pi Mu Epsilon is a wonderful organization that promotes mathematics at the undergraduate level.
Budapest Semesters in Mathematics. This is a terrific semester- or year-long program for college students.
MATHEMATICS ADVANCED STUDY SEMESTERS MASS
Summer program for women at George Washington University.
The Carleton/St. Olaf Colleges Summer Mathematics Program for Women

Websites of Philatelic Interest

CHARPEX, The annual Stamp Expo sponsored by my club the Charlotte Philatelic Society and the Fortnightly Collecting Club
American Philatelic Society website
Stamp Paradise

Todd Uebele's

Charlotte Philatelic Society
Downeast Stamps, Bangor Maine.
Mathematical Study Unit, Philamath
Jim Kuzmanovich's Math on Stamps
On-Line Auctions
Linn's Stamp News
Robert Siegel Auctions
Stamps OnLine
Net Stamps
Internet Auctions
Eric Jackson's Revenues
Stamp Albums.Com
US Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Ken Barr's Souvenir Card List
Greg Manning's Home Page
Philatelic Books
Andrew Levitt's website
Stamp Prof.
About Collecting
Excite's Philatelic websites
US Stamp SocietyPhilatelic.COM
UPU Website
stampalbums.com
stampstore.org
zillionsofstamps.com zillionsofstamps
A great site hosted by Charlottean Dick Sine
Country Collections, which has a great glossery, http://glossary.usstamps.org/

General Information about me

I'm married to a wonderful woman Betty Baker Reiter. I'm proud that at the age of 56 she was awarded a PhD from the University of South Carolina. She is retired now after a successful career teaching mathematics and computer science at UNC Charlotte, Winthrop University, University of Hawaii, Davidson College and Central Piedmont Community College. Betty also taught at Clemson University and Richmond College (London) during the years we spent in those places.

I'm also proud of Betty's and my daughter Ashley Reiter Ahlin who received her PhD. at University of Chicago in June 2002 working in the area of Geometric Algebra. She lives in East Lansing, Michigan where her husband Chris is a professor of Economics at Michigan State University. I maintain a list of articles by and about Ashley at http://www.math.uncc.edu/~hbreiter/ashley.htm . An interview of Ashley for Cogito took place in 2010.

Check out my grandsons, Peter Ahlin, born June 24, 2006 and John Ahlin. Here are others taken in March 2009: Peter, John, John and Peter. Our youngest grandchild is Elizabeth Joy Ahlin, born July 5, 2009, and in March 2010, in Orlando here she is. Finally, here's the whole family at Disney.

o To see an extensive vita, click here

o Schools I've attended:

I attended Lafayette High until the 12th grade.

§ C.E. Byrd High, Shreveport, LA, 1960;

§ Louisiana State University, BS., Mathematics, 1964;

§ Clemson University, MS., Mathematics, 1965;

§ University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1965-1966;

§ Clemson University, Ph.D., Mathematics, 1969.

o My Erdos number is 3: Erdos, Istvan Vincze, George Csordas, me.

o Julia Robinson Math Festival

o Courses Taught at UNC Charlotte: Favorites: Combinatorics, Graph Theory, Discrete Structures;

o Commonly taught courses: Calculus I, Calculus II, Business Calculus, College Algebra;

o Summer Ventures in Science and Math: Combinatorial Games;

o Summer Workshop in Discrete Math for Teachers

o Some Charlotte Observer articles by and about me here.

o Research Interests

§ Combinatorial Games;

§ Mathematics Education,

§ The use of problems and challenges to stimulate mathematics learning.

o To get in touch with me. ..
Harold B. Reiter
Department of Mathematics
Univ. of North Carolina Charlotte
Charlotte, NC 28223
Phone: 704-687-4561, home: 704-364-5699
Fax: 704-687-6415
email: hbreiter@uncc.edu

o Checking Email from a distance

o UNC Charlotte Math Department Home Page

o UNC Charlotte Homepage