Delta Epsilons

About Us July 10, 2009

The Delta Epsilons

We, the Delta Epsilons, are a group of mathematically inclined high school students who met at the 2009 Research Science Institute at MIT. We started this blog to discuss mathematics and related sciences. Our interests are broad—they range from analysis to category theory to combinatorics to theoretical physics—and this blog will reflect that diversity.

The Blog

First, we intend to discuss mathematical competitions. Many of us have participated in problem-solving contests such as the USAMO, which may inspire posts. Since one part of our intended audience consists of other motivated high school students, we will encourage participation in such competitions by posting information about them.

As we met at RSI, we are also interested in research. We will post about our research, both our RSI projects and others, here; we may also discuss papers we read independently. Many of our posts will also be expository, discussing known mathematical results.

Other than that, the blog will occasionally contain arbitrary posts (and, very rarely, random posts), ranging from mathematical education to philosophy and history.

The Name

In real and complex analysis, deltas and epsilons are frequently used mathematical notations to define basic constructions such as limits, continuity, and integrals. The Kronecker delta, the capital delta denoting change, and the Dirac delta point measure are further examples of the importance of the letter delta in mathematics. An epsilon was also Paul Erdős’s name for a young child. We are, of course, relatively young as mathematicians go, though we hope to prove that we are capable of providing interesting discourse to mathematicians with more experience as well.