Bella Yi

Puzzling his audience, Nathan Won ‘24 presents the “final conundrum” of his math circle, asking members to recall the amount of slides he has added a photo of a character to. Won’s math circle, about probability in games, intended to teach his audience new ways to learn about probability. “[Math circles allow] people [to] get to learn about the wonders of math and probability,” Won said.

For the first time this year, Mu Alpha Theta hosted a math circle, a short club-wide discussion about a math-adjacent topic, on Friday, Jan. 26 during flex. This week’s math circle, which examined probability in games, was hosted by Nathan Won ‘24. 

“I got inspiration [for this math circle] from a really good anime I watched called Kakegurui,” Won said. “I started working on [my presentation] a couple months ago, [and] I finished it last night.”

Won’s math circle quizzed the audience with conundrums involving dice and cards. The problems involved calculating probabilities to yield certain results, for example, members discussed optimal strategies if one were to bet on an outcome. 

“Today was my first math circle, and it was very interesting because I got to learn things that I have not thought about before,” Nancy Lu ‘27 said. “I think it was a really cool opportunity to meet people and learn new stuff.”

Mu Alpha Theta encourages its members to lead math circles in hopes that the club can run more interactive meetings this semester. 

“[Benefits of math circles aren’t just] for more [club] points in Mu Alpha Theta,” Won said. “People [also] get to learn about the wonders of math and probability.”