Harrelson News–2000
A Note from the Editor
The Harrelson News, a newsletter of the Department of Mathematics was started in 1973 and was advertised to be published “almost periodically”. It was published at some time in each year until 1989. This issue marks the first publication since 1989. It is stretching it a bit to say we are publishing it “almost periodically”, perhaps we should look at the publication dates as an example of a “lacunary” sequence.
Be that as it may, the mathematics department has undergone considerable
change in these ten years. In this issue we hope to bring to the alumni and
friends of the department some idea of what is now going on. The departmental
web site, www.math.ncsu.edu, provides links to more complete information on the
faculty and activities of the department.
– N. J. Rose
The Cover
The design on the cover is a representation of a fractal that can be generated as follows. Start with a black square and divide it into 9 smaller squares as shown in (a) below. Remove two of the squares as shown in (b) below. Divide each of the remaining black squares in (b) into 9 squares and remove two squares in the same relative position. Keep this up indefinitely. The cover shows the fifth stage.
