Dear Michigan AMC Winners,

To celebrate your outstanding achievements, you, your parents, and your teachers are cordially invited to the MAA-Michigan Awards Ceremony in recognition of the AMC winners, with Dave Friday, a professor of mathematics at Macomb Community College. The ceremony will start with a short mathematical presentation by Professor Friday and be followed by awards presentations.

Professor Friday will give a talk on "Almost Right Triangles". Motivated by the question: for how many positive integer values of n will the sum of the first n positive integers be a perfect square, Professor Friday will lead us throught its links to trigonometry, number theory, and algebra, most importantly, the concept of almost right triangles. Like many mathematical discoveries, both the original question posed and the tool used to solve it lead to newly merged discoveries and questions.

The ceremony will be held at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Oakland University, on Friday, September 7th, from 6 to 8 p.m. Refreshments will be served. The event is supported by the American Mathematics Competitions and sponsored by Macomb Community College, Oakland University, the American Mathematical Society, Wolfram Research, and the Art of Problem Solving Foundation. Please refer to the program (in the green window on the right) for more details.

If you haven't done so, please email and tell me if you will be able to attend the awards ceremony. Siblings are welcome, but send me a note first please.

Remember to bring your cameras if you want to take pictures.