San Diego Math Circle

Cauchy

Augustin Louis Cauchy

The Cauchy group is our newly-restructured upper high school group in its transitional year. This year, the Cauchy group targets 10th - 12th grade students; next year this focus will narrow on the 11th and 12th grades. Whatever a student's nominal grade, the Cauchy group is for students seeking problem solving challenges beyond the traditional high school mathmatics classroom. Cauchy topics will frequently expand broadly on core high school level mathematics, or use these core methods in more complex problem-solving strategies, or introduce students to advanced topics that build upon the high school foundation.

Present-year 10th graders may legitimately choose to join the Cauchy class or the newly-formed early-high school Gauss class. This is a personal choice that may be guided by an interest in the topical mix of the Gauss class, or by an appetite for the higher level challenges of the Cauchy group. Students new to SDMC may find the Gauss group to be the more comfortable choice, while some students with past math circle experience be motiviated to try the Cauchy group.

Cauchy students should be proficient with algebra and high-school geometry. Most Cauchy students will be proficient as well with common precalculus topics such as trigonometry, conic sections, and basic types of series. Many Cauchy students will be active in the study of calculus and some will have completed a year or more of calculus at the high school level. Cauchy instructors will not "teach" calculus, but some may draw connections with calculus concepts from time to time.

Cauchy students tend to be very involved in mathematics competitions, so Cauchy topics are sometimes oriented toward this end.

The Cauchy class is comprised of our most advanced, mature, and responsible students. Just one or two adult volunteers are needed in this class. Besides supervision, an important responsability of parent volunteers is to police the classroom at the end of each class session, to be sure the facilities are as clean and orderly as at the outset.

The "Cauchy Coordinator" is a particular parent volunteer who assists SDMC in these matters.