You may have heard of complex numbers before, but first we'll go over some history and how complex derivatives, integrals, and series work so that you can get a better understanding of them. Then, we'll talk about a theorem that makes complex integration seem ridiculously easy and makes you wonder if it can even be that simple. (We'll also see how you can apply it to evaluate real integrals that you probably wouldn't be able to compute otherwise.) We may take a brief excursion into the Mandelbrot set if there's time.

Tired of writing readable, efficient, well-commented code all the time? Try code golf! The goal is to solve a certain task in as few key"strokes" as possible, resulting in creative solutions where code that takes a thousand times as long is perfectly acceptable if it saves even a single character. We'll mostly be golfing solutions to a few problems in your language of choice, working together to try to get down to the shortest possible solution in each language. Computers will be provided.

Come learn toki pona, a constructed language with only 120 words! Complex ideas are expressed by combining basic concepts (for example, "alcohol" is "telo nasa", or "silly water"). Since there's only 120 words to know of, it's possibly the easiest language to learn! For part of class, I'll go over the word list and the (very minimal) grammar; then, we can either translate things into toki pona together or try to have conversations in it. (If you're not good at memorization, don't worry! Printed word lists will be provided.)