JUG - A Curriculum For A Juggling Muser's Amusement

"Out Juggling In My Class"

by William V. Thayer

copyright © 1996 Wm. V. Thayer, All Rights Reserved

Joseph, thanks for the great midi music!

Three Pins

Juggling and Mathematics

Juggling, amusement and mathematics combined to demonstrate a few projects and ideas for you.

A Chautauqua

My dean likes to surprise me when I'm juggling in class. So to stay out of deep water, I decided to develop an approved curriculum based on juggling. My juggling curriculum is called the MAJOR, short for MerAmec Juggling Operations Research.

But I had a little trouble convincing the St. Louis Community College (SLCC) at Meramec Academic Committee to approve the new MAJOR curriculum. So I went to student government and got MAJOR approved over night.

For some reason the name changed slightly to MerAmec Juggling ORganization. MAJOR now appears in the student handbook club section, not the course catalog.

STUDENT DRESS CODE

A clown costume or a tuxedo will be the standard.

REQUIRED LAB EQUIPMENT

Calculators, juggling props (three bean bags), big graph paper, protractor, string, flexible tape measure, other paraphernalia, internet and a circus may be needed at any time.

Potential Student Group (target group)

How many of you do some juggling? Then your are a potential MAJOR student.

Little Walking Pin

Course Descriptions

More than a comprehensive program guide for what you may learn.

Prerequisites to course work for the MAJOR

•JUG:001 Walking, JUG:002 Jogging, and JUG:003 Running. Walking is where you learned to balance your juggling pin shaped body on a large ball called earth.

Courses for the MAJOR

There are two levels of numbers courses in the MAJOR.

•JUG:004 Basic Numbers is a numbers course that starts with one object then two, three, ... , and so on to n objects. And deals with the various properties thereof. You can tell that it extends beyond school. See Scientific American, November 1995, for more details.

•JUG:005 Special Numbers is a numbers course that is much different. Number properties are considered using Magic Billiard Balls.

Computation space:

•JUG:006 Probajug is a PROBABILITY level of course work for the MAJOR. Flying dice magic tricks based on a DISTRIBUTIVE TOSS over a finite number set.

The Point

RED

YELLOW

BLUE

GREEN

•JUG:007 JUGGLEOMETRY The UNIT JUGGLE is at the center of this course. Review of some physical science of juggling. New topics include GEOMETRY OF JUGGLING.
Notes and Computation space to check the following:

For the UNIT TOSS

Total flight time is

Horizontal position is

Vertical position is

Geometry is

•JUG:008 HISTORY Galileo's modeling of a dropped object accommodates teaching across the curriculum and other modern innovations.

•JUG:009 UFTOJ Mathematican Claude E. Shannon developed the UNIFIED FIELD THEORY OF JUGGLING proportion - - - no comment needed!

Three Pins

dwell time

vacant hand time

flight time

# of objects

# of hands

Shannon's UFTOJ proportion

•JUG:010 RHYTHMIC JUGGLING is a special problems course considering the Hot Potatoes Juggler versus the Delayed Juggling Character. Peter Jan Beek's study of rhythmic motion for the cascade pattern is considered in this course.

•JUG:011 EGG N FACE is the philosophy part of the curriculum and is a required course.

The Group

There are two physical education courses in addition to RECESS PERIODS:

•JUG:012A JUG is a correspondence course. There are several books with three balls or bags in your book and/or toy stores. A good way to learn to juggle; just add water of sweat.

•JUG:012B AFTERMATH After the math of the presentation will be a juggling class. Demonstrating how you move from # of hands > # of balls to # of balls > # of hands.

•Juggling Information Service is a great place to find a juggler near you or even a local juggling club! When you visit St. Louis join us at the St. Louis Juggling Club.