Many instructors in subjects such as economics are frequently concerned with how to teach technical material to undergraduate students with limited mathematical backgrounds. One method that has proven successful for the authors is to connect theoretically sophisticated material with actual data. This enables students to see how the theory relates…

Three techniques for determining a straight line fit to data are compared. The methods are applied to a range of datasets containing one or more outliers, and to a specific example from the field of chemistry. For the method which is the most resistant to the presence of outliers, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, as well as two Matlab routines, are…

Discusses the use of mathematics, specifically spreadsheets, to study apportionment in the U. S. House of Representatives. Topics include the interdisciplinary nature of the study, how population changes affect the distribution, different methods for apportioning representatives that have been used throughout history, and analyzing the data. (LRW)