Math 21a, Fall 2008
Exhibits page Math 21a 2008, Multivariable Calculus
The misery index
Course head: Oliver Knill
Office: SciCtr 434

The Misery Index

Here are the "misery index" slides mentioned in the intro meeting of Tuesday Sep 16. The story illustrates that multivariable calculus concepts can be useful to visualize data. The example is a NYT article by Floyd Norris of September 13, 2008 titled "The return of the misery index".


The animated curve shows the development of inflation and unemployment in time from 1948 to 2008.
Inflation (red), Unemployment (green) and the Misery Index (yellow, the sum of Inflation and Unemployment) as graphs in time from 1948 to 2008.


Links:

The NYT Chart
Note that in this course, we are not programming in Mathematica. We are using it mainly for graphing, computing integrals etc.
Questions and comments to knill@math.harvard.edu
Math21b | Math 21a | Fall 2008 | Department of Mathematics | Faculty of Art and Sciences | Harvard University