WSU Retention List Stories - Research Hub at Winona State University

Today is Pi Day, the date that is closest to the value of the mathematical constant Pi (3.14159…). Mathematicians are excited about this year. 2025 is a perfect square: it is 45 squared. The number 45 itself is a special number. It is one of the “triangular numbers.” That means that, starting at one, a sequence of natural numbers sum to it. In this case, 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = 45. Because of these two facts, there is a cornucopia of curious mathematical expressions that are equivalent to the number 2025, such as this one: 1³ + 2³ + 3³ + 4³ + 5³ + 6³ + 7³ +8³ + 9³ = 2025.

The last year that had these mathematical properties was the year 1296. Such a year will not come again until the year 3025. Enjoy it while you can, math nerds!

The branch of mathematics that explores triangular numbers is Number Theory. One book on the Krueger Library retention list which discusses triangular numbers is:

Rademacher, Hans. Topics in Analytic Number Theory. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1973.

Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. This is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection.

(Credit for pointing out to me these mathematical details goes to Paul Weiner, the retired Chair of the Math Department at St. Mary’s University, and to his number theory chums.)

Recent Posts

Story Sixty-Five: Max Weber, the Exhibition Catalogs

Max Weber (1881-1961) was a successful and well-respected artist whose media included oil paintings and sculpture. His son, Maynard "Mo" Weber, who passed away in 2019, was a Winona State alumnus and a generous benefactor to the university. In addition to donating money for scholarships, Mo Weber donated a number of pieces of his father’s artwork to Winona State and a number of exhibition catalogs from his father’s career to the library. Many of those exhibition catalogs, as well as other books by and about Max Weber, are on the Krueger Library’s retention list. Max Weber was born on April 18, 1881, which means that this Friday marks his 144th birthday. (A series of these exhibition catalogs sets a new record for the number of monographs in a row that are on the retention list. The old record was five; these catalogs break that record with six.)For more information about Max Weber and his works at Winona State, follow this link to the collection at OpenRiver: Weber Art CollectionWeber, Max et al. First Comprehensive Retrospective Exhibition in the West of Oils, Gouaches, Pastels, Drawings, and Graphic Works by Max Weber (1881-1961): The Art Galleries, University of California at Santa Barbara, February 6 through March 3, 1968.Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. This is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection....

Story Sixty-Four: Chomsky, Rumors of his Death are Slightly Exaggerated

At age 96, Noam Chomsky is a major American scholar. Last year, he was rumored to have died, but he was later discharged from the hospital.In the later 20th century, Chomsky's linguistic framework became the dominant theory for how humans acquire language and process it in their brains (although his ideas have now been called into question by the new AI Large Language Models). His leftist politics also challenged American culture. Chomsky spoke at Winona State on March 20, 1998, a little over 27 years ago. The video of that lecture can be viewed on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC2JWvgMiR4One of our many books about Chomsky is on the Krueger Library’s retention list. Chomsky: language, mind, and politics / James McGilvray. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1999.(Our student newspaper, the Winonan, has been digitized and can be found on the Krueger Library’s OpenRiver repository. At the time of his lecture, there were letters to the editor of the Winonan discussing some of Chomsky’s ideas. Those letters can be found here: https://openriver.winona.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1200&context=thewinonan1990s) Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. This is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection....

Story Sixty-Three: Keep Calm in the Eye of the Storm

For those distraught by the downward slide of the stock markets over the last two days, this book on the Krueger Library retention list might help (or make it worse). Understanding the psychological mechanisms related to financial markets might help foster a sense of stoic calm.Cohen, David. Fear, Greed and Panic: The Psychology of the Stock Market. New York: Wiley, 2001.Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. This is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection. ...

Story Sixty-Two: April Fools … NOT! A Very Serious Examination of Humor

Books studying the psychological and neurological mechanisms of the human capacity for humor tend not to be a barrel of laughs. This book on the Krueger Library retention list is a case in point. For example, Dr. Ruch states, “This need to distinguish among facets of humorous and humorless personalities can be deduced from the fact that cultures typically have developed a rich vocabulary of humor-related nouns …” This observation is not a knee-slapper in English, though I am told it is much funnier in the original German.Ruch, Willibald. The Sense of Humor: Explorations of a Personality Characteristic. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1998.Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. This is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection. ...

Story Fifty-Nine: Mathematically, (20 + 25) * (20 + 25) = 2025