I welcome the opportunity to introduce the first issue of Parabola.
Over the past ten years student journals and magazines similar to this one have been launched in different parts of the world, in a variety of languages.
G. Szekeres
Amongst all closed curves with given length (or perimeter) L, which ones encloses the largest area?
J1 (a) Two numbers, a and b are such that a is smaller and b is greater than 1. If S is the sum of a and b, and P is their product, prove that S and P differ by more than 1.
Hiawatha's Theorem (page 10): "the squaw on the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws on the other two hides" (Pythagoras).
Whilst very few people doubt that there are exciting new discoveries awaiting the inspired researcher in Physics, or Chemistry, or almost any other science, many seem to imagine that virtually all mathematics has been known for fifty years or more.
J11 A drill squad contains mn people, arranged in m rows of n people. In each of the n columns so formed, the lightest person is noted, and the heaviest of these is found to be Smith.
J1 (a) Two numbers, a and b are such that a is smaller and b is greater than 1. If S is the sum of a and b, and P is their product, prove that S and P differ by more than 1.
If a1,a2, and a3 are positive numbers whose sum is two, prove that a1a2+a2a3≤1.