Irl C. Bivens

What a Tangent Line Is When It Isn't a Limit.

vidson College, where he has been since 1982. In 1979, he received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, under the direction of Professor Patrick Eberlein. Before coming to Davidson, he taught at Pfeiffer College and was a G. C. Evans Instructor of Mathematics at Rice University. His professional interests include differen? tial geometry, mathematical physics, and the mathematics of the undergraduate curriculum. His nonmathematical inter? ests include science fiction, spy novels, B-movies, his wife Patti, and his son Robert.

The Median Value of a Continuous Function

Summary Using a limit we define the median value of a continuous function on a bounded interval and we explicate the connection between the median and area minimization.With the help of Lebesgue measure we show that this connection can be viewed as a special case of an interesting minimization principle in probability.