Students crowded the auditorium to attend the lecture on infinitesimals given by guest speaker and Rice University PhD student Jacob Kesten on Wednesday, Oct. 19 during Cardinal Hour in the auditorium.

The event hosted by Math Club was the second part of a two-part lecture series, the first of which featured Rice Professor of Mathematics Dr. Frank Jones.

“I chose this topic because as a calculus teacher, I was interested in how we could make calculus more understandable and intuitive for students who really struggle with it,” Kesten said. “This is one of the main ways we could do it, by using an infinitesimal instead of a limits approach.”

Currently studying for the PhD qualifying exams for Mathematics, Kesten’s goal is to one day teach a course to test his hypothesis on the effectiveness of the infinitesimal approach on student understanding.

“It was really interesting to hear about the history of infinitesimals,” senior and club president Amy He said. “I was very fascinated by the idea that dropping a single millet doesn’t make a sound, but dropping a thousand will.”

He was surprised by the turnout of the event – a packed auditorium. Freshman Serena Li attended for extra credit, but ended up taking notes and became interested enough to plan on attending more club meetings.

“I honestly thought it would be boring, but it wasn’t,” Li said. “I liked listening to [Kesten] explain the history side of calculus, and I was very shocked by the plagiarism conflict between Leibniz and Newton.”

Math Club welcomes all members regardless of math prowess. It’s a community made for students passionate about math to gather.

“We do a lot of fun things,” He said. “We have competitions inside and outside of the club; some of them are team competitions. Our next speaker event is pending, but we have competitions coming up.”

For students interested in math, Kesten encourages students to join groups like Math Club. Another great way to get more involved is watching fun YouTube videos that break down advanced topics in an understandable way.

“There’s no such thing as a math person,” Kesten said. “If you take the time to really grapple with difficult concepts and work with them, you’ll increase your understanding, and you can do that at your own pace. It really just helps to work, and anyone can do it.”

To keep up with Math Club’s future events, follow their Instagram @mathbhs.