Author: jsiehler
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We made games, and you can try them!
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In MCS-106 we’ve been thinking intensely about games – we’ve had the cards, dice, hexagonal boards, pencils and paper and all the other trimmings out as we’ve studied the mechanics of games like Hex, Can’t Stop, SET, Dots-and-Boxes, and many others. Most importantly, we’ve been designing and testing our own games, and we’d like to…
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December Problems of the Month
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Congratulations to November’s solvers: Filip Belik, Mike Hvidsten, and Ha Le. November’s problems seems to have been particularly challenging! On to December: Problem #1 is a little arithmetic curiosity: The four-digit numbers 3025 and 2025 have an unusual property: (30+25)^2 = 3025 and (20+25)^2 = 2025. That is, if you put a plus sign in…
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October Problems of the Month
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Congratulations to September’s supremely successful solvers: Filip Belik, Luke Haddorff, Tom LoFaro, James Wittrig, and Katherine Williams. October’s Problem #1 is just a game of Xs and Os: Imagine that the following list of three 7-letter words is made from tiles with X on one side, and O on the other side: OOOXXXX XXOXOOX…
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September Problems of the Month
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Congratulations to last year’s top solvers: Filip Belik and James Wittrig! Once again, we’ll be hosting “Problems of the Month” throughout the fall semester, and we invite everyone throughout the college to take part! Students, faculty, and staff are all welcome to submit solutions, and there are prizes for the top student solvers during the…
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December Problems of the Month
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Congratulations to November’s successful solvers: Filip Belik, Sam Thompson, and James Wittrig. December’s Problem #1 is a slippery, sliding rearrangement problem: Each move in the game below consists of sliding two checkers from adjacent boxes to two open positions, keeping them adjacent and in their original order as they move. In three moves, the pattern…
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November Problems of the Month
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Congratulations to September’s successful solvers: Filip Belik and James Wittrig. Honorable mention to James Boykin for a promising partial solution to #2. November’s Problem 1 is an assembly problem in the style of classic tangram puzzles: Seven puzzle pieces have been drawn on a grid of 30-60-90 triangles. Show how they can be arranged to…
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October Problems of the Month
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Congratulations to September’s successful solvers: Filip Belik, Sam Thompson, Katherine Williams, and James Wittrig. Throughout the fall semester, we’re hosting “Problems of the Month” here, and we invite everyone throughout the college to take part! Students, faculty, and staff are welcome to submit solutions, and there are prizes for the top student solvers during the…
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September Problems of the Month
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Throughout the fall semester, we’ll be hosting “Problems of the Month” here, and we invite everyone throughout the college to take part! Everyone is welcome to submit solutions, and there are prizes for the top student solvers during the fall (details below). September’s Problem #1 is a puzzle with a map: The small, yet verdant…