5/19/2019 -- Beginners: Problem Solving and Take Away Games

Over this weekend and the next we'll be covering both take away games and problem solving. One class will do problem solving first and then take away games, but both classes will do both over the next two weeks. For problem solving we will be diverging from our usual program and will be tackling some old math competition problems. These problems won't be emphasizing any particular mathematical principle and instead we'll be trying to discover how to approach these problems, and especially how you can make progress when you don't see the answer. For take away games we will have a friend of the math circle and current UCLA math PhD student Jeremy Brightbill give a special presentation on take away games. These mathematical games are typically played between two people where the goal is to take pieces in such a way that either you or the other person has to take the last piece. Over the course of the lesson we'll be playing a lot of games, so this is one lesson that you definitely don't want to miss!