The first Pleasanton Math Circle meeting took place a few days ago. Over 25 students attended as well as numerous parents.
An introduction problem was given before splitting up into Beginner and Intermediate groups, based on grade level.
Introduction Problem: Draw three boxes on a piece of paper labeled "gas," "water," and "electricity." Draw three other boxes indicating houses labeled "A," "B," and "C."
The object is to provide vital services to the three numbered houses by drawing lines from the utilities to the houses. Lines are not allowed to cross and they may not go through a house or a service station. Find the solution to the problem (Iggulden, 144).
After splitting into groups, each group was given a handout. These handouts can be found in the attachments section. Groups were actively engaged in solving these problems, and refreshments were given - thinking makes you hungry!
If you found the problems from the last session interesting, be sure to come to the next Pleasanton Math circle on November 3rd, 2011!
November 3rd ,2011
Today, numbers increased to more than 30; many more people!
The beginner handout focused on Number Sense, going up until the strategy for multiplying two digit numbers mentally. The high school handout revolved around usage of Modular Arithmetic in difficult problems.
Our meeting location will be subject to change to a location with more room; stay tuned! Join us in our 3rd meeting on December 1st, 2011!
December 1st, 2011
Both lectures focused on basics in counting. The beginner group expanded to over 20 people - expect to see a beginner, pre-intermediate, and intermediate group at the next meeting!
Here's a nice little brain teaser for those that went through the handouts posted:
Place eight rooks on a standard 8 x. 8 chessboard so that no two are in the same row or column. With the standard rules of chess, this means that no two rooks are attacking each other. Now paint 27 of the remaining squares (not currently occupied by rooks) red.
Prove that no matter how the rooks are arranged and which set of 27 squares are painted, it is always possible to move some or all of the rooks so that:
a) All the rooks are still on unpainted squares.
b) The rooks are still not attacking each other (no two are in the same row or same column).
c) At least one formerly empty square now has a rook on it; that is, the rooks are not on the same 8 squares as before.
(BAMO, 2010)
Winter break is coming up - happy holidays to everyone! Math Circle meetings will resume on January 12th, 2011!
January 12th/19th, 2011
January 12th:
William Chen, a sophomore at Harvard, was the main lecturer today. Having collected much experience in numerous math classes at Harvard, he decided to share some of his experience today through teaching the students specific areas in probability and expected value. Twenty students, as well as our regular lecturers, saw many new and interesting aspects of expected value, and attacked many hard expected value problems with new insight.
