Congrats to the football team for a homecoming win against Wesleyan.

Williams retains the Green Chicken in 2012, winning 125 - 118. Team was Jared Hallett, Samantha Petti, Jack Bequeaith and Sam Donow. Picture here.

MATH COMPETITION NEWS:   10th in Putnam in 2011        DEFENDED TITLE IN CENTRAL CT STATE UNIVERSITY MATH CONTEST

Green Chicken Contest November 10, 2012. (click here for motivational music)

Green Chicken Announcement: The annual Williams - Middlebury Green Chicken Math is usually in October / November. As the name suggests, we do math problems and whichever team has the higher score gets the Green Chicken. There are problems at all levels, interesting discussions and of course food (hopefully not green chicken, but they choose the menu this year). Related to this and the Putnam (which will be December 1st, 2012) we weekly meet to discuss math puzzles and problems. Currently we meet at Dennett Private Dining Room in Mission on Wednesdays from 5:30 to 6:30pm (if you don't have a meal plan we can guest you in).

Good problems to look at (for now) are from the U of I practice Putnam exams, U of I math contests, and of course last year's Putnam exam. For the last few meetings, I've brought in some problems no one has looked at and we've brainstormed together.

Check out the blog at:  http://blogs.williams.edu/greenchicken    

Summer REU (research experiences for undergraduates) links: http://www.ams.org/employment/reu.html and http://www.maa.org/students/reustuff/pages/reu.html and  http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list_result.cfm?unitid=5044.

PUTNAM STRATEGIES (work in progress -- help appreciated!): click here.

PUTNAM / Problem Solving Independent Study: click here for the homepage.

For more information, contact Professor Miller at sjm1 AT williams.edu.

Previous Contests        Useful Links        Pictures        Contact Info        History        Results

Previous Contests and related exams / riddles (thanks to F. Zhu for posting)

• Other exams: USA and International Olympiad 2006-2007 (edited by Zuming Feng Yufei Zhao: warning: MUCH harder).
• Steve Miller's riddles page.

Useful links

• Putnam Exam: Problems from 1985 to 2007, solutions from 1995 to 2007; additional problems starting from 1975 are here.
• Useful books:
  • Peter D. Schumer, Mathematical Journeys
  • Kiran S. Kedlaya, Bjorn Poonen, and Ravi Vakil, The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition problems and solutions: 1985 - 2000
  • Gerald L. Alexanderson, Leonard F. Klosinski, Loren C. Larson, The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition problems and solutions: 1965 - 1984
  • Andrew M. Gleason, R. E. Greenwood, Leon M. Kelly, The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition problems and solutions: 1938 - 1964
  • Martin Aigner, Günter M. Ziegler, and K.H. Hofmann, Proofs from THE Book
• Proofs by Induction
• The arithmetic-geometric mean inequality

Pictures

• Green Chicken (circa 2008, thanks to Dick Quinn)
• Brown Chicken (thanks to the Jeromes and some wedding guest)
• 2008 Contest
• 2009 Contest
• 2010 Contest
• 2012 Contest

Contact information: Steven J Miller (Steven.J.Miller AT Williams.edu)

Articles about the green chicken

• Willipedia: History of the Green Chicken Contest       
• North Adams Transcript article: November 22nd, 2000

• click here for the story about the 2010 win from our Athletics Department's homepage!

Results of previous competitions

Previous Contests        Useful Links        Pictures        Contact Info        History        Results

2012 top scorers: Jared Hallett, Samantha Petti, Jack Bequeaith and Sam Donow.