Green Chicken / Math Puzzle Night:
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Green Chicken / Math Puzzle Night:
Contest Oct 23, 2010
Green Chicken Announcement: The annual Williams - Middlebury Green Chicken Math was on Saturday, October 23 from roughly 10:30am to 12:30pm in Bronfman 106. We had a great turnout, with 20+ from Williams and 10+ from Middlebury, and successfully defended Greenie, winning 191 to 140 and keeping her (and thus cookies after colloquia) for another year. The Williams team was led by top scorers Carlos Dominguez, Wei Sun, David Thompson and Liyang Zhang. Click here for this year's contest, click here for pictures. And, of course, click here for the story about the win from our Athletics Department's homepage!
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 4th) we weekly meet to discuss math puzzles and problems. Currently we meet at Dennett Private Dining Room in Mission on Tuesdays from 5:30 to 6:30pm (if you don't have a meal plan we can guest you in).
Meetings every TUESDAY from 5:30ish till 6:30/7ish in the Dennett Private Dining Room at Mission. 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; see also the George Washington University Summer program for women in math: http://www.gwu.edu/~spwm
PUTNAM STRATEGIES (work in progress -- help appreciated!): click here.
PUTNAM / Problem Solving Independent Study: click here for the homepage.
The Green Chicken contest is an annual friendly math competition between the math departments of Williams and Middlebury. In the weeks leading up to this year's event and after it, we'll have Math Puzzle Night. These will be fun gatherings where we'll discuss interesting math problems that often lead to both good math as well as practical applications. For example, check out this chess problem (the mathematics behind the elegant solution is used to help airlines create efficient schedules!) as well as this penny riddle (the solution to this is related to efficiently transferring information through the internet!). 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)
| 2010: exam and solution | 2005 | 2000: exam | 1995: exam | 1989 | 1984 | 1979 |
| 2009: exam | 2004: exam and solution | 1999: exam | 1994: exam | 1988 | 1983 | 1978 |
| 2008: exam and solution | 2003 | 1998: exam | 1993: exam | 1987 | 1982 | |
| 2007: exam and solution | 2002 | 1997: exam | 1992: exam | 1986 | 1981 | |
| 2006 | 2001: solution | 1996: exam | 1991: exam | 1985 | 1980 |
Contact
information: Steven J Miller (Steven.J.Miller AT Williams.edu)
Articles
about the green chicken
Results of
previous competitions
Previous Contests Useful Links Pictures Contact Info History Results
