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Science and Mathematics Education Commons

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Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Claremont Colleges

Combinatorics

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Full-Text Articles in Science and Mathematics Education

Seating Groups And 'What A Coincidence!': Mathematics In The Making And How It Gets Presented, Peter J. Rowlett Jan 2024

Seating Groups And 'What A Coincidence!': Mathematics In The Making And How It Gets Presented, Peter J. Rowlett

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Mathematics is often presented as a neatly polished finished product, yet its development is messy and often full of mis-steps that could have been avoided with hindsight. An experience with a puzzle illustrates this conflict. The puzzle asks for the probability that a group of four and a group of two are seated adjacently within a hundred seats, and is solved using combinatorics techniques.