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Full-Text Articles in Other Mathematics
Squaring, Cubing, And Cube Rooting, Arthur T. Benjamin
Squaring, Cubing, And Cube Rooting, Arthur T. Benjamin
All HMC Faculty Publications and Research
We present mentally efficient algorithms for mentally squaring and cubing 2-digit and 3-digit numbers and for finding cube roots of numbers with 2-digit or 3-digit answers.
Mathematical Magic, Arthur T. Benjamin
Mathematical Magic, Arthur T. Benjamin
All HMC Faculty Publications and Research
In this paper, we present simple strategies for performing mathematical calculations that appear magical to most audiences. Specifically, we explain how to square large numbers, memorize pi to 100 places and determine the day of the week of any given date.
The Best Way To Knock 'M Down, Arthur T. Benjamin, Matthew T. Fluet '99
The Best Way To Knock 'M Down, Arthur T. Benjamin, Matthew T. Fluet '99
All HMC Faculty Publications and Research
"Knock 'm Down" is a game of dice that is so easy to learn that it is being played in classrooms around the world. Although this game has been effective at developing students' intuition about probability [Fendel et al. 1997; Hunt 1998], we will show that lurking underneath this deceptively simple game are many surprising and highly unintuitive results.
Bounds On A Bug, Arthur T. Benjamin, Matthew T. Fluet '99
Bounds On A Bug, Arthur T. Benjamin, Matthew T. Fluet '99
All HMC Faculty Publications and Research
In the game of Cootie, players race to construct a "cootie bug" by rolling a die to collect component parts. Each cootie bug is composed of a body, a head, two eyes, one nose, two antennae, and six legs. Players must first acquire the body of the bug by rolling a 1. Next, they must roll a 2 to add the head to the body. Once the body and head are both in place, the remaining body parts can be obtained in any order by rolling two 3s for the eyes, one 4 for the nose, two 5s for the …
Optimal Klappenspiel, Arthur T. Benjamin, Derek Stanford '93
Optimal Klappenspiel, Arthur T. Benjamin, Derek Stanford '93
All HMC Faculty Publications and Research
The game Klappenspiel ("flipping game") is a traditional German game of flipping tiles according to dice rolls. In this paper, we derive the optimal strategy for this game by using dynamic programming. We show that the probability of winning using the optimal strategy is 0.30%.