A mini report on the Oxfordshire (UK) event is now available online:http://www.clickmazes.com/G4G/oct21report.htm
Re: G4G MG Celebration of Mind
Boston Celebration of Mind Summary
Boston Celebration of Mind
The Boston-area Celebration of Mind event, on October 21, 2010, attractedover 50 attendees from around the New England region. It was co-hosted byChris Morgan and David Leschinsky, of Eureka! Puzzles. Many people broughtshow-and-tell items, including puzzles, books, and optical illusions. It wasa wonderful, convivial group, and everyone had a great time.
The evening began with Moderator Chris Morgan singing a Tom Lehrer song,"That's Mathematics" (possibly the only song that refers to Fermat's lasttheorem!), followed by "Automation", by Alan Sherman.
Chris spoke about visiting Martin in Oklahoma five years ago and spending adelightful afternoon swapping magic tricks and interviewing him for an essayentitled, "Martin Gardner and his Influence on Magic" (Available in *ALifetime of Puzzles: A Collection of Puzzles in Honor of Martin Gardner's90th Birthday*, published by A.K. Peters). In all, he met with Martin threetimes over the past thirty years, and each occasion was a "white stone" day(In his diary, Lewis Carroll often wrote "I mark this day with a whitestone" when a day was truly memorable).
Chris performed a mathematical prediction trick taught to him by Martin andinvented by an Armenian magician. It's not widely known. You hand a sealedprediction to your spectators, then give them a section of a newspaper andask them to select any two-page spread from it and add up the four pagenumbers. Surprisingly, the total is a constant for any two-page spread agiven section! To make the trick more mystifying, first hand a completenewspaper to the spectators and have them pick any section. You haveseparate predictions in your pockets, one for each section (the totals ofcourse will differ depending on the total page count for each section). Youtake out the appropriate prediction when you see which section thespectators have chosen, then proceed with the trick. Martin mentioned thathe once explained the trick to Teller (of Penn and Teller). Tellerimmediately suggested taking the total (let's say it's 26) and having thespectator turn to the page indicated by the left digit (2) and counting downto the word at the position of the right digit (6). This changes theprediction to a word prediction, possibly helping to mask the mathematicalunderpinnings. It's a good example of how magicians often collaborate, muchlike mathematicians.
Klaus Peters, co-founder of A.K. Peters publishers, spoke about the joys ofworking with Martin Gardner, who was such a gentleman, and so helpful inmaking connections with others in the mathematical and scientific fields.Martin seemed to have no ego. Often, he would write "no reply required" atthe end of his letters, because he didn't want to be a burden to anyone.Klaus also showed some examples of Martin's distinctive letters, alwayswritten using an old typewriter, and invariably including manyhand-corrections.
MIT professor Eric Demaine gave an entertaining (and kinetic) talk aboutsliding block puzzles and picture-hanging puzzles, and discussed hisinterest in exploring still-unanswered or open-ended questions raised byMartin Gardner in his writings.
Erik noted that sliding-block puzzles are incredibly complex. He has creatednovel "machines" comprised of sliding blocks, which can mimic such things aslogic gates. His paper, “Any Monotone Boolean Function Can Be Realized byInterlocked Polygons” (http://erikdemaine.org/papers/InterlockedPolygons_CCCG2010/paper.pdf) goes into more detail.
You can have fun playing with interlocked polygons here:http://erikdemaine.org/interlockedpolygons/. See also:http://erikdemaine.org/papers/NCL_TCS/paper.pdf) Robert Hearn, who hasco-authored with Erik, also has a good discussion about sliding block puzzlecomplexity at: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/bob/sliding-blocks.pdf
Eric's paper, "Puzzles, Art, and Magic with Algorithms", describes thepicture hanging puzzle. In its simplest form, it involves finding a way tohang a picture on two nails, using a rope, such that by removing eithernail, the picture drops.
Eric demonstrated more complex versions of the puzzle to our group bywrapping a thick rope around the arms of two audience volunteers, afterfirst asking the audience to choose one of the four arms to be removed, andseeing if the rope would then fall to the ground. The rope patterns quicklybecame very convoluted! More information about the picture-hanging puzzle isat:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.100.5132&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Eric has just published an article called "Mathematical Recreations" in theAmerican Scientist magazine. It presents several recreational puzzles, anddiscusses Martin Gardner's legacy. It's available online at:http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/recreational-computing
Jeannine Mosley, an electrical engineer, computer scientist, andcomputational origamist, told a funny anecdote about her early days workingat the Scientific American, at a time when Martin Gardner was writing hisMathematical Recreations column. Jeannine's job included opening Martin'smail before forwarding it on to him - something she regarded as a greatprivilege. One day a letter appeared from someone posing a dice probabilityproblem. Rather than just forwarding it on, she computed the answer and sentit to Martin. (At the time, she was contemplating majoring in mathematics.)Martin, who had no formal training in mathematics, wrote back to Jeanninesaying that she had done a great job solving the problem, and that he wouldforward a copy of her solution to the correspondent. The truth was, he said,that he had no more of a background in mathematics than a student justsetting out to become major in mathematics. Jeannine was astounded! For moreabout Jeannine, see: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/24/wertheim.php
James Propp (http://faculty.uml.edu/jpropp/), teaches at the UMass LowellDepartment of Mathematical Sciences. He supervises the *Tilings ResearchGroup *(http://faculty.uml.edu/jpropp/trg.html). The work mixescombinatorics, algebra, and probability, with a large component of computerexperimentation. Jim discussed some of the properties of random tilings offinite regions (See http://faculty.uml.edu/jpropp/tiling/www/, and broughtalong a t-shirt showing examples of the distinctive tilings.
Alan Tannenbaum, a collector of Lewis Carroll books and all thingsCarrollian, is a former President of the Lewis Carroll Society of America.He spoke about the time he visited Martin Gardner (a founding member of theLewis Carroll Society) in Norman, Oklahoma. Gardner's "Annotated Alice" wasthe first Carroll book that Alan bought, and it launched his collection,which now numbers over 5000 books. Alan was struck by Martin's friendlinessand generosity, giving books to Alan and encouraging him in his Carrollinterests. The Society is planning to publish a series of essays inremembrance of Martin, whose writings had a major impact on Carroll studies.
Peter Renz worked as book editor with Martin Gardner for many years at W. H.Freeman and Company. He spoke about how easy Martin was to work with, how heseemed to "know everyone." Speaking about Martin in a recent blog (http://maa.org/pubs/focus/FOCUS08-2010_Gardner.pdf) Peter notes that "Manythings took off after Martin covered them: the Game of Googol, aka theSecretary Problem (2/1960); the art of M. C. Escher (4/1966); Conway’s Gameof Life (10/1970); Mandelbrot’s fractals (12/1976); Penrose tilings(1/1977); public-key cryptosystems (8/1977); Douglas Hofstadter’s *Gödel,Escher, Bach* (7/1979); and A. K. Dewdney’s Planiverse (7/1980). Iespecially liked Martin’s puckish columns: for example the April Fool’scolumn “Six sensational discoveries” (4/1975) and “The Laffer curve”(12/1981). (Find most of these essays at http://www.maa.org/pubs/FOCUS/mg.html.) Martin was witty, generous, and a joy to workwith until his dying day. His heritage goes beyond essays and books; he lefta community of magicians, mathematicians, and wits carrying things forwardand delighting in it all." See also Peter's 1979 interview with Martin at:http://thebackbench.blogspot.com/2010/05/interview-with-martin-gardner.html
John Kemeny discussed the many ways Martin Gardner affected him: "When I wasan adolescent, I had a love for all things mathematical: integer sequences,geometric patterns, puzzles, and so on. The math taught in school didn'tstretch my imagination – it was easy and boring. But I always eagerly siftedthrough issues of *Scientific American* magazines in the library for onegem. I never met Martin Gardner, nor did I become a mathematician, but hiscolumns filled me with the beauty and poetry that math possesses. I was notalone in those library stacks. A post-Sputnik generation of sponge-likebrains went searching for “Recreational Mathematics.” Although Martin’scolumn was published for 30 years, and his books are still very popular,many people born after he stopped writing the column in 1986 aren’t familiarwith him. My point is, as great a genius as Martin Gardner was (despite hisgigantic humility), and as irreplaceable, *we still need him*. My wish andhope is that some team of interested people will continue in Martin'sfootsteps by writing a celebration of mathematics for the average person ona regular basis. It is a tall order, but a post-Sponge Bob generation ofabsorbent minds is googling for this." John's PowerPoint presentation on"Smallest Population that Supports Simpson's" can be viewed at:http://bookgenius.org/kemeny/
Thanks to co-host David Leschinsky and the staff of Eureka! Puzzles fortheir great assistance in making this project happen! Thanks also to theSaul and Paulette Bobroff for transportation and helping with the setup.
We can't wait to do this again next year!
- Chris Morgan
re: event in aurangabad
dear sir,we had a meeting on 30th october 2010 under the auspices of marathwadamedical society.the meeting was held in mathematics department at 530 pm and attended byseveral maths teachers and maths enthusiasts.presentation was made by dr vivek gharpure. mr milind ranade made fewremarks.i have received invitations from two local colleges for giving apresentation for their students.an article has been requested by the mathematical society for theirbulletin.there might be a presentation in the national conference at Jalna in January2011
vivek gharpure
Short report from Tokyo (Correction)
Dear G4G-CoM organizers
Thank you very much for making appearance of "Short report from Tokyo" on the G4G Journal rapidly.
I just forget to write credit description for the photo I sent which was taken by non-attendee professional.So, would you please add the following line at the end of the text?
"Photo courtesy of Yuko Shinohara"
Your kind treatment will be highly appreciated.Best Regards,Naoaki Takashima
Original mail:
Dear G4G-CoM organizers CC:Hirokazu Iwasawa
The G4G-CoM in Tokyo was successfully held at a Cafe in Tokyo for four hours from 5.00 pm until 9.00pm.Each of all 26 attendees made at least 5 minutes of a talk or a demonstration.Detailed report may be sent to you from Iwahiro soon.I attached herewith the attendees' photo and autographs. and initial screen of LIFE game demonstrated by Masaka Iwai.
Best Regards,
Naoaki Takashima, one of host of G4G-CoM in Tokyo
Short report from Tokyo
Dear G4G-CoM organizers CC:Hirokazu Iwasawa
The G4G-CoM in Tokyo was successfully held at a Cafe in Tokyo for four hours from 5.00 pm until 9.00pm.Each of all 26 attendees made at least 5 minutes of a talk or a demonstration.Detailed report may be sent to you from Iwahiro soon.I attached herewith the attendees' photo and autographs. and initial screen of LIFE game demonstrated by Masaka Iwai.
Best Regards,
Naoaki Takashima, one of host of G4G-CoM in Tokyo
Photo courtesy of Yuko Shinohara
