First Year Seminar 191MCS10 - FYS- Math Puzzles

If you were a pirate trying to steal gold from other pirates, what would you do? If you were forced to deduce the color of your friend's hat to escape an eccentric magician, how might counting help? If you were waging a war of wits against an evil professor (welcome to college, by the way), why might a chessboard come in handy? There's a colorful, magical world of math that is far away from the boring or difficult reputation it often gets, and it involves fun, creative thinking, and often unexpected connections to deep ideas in theoretical research. If you like puzzles, popular science and math, or crosswords, or you just find yourself wondering what mathematicians and theoretical computer scientists get up to in their spare time, this course is for you!

Open to COMPSCI or INFORM students only. First year (Fr or Soph)