Green Chicken / Math Puzzle Night

Green Chicken Announcement: The annual Williams - Middlebury Green Chicken Math Contest was at Middlebury on Saturday, November 7th. As the name suggests, we do math problems and whichever team has the higher score gets the Green Chicken. After an impressive streak, we lost the Green Chicken in a squeaker last year, brought her back this year, and are now gearing up to defend her! Won't you please help? 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 the first Saturday in December) we weekly meet to discuss math puzzles and problems. Currently we meet at Dennett Private Dining Room in Mission on Wednesdays at 5:45pm.

Meetings every Wednesdays 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.

The Green Chicken contest is an annual friendly math competition between the math departments of Williams and Middlebury. Last year's contest was Saturday, November 1st at Williams, won by 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)

• Other exams: USA and International Olympiad 2006-2007 (edited by Zuming Feng Yufei Zhao: warning: MUCH harder).
• Steve Miller's riddles page.

Useful links

• Putnam Exam: Problems from 1985 to 2007, solutions from 1995 to 2007; additional problems starting from 1975 are here.
• Useful books:
  • Peter D. Schumer, Mathematical Journeys
  • Kiran S. Kedlaya, Bjorn Poonen, and Ravi Vakil, The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition problems and solutions: 1985 - 2000
  • Gerald L. Alexanderson, Leonard F. Klosinski, Loren C. Larson, The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition problems and solutions: 1965 - 1984
  • Andrew M. Gleason, R. E. Greenwood, Leon M. Kelly, The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition problems and solutions: 1938 - 1964
  • Martin Aigner, Günter M. Ziegler, and K.H. Hofmann, Proofs from THE Book
• Proofs by Induction
• The arithmetic-geometric mean inequality

Pictures

• Green Chicken (circa 2008, thanks to Dick Quinn)
• Brown Chicken (thanks to the Jeromes and some wedding guest)
• 2008 Contest

Contact information: Steven J Miller (Steven.J.Miller AT Williams.edu)

Articles about the green chicken

• Willipedia: History of the Green Chicken Contest       
• North Adams Transcript article: November 22nd, 2000

Results of previous competitions

Previous Contests        Useful Links        Pictures        Contact Info        History        Results