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Math Circle at the University of Washington

Advanced Circle 2013-2014 (Archive)



The Advanced Circle will meet on Thursdays from 5 to 8 PM in Loew Hall 114.

Session Summary Homework (Sketches of) Solutions
Session 1 (09.26.2013) Olympiad Homework 1: Unsolved problems from the Olympiad Olympiad solutions
Session 2 (10.03.2013) Extreme values, semi-invariants and continuity Homework 2: Problem Set 1 Problem Set 1 solutions
Session 3 (10.10.2013) Metric Topology I (definitions) Homework 3: Problem Set 2 Problem Set 2 solutions
Session 4 (10.17.2013) Metric Topology II (convexity) Homework 4: Problem Set 3 Problem Set 3 solutions
Session 5 (10.24.2013) Functional equations Homework 5: Problem Set 4 Problem Set 4 solutions
Session 6 (10.31.2013) Math Auction with First and Second Year circles No homework!
Session 7 (11.07.2013) Metric Topology III (compactness and convergence)
“Guess my polynomial” game
Homework 6: Problem Set 5 Problem Set 5 solutions
Session 8 (11.14.2013) Operations with rational knots Homework 7: Problem Set 6 Problem Set 6 solutions
Session 9 (11.21.2013) Symmetries of plane figures and solids
“Vector speedway” game
No homework!
Session 10 (12.05.2013) What is (un)known about prime numbers
Proof of Bertrand's postulate / Chebyshëv's theorem
Homework 8: Problem Set 7 Problem Set 7 solutions
Session 11 (12.12.2013) Zometool Contest with First and Second Year circles No homework!
Session 12 (01.09.2014) Guest talk by Matt Campagna, “A lesson in classical cryptography” No homework!
Session 13 (01.16.2014) “Labyrinth” game Homework 9: Problem Set 8 Problem Set 8 solutions
Session 14 (01.23.2014) Group Theory I (definitions) Homework 10: Problem Set 9 Problem Set 9 solutions
Session 15 (01.30.2014) Group Theory II (subgroups and cyclic subgroups) Homework 11: Problem Set 10 Problem Set 10 solutions
Session 16 (02.06.2014) Group Theory III (permutations) Homework 12: Problem Set 11 Problem Set 11 solutions
Session 17 (02.13.2014) Exploring the 2×2×2 and 3×3×3 Rubik's Cubes No homework!
Session 18 (02.20.2014) Lecture by Austin on elliptic curves
A Relatively Easy to Understand Primer on ECC from Ars Technica
(Optional) Homework 13: Problem Set 12
Session 18½ (02.25.2014) Bay Area Mathematical Olympiad from 4 to 8:30 PM in Miller Hall room 302B
Session 19 (03.06.2014) Group Theory IV (Lagrange's theorem)
Quotients Homophones des Groupes Libres / Homophonic Quotients of Free Groups
Homework 14: Problem Set 13
Session 20 (03.20.2014) Cayley graphs and domino tilings
Domino tiling animation and Conway's Tiling Groups
Homework 15: Problem Set 14
Session 21 (03.27.2014) The geometric series and random walks on graphs Homework 16: Problem Set 15
Session 22 (04.03.2014) Favourite rational numbers
Some of the many things counted by the Catalan numbers
Homework 17: Problem Set 16
Session 23 (04.10.2014) Banach-Tarski Paradox I (construction of a Vitali set) No homework!
Session 24 (04.24.2014) Banach-Tarski Paradox II (free groups)
The Robinson-Schensted correspondence and “civilized pictures” a.k.a. standard Young tableaux
Parking functions
Homework 18: Problem Set 17
Session 25 (05.01.2014) More RSK and Schützenberger's jeu de taquin
More parking functions
Homework 19: Problem Set 18
Session 26 (05.08.2014) Recursive counting
Dungeon game
No new homework!
Session 27 (05.15.2014) The “extreme principle” in geometry
Incidence geometry: points, lines, coloured points, coloured lines
Coloured lines game
Homework 20: Problem Set 19
Session 28 (05.22.2014) Forbidden minors for graphs (Kuratowski, Wagner, Robertson-Seymour theorems)
Geometry with mass points
Homework 21: Problem Set 20
Session 29 (05.29.2014) Some very↑↑↑very big numbers
The joys of cutting polygons into triangles (Fáry's, Pick's, Bolyai-Gerwien theorems)
No homework!
Session 29½ (06.01.2014) Math Hour Olympiad from 9 AM to 3 PM in Savery Hall
Session ω (06.05.2014) Math Auction with First and Second Year circles

All TeX, DVI, and PDF files can be found in this directory. Some sources of problems and materials.