Unraveling 'Math Dyslexia.' New research could change the way we view math difficulties and how we assist children who face those problems.
Click here
|
|
Can math and science help solve crimes? Scientists work with LAPD to identify and analyze crime 'hotspots."
Click here |
|
Surprising Results in Teen Study: Adolescent Risky Behavior May Signal Mature BrainClick here
|
|
Students' Physical Fitness Associated with Academic Achievement
|
|
| Don't miss an issue. Subscribe!
|
 |
|
|
Spring Break Problem-Solving Fun: The Eight Queens Problem
|
|
A special thanks to my friend, Dennis Wagner, who introduced me to this brain teaser. Many years ago, when he was in graduate school, he wrote a computer program to solve it.
Here's the challenge: Place eight queens on an 8 x 8 chessboard in such a way that there is one queen in each row and one in each column -- and so that no queen is in a position to take another.
The problem was first posed by a chess player in 1848. The first complete set of solutions was worked out by 1850. Since that many mathematicians have solved the more general form of the problem -- n queens on an n x n board.
The 8 x 8 problem has a total of 4,426,165,368 (64 choose 8) possible arrangements. Of those, 92 are solutions. Of the 92 solutions, only 12 are fundamental, meaning that they are not a reflection or rotation of another solution.
It took me nearly two hours to find a single solution. My 14-year-old son found a different solution on his own in about the same time. So, pull out your chessboard
and give it a try! Let me know how you make out with it.
To learn more about the problem, click here.
|
More Spring Break Problem-Solving Fun:
Cow & Barn Problem
|
|
Here's one I discovered at a conference many years ago:
A farmer has a square barn that measures
50 feet by 50 feet. When she mows the
grass around the barn, her mower leaves a fringe of unmowed grass all around
the outside of the barn.
Now, this clever farmer decides that she'll
have her cow eat the unmowed grass while she is doing other work around the
farm. She has 100 feet of rope and a
stake.
Your task is to explain how the farmer
can place the stake in the ground (only once) and use the rope to tie the cow
to the stake so that the cow can eat all of the unmowed fringe around the barn,
without reversing direction or going backing up.
Note: this is not a trick question. The stake must go in the ground, not in the top of the barn. The sides of the barn are not perforated to allow the rope to pass through them, etc.
|
Newsletters will include Student Tips, Workplace Tips, book reviews, interviews, or articles on education or science or the arts.
If
you've received a forwarded copy of this message from a friend, be sure
to subscribe, so that you will continue to receive the newsletter
directly from me. Just click on the "Join Our Mailing List" button
above and to the left of this paragraph. In each mailing will be an
unsubscribe link, so that you can opt out at any time. You can also
subscribe from my website: www.kevindohmen.net.
I hope that you have found this issue useful. Please forward to friends, family, teachers -- to anyone who has an
interest in, or a passion for, learning.
I welcome your feedback!
Sincerely, 
Kevin D. Dohmen, M.Ed.
Learning Consultant
21 West Caton Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22301-1519
---
703.683.9617
kevindohmen@verizon.net
www.kevindohmen.net
the art of learning for the information age
|
|
|
