Math Puzzles

CICS 191 @ UMass-Amherst, Spring 2021

Welcome to the CICS 191: First Year Seminar on Math Puzzles!

This is the official course website for Spring 2021. Please check back in regularly for updates. Here's the syllabus!

Basic Information

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!


Course Staff and Logistics

  • Instructor: Rik Sengupta (email); office hours by appointment.

  • Syllabus: link.

  • Textbook: You don't need one! I'll post all relevant readings and links.

  • Logistics: We'll meet once a week on Fridays (10:10-11 am) on Zoom. We will use Slack for (hopefully fun) discussions and this website for any updates. There are many (easy) ways to ensure an A for this course -- you can pick what suits you best.

Sneak Peek

What if you had to cross a bridge with limited time to escape from zombies, with three companions who all have different speeds from you? How would you quickly think outside the box and figure out the answer? If this has ever happened to you and you think you could have done better, or if you just want to be prepared, here's a TED-Ed video that explains the right thought process in those contexts!