September 13, 2014 – Naoki Sato – “Game Theory”
When playing a two-player game, what is the best move? What is the best overall strategy? And is there a way to determine who can win? In this talk, we will be exploring the basics of combinatorial game theory, starting with simple two-player games, such as Nim. Along the way, we will see how we can determine winning positions, and we will give techniques for analyzing other types of games.
September 20, 2014 – Branislav Kisacanin – “Numbers, Sequences, Connections”
Come join us in learning about number sequences! We will start with a story about Leonardo Pisano, better known as Fibonacci, his often forgotten fundamental contributions to mathematics (do you know what they are?), and his ubiquitous sequence of Fibonacci numbers: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, …
September 27, 2014 – Imre Leader -“Van Der Waerden’s Theorem”
Please join us for another exciting math circle where we are pleased to welcome Dr. Imre Leader. Dr. Leader is a professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, an IMO medalist, and a 10 times national champion of Othello!
He will give a presentation this Saturday on Van Der Waerden’s Theorem which “is a theorem in the branch of mathematics called Ramsey theory. Van der Waerden’s theorem states that for any given positive integers r and k, there is some number N such that if the integers {1, 2, …, N} are colored, each with one of r different colors, then there are at least k integers in arithmetic progression all of the same color. The least such N is the Van der Waerden number W(r, k). It is named after the Dutch mathematician B. L. van der Waerden.[1]“
This topic will be accessible for even young students as long as they understand power notation, e.g. 3^10.
October 4, 2014 – Titu Andreescu – “AMC 8-10 Preparation”
Come join us this Saturday for a fun session of AMC 8 level problems and beyond. November 18, 2014 (Tuesday) is the AMC 8 test, so come study with Dr. Titu Andreescu, former director of the American Mathematics Competition for 5 years, former coach of the US IMO team, and of course, the director of Metroplex Math Circle and AwesomeMath.
If you have a child who would like to participate in the AMC 8 tests, but his/her school does not offer the opportunity, you can register with Kathy Cordeiro after math circle ($10 registration fee).
October 11, 2014 – Walter Stromquist – “Permutation Patterns”
Please join us for a fun look at permutation patterns. We will count some special classes of permutations. For example, there are “132-avoiding” permutations, which are those (like 546231) that never have three entries in order smallest-largest-middle. Among the n! permutations of size n, how many are 132-avoiding? And how many are 123-avoiding? That question is just the beginning. Next, we can count the number of permutations with 3 “descents”—downsteps between consecutive entries—again, like 546231—or the number of permutations with 3 “excedences”—cases of pi(i)>i—again, like 546231. There is a connection, which is another beginning. All this can be unified, and we’ll try to do that using “triangular functions.”
October 18, 2014 – Po-Shen Lo – “Big Numbers”
September 13, 2014 – Oleg Mushkarov – “Napoleon Polygons”
Later in the session, you will learn more about the High School Students Institut of Mathematics and Informatics established in 2000 by the Union of Bulgarian Mathematicians on the occasion of the World Year of Mathematics.
November 1, 2014 – Dr. Titu Andreescu – “Problem Solving Session”
Come join us November 1st and hone your skills for this year’s problem solving season. AMC 8 is this month, making it a great time to delve into various interesting problems. Combinatorics, Number Theory, Geometry, and Algebra problems will be presented with multiple difficulty levels to challenge and delight our math circle patrons. Whether you are new to problem solving or looking for some additional challenges, this is a great circle for working with peers and under the instruction of Dr. Titu Andreescu, who has been coaching and educating mathletes for over 30 years.
November 8, 2014 – Mirroslav Yotov
November 15, 2014 – Jacob Cordeiro – “Fun with Computational Linguistics”
Jacob Cordeiro will discuss the NACLO (North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad), and the skill which you can pick up in order to take part in this clever and fun competition. We’ll solve some favorite problems in group discussions, and learn the logic behind computational linguistics. Linguistic experience is by no means required–there will be something for all ages and all levels of skill.
November 22, 2014 – Razvan Gelca
December 6, 2014 – Gabriel Dospinescu
December 13, 2014 – Jon Kane – “Counting Problems”
Counting Adult and Children Tickets
Suppose one afternoon a theater sells 10 adult tickets and 15 child tickets. In how many different orders can those tickets be sold? What if no more than two child tickets are sold between each sale of adult tickets? How about if 10 adult tickets and 10 child tickets are sold but as the tickets are sold, the number of child tickets sold is never allowed to exceed the number of adult tickets sold? We will discuss many variations of these types of problems and draw parallels to many other kinds of counting problems.
December 20, 2014 – January 10, 2015 – Holiday Break
January 17, 2015 – Naoki Sato – “Numbers: Rational and Irrational”
If you compute the number 355/113, then you will see that it is a very good approximation to the number pi. How can we find such a fraction? And can we find approximations for other numbers as well? These are some of the questions we will answer in this talk, which will revolve around the rational numbers. We will start by looking at their counterparts, the irrational numbers. We will then discuss a way of writing rational numbers known as continued fractions, which turns out to have important applications. We will also introduce Farey sequences, which have several interesting properties, and will lead to a deeper understanding of the structure of rational numbers. This talk is aimed at a general audience, and one of the goals will be to touch on different branches of mathematics and show how they can connect with each other.
January 24, 2015 – Roberto Bosch – “Fibonacci Numbers through Problems”
January 31, 2015 – No Math Circle
February 7, 2015 – Michal Rolinek – “Winning Ways for Mathematical Plays and Why Games Matter”
February 14, 2015 – Art Benjamin – “Mathemagic”
March 21, 2015 – Cosmin Pohoata – “Unexpected Uses of Expectations”
Metroplex Math Circle 
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