April 7, 2012 – Dr. Dimitar Grantcharov – “Inequalities”

This Saturday we welcome our good friend Dr. Dimitar Grantcharov, director of the Mid-Cities Math Circle at UT Arlington.  Dr. Grantcharov will share a number of problems involving inequalities.   You will not want to miss it!

(MC)² Director

Dimitar Grantcharov, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Area of research: Algebra and Geometry

• Session Leader, San Jose Math Circle, 2004-2008.
• Guest Lecturer, COSMOS Program at UC Irvine, 1998-2003.
• Bronze Medal, XXX International Mathematical Olympiad, 1989.
• First place, VI Balkan Mathematical Olympiad, 1989.
• First place, Bulgarian National Mathematical Olympiad, 1989.

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UT Arlington Math Competition Results

The results from the May 14th UT Arlington Math Competition are in and many MMC participants were recognized in the top 5:

1. Pradhith Konduri, Harmony School of Excellence
2. Niranjan Balachandar, Frankford Middle School
3. Kevin Chang, Jasper High School
4. Paul Cruz , Harmony School of Excellence
5. Dominic Yurk, Paschal High School  /  Victor Zhou, St. Marks  (tie)

Congratulations to all of the participants and to Dr. Grantcharov on an a well-attended and challenging competition with participants coming from as far away as Houston.

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Mid-Cities Math Circle and the UT Arlington Math Contest

Please go visit the newly designed web site of our good friends at Mid-Cities Math Circle, (MC)^2.  You may also want to “like” their new Facebook Page to be notified about upcoming sessions and contests.

Speaking of which, this Saturday, May 14, Dr. Grantcharov will be sponsoring the annual 2011 UT Arlington Math Competition.

Both middle-school and high-school students are welcome to participate in the competition. There is no registration fee and no pre-registration is required. There will be on-site registration. If you wish to attend the competition, please plan to arrive around 8:30 am in PKH, UT Arlington.

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Math Circle Regulars Continue to Dominate Texas MATHCOUNTS

In yet another Metroplex area MATHCOUNTS chapter competition, regular Metroplex Math Circle attendees claimed the highest awards.  In the latest case, the first place prize in the Mid-Cities Chapter competition was won by 7th grader, Alex Krutko, whose family has been attending both Metroplex Math Circle and Mid-Cities Math Circle regularly.  Alex and his brother are also planning to take advantage of more of Dr. Andreescu’s instruction by attending his AwesomeMath camp this summer.

Alex lead his Colleyville Middle School team to a first prize finish in this highly competitive chapter.  Alex and his team will meet up at the state competition with their friends from Math Circle who won the Preston Trail chapter competition, Jeffrey Huang and Niranjan Balachandar.  We wish them all luck as they encounter the very talented teams coached by Jeff Boyd in the Sugarland area next month in Austin.

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Dr. Grantcharov Recap

We were very pleased to have our neighbor, Dr. Dimitar Grantcharov deliver the lecture this past Saturday.  He focused his talk around some engaging and deep problems from his last contest at UT Arlington: UTA 2010 Competition Problems.

The students enjoyed solving each problem and then exploring greater depth and generalizations beyond their solutions.  This was an excellent way to better prepare them for the upcoming AMC and AIME contests.

As a reminder, February 5th there will be no Metroplex Math Circle so students can go to Arlington to compete in the Second Annual UT Arlington Math Competition where they will encounter similar challenging problems.

Dr. Grantcharov is also kicking off a new semester of his own math circle in Arlington:

Dear (MC)^2 Friends:

Our first Spring 2011 Math Circle meeting will be held next Tuesday, January 25, at 7:00 pm in PKH 107. Please note that we will meet in a new room this semester. The Mid-Cities Math Circle will run every week and every meeting will last about 60 minutes. The first two meetings will be AMC10-AIME problem-solving sessions.

As usual, the Math Circle is intended for high-school and advanced middle-school students. Teachers are welcome to come to the meetings as well. The web site of the Mid Cities Math Circle is www.midcitiesmathcircle.org

If you plan to come next Tuesday and do not know where to park, a good option would be to use the Garage right next to PKH. Please, keep the parking receipts, so that I can reimburse you later. Maps of the campus can be downloaded at http://www.uta.edu/maps/pdf

Snacks and drinks will (hopefully) be provided. Also, there are still a few copies of the book of Zvezdelina Stankova “A Decade of the Berkeley Math Circle” left. You can get a copy for the (special) prize of $20.

Please forward this message to anyone who might be interested in attending our Math Circle. I am looking forward to see you all on Tuesday.

Best regards,

Dimitar

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January 22 – Dr. Dimitar Grantcharov – Interesting AMC and AIME Problems

Metroplex Math Circle will kick off its spring 2011 semester with a presentation by Dr. Dimitar Grantcharov.    Dr. Grantcharov is an assistant professor at UT Arlington and the director of our neighbor, the Mid Cities Math Circle.  Dr. Grantcharov will use problems from last year’s UT Arlington Math Competition to help prepare our students for the upcoming AMC 10, 12 and AIME.  Here are some examples:

Which of the following numbers is a perfect square?
(A) 98!99! (B) 98! 100! (C) 99! 100! (D) 99!101! (E) 101!101!

A square has sides of length 10, and a circle centered at one of its vertices has radius 10. What is the area of the union of the regions enclosed by the square and the circle?

A game is played with tokens according to the following rule. In each round, the player with the most tokens gives one token to each of the other players and also places one token in the discard pile. The game ends when some player runs out of tokens. Players A, B, and C start with 15, 14, and 13 tokens, respectively. How many rounds will there be in the game?

 

 

 

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Online Math Circle

Many students aren’t fortunate enough to live near a thriving math circle (much less the two that we have in Dallas, Metroplex Math Circle and the Mid Cities Math Circle).  To address this need an entrepreneurial young man in Wichita Falls, Shri Ganeshram, has launched the Online Math Circle.

Shri was assisted in this effort by Holden Lee and Marius Craciunoiu.  He also received some of his inspiration from our own Dr. Titu Andreescu while attending AwesomeMath.

Please help Shri by visiting and helping to promote his site.

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MC^2 Problem Sets

For those of you who haven’t been fortunate enough to get out to Arlington to visit the Mid-Cities Math Circle,  Dr. Grantcharov has posted the problem sets from his last 3 sessions.

• October 20, 2010 Pigeonhole Principle
• October 13, 2010 Inversion
• October 6, 2010 Divisibility and Remainders

You can find previous session hand out on the Mid Cities Math Circle’s Schedule Page.

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First Annual UT Arlington Math Competition

UT Arlington will be hosting a Math Competition that should be of interest to many of our Math Circle participants.  Here are the details:

First Annual UT Arlington Math Competition

Saturday, February 6, 2010, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Pickard Hall, Room 110
The University of Texas at Arlington

Who Participates?
Both middle-school and high-school students are welcome to participate in the competition. There is no registration fee. If you plan to attend, please indicate so on your Calculus Bowl online registration form. If you plan not to attend the Calculus Bowl, but to participate in the UT Arlington Math Competition, please contact Dr. Dimitar Grantcharov (grandim@uta.edu, 817-272-1148).

What is the UT Arlington Math Competition?
The competition will contain two parts: one part with about 20 multiple-choice problems, and another part containing one essay-type problem. Calculators will not be allowed. The multiple-choice problems will be at a level of compatible to the American Mathematical Contest 10 (AMC 10), while the essay-type problem will be a bit more challenging. A few sample problems are provided below.

• Which of the following numbers is a perfect square?
  (A) 98!99! (B) 98! 100! (C) 99! 100! (D) 99!101! (E) 101!101!
• A square has sides of length 10, and a circle centered at one of its vertices has radius 10. What is the area of the union of the regions enclosed by the square and the circle?
• A game is played with tokens according to the following rule. In each round, the player with the most tokens gives one token to each of the other players and also places one token in the discard pile. The game ends when some player runs out of tokens. Players A, B, and C start with 15, 14, and 13 tokens, respectively. How many rounds will there be in the game?

What is the Math Battle?
The Math Battle is an exciting two-team problem-solving competition. Each of the two teams will receive a list of problems in advance. A jury and the teams will discuss the solutions of the problems in the afternoon.

Prizes?
The student with the highest score on the UT Arlington Math Competition will be awarded a $100 gift card. The top five contestants will be awarded medals and trophies.

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One More Mid Cities Math Circle

While Metroplex Math Circle is over for the season there is one more Mid Cities Math Circle (MC^2) in Arlington next Tuesday night.  Please see more information and contact Dr. Grantcharov through the new site:

http://midcitiesmathcircle.wordpress.com/schedule/

Problem sets from previous session are posted on the some.  Some examples from the last session are below:

Problem 2. Five married couples gather at a party. As they come in and greet each other, various people exchange handshakes but, of course, people never shake hands with themselves or with their own respective spouses. At the end of the party, one woman goes around asking people how many hands they shook, and she gets nine different answers. How many hands did she herself shake?

Problem 4. A cube 3X3 X 3 is made of cheese and consists of 27 small cubical cheese pieces arranged in the 3 X3 X3 pattern. A mouse is eating the cheese in such a way that it starts at one of the corners and eats smaller pieces one by one. After he finishes one piece, he moves to the adjacent piece (pieces are adjacent if they share a face). Is it possible that the last piece mouse has eaten is the central one?

Problem 5. In how many different ways one can place 3 rooks on the cells of 9X2009 chessboard such that they do not attack each other?

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