Pizza and Problems
The last few Fall semesters, we have hosted Pizza and Problems sessions in order to help students prepare for the annual Putnam Mathematical Competition in December. We get together on Friday afternoons (usually); we supply pizza and we supply problems. All students, staff, and faculty are welcome to join us, even if they are not interested in the Putnam Competition.
The problems generally involve more than one area of mathematics and are more like puzzles than homework problems. As we chew on these problems, we also chew on pizza. After some time (20-40 minutes or so), we discuss the problems, share strategies, and help each other with them. These sessions are lots of fun and very popular, and we will continue doing Pizza and Problems this Spring also.
The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is an annual, continent-wide mathematics event for undergraduates. The competition is administered by The Mathematical Association of America, and takes place every year on the first Saturday in December. The 68th Annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition will be held on December 6, 2008.
College of the Redwoods will host the Putnam competition on Saturday, December 6, 2008 in the physical sciences building, from 8-11am and 1-4pm. To obtain more information contact Tami Matsumoto.
In each row of the table that follows, the first link will download the problem set associated with the meeting date in the first column of the row. In the third column, the link will take you to our Wiki, where you can view student solutions and add solutions of your own. For a full set of directions on how to use the Wiki, you can go directly to:
http://msenux.redwoods.edu/wiki/index.php/Pizza_and_Problems
If you visit the above URL, you will find instructions for:
- editing Wiki pages,
- entering mathematics, and
- embedding images.
| Fall 2009 Meetings | ||
| Event Date | Pizza Problems | Solutions |
| September 18, 2009 | Pizza Problems #1 | Solutions #1 |
| September 30, 2009 | Pizza Problems #2 | |
| October 16, 2009 | Pizza Problems #3 | |
| October 28, 2009 | Pizza Problems #4 | |
| November 13, 2009 | Pizza Problems #5 | Two Arcs Solution |
| December 4, 2009 | Pizza Problems #6 | |
| Spring 2009 Meetings | ||
| Event Date | Pizza Problems | Solutions |
| January 30, 2009 | Pizza Problems #1 | Solutions #1 |
| February 20, 2009 | Pizza Problems #2 | Solutions #2 |
| March 6, 2009 | Pizza Problems #3 | Solutions #3 |
| March 27, 2009 | Pizza Problems #4 | Solutions #4 |
| April 10, 2009 | Pizza Problems #5 | Solutions #5 |
| April 24, 2009 | Pizza Problems #6 | Solutions #6 |
| Fall 2008 Meetings | ||
| Event Date | Pizza Problems | Solutions |
| September 12, 2008 | Pizza Problems #1 | Solutions #1 |
| September 26, 2008 | Pizza Problems #2 | Solutions #2 |
| October 17, 2008 | Pizza Problems #3 | Solutions #3 |
| October 31, 2008 | Pizza Problems #4 | Solutions #4 |
| November 14, 2008 | Pizza Problems #5 | Solutions #5 |
| December 5, 2008 | Pizza Problems #6 | Solutions #6 |
| Spring 2008 Meetings | ||
| Event Date | Pizza Problems | Solutions |
| March 7, 2008 | Pizza Problems #1 | Solutions #1 |
| March 28, 2008 | Pizza Problems #2 | Solutions #2 |
| April 18, 2008 | Pizza Problems #3 | Solutions #3 |
| Fall 2007 Meetings | ||
| Event Date | Pizza Problems | Solutions |
| September 28, 2007 | Pizza Problems #1 | Solutions #1 |
| October 12, 2007 | Pizza Problems #2 | Solutions #2 |
| October 26, 2007 | Pizza Problems #3 | Solutions #3 |
| November 9, 2007 | Pizza Problems #4 | Solutions #4 |
| November 30, 2007 | Pizza Problems #5 | Solutions #5 |
Credit: The Pizza and Problems files pointed to by the URL's on this page use a wonderful Context style file created by Aditya Mahajan. You can learn more about this style file at the following URL: