thnik again!

There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry. – Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner was 95 last week and we will celebrate him with a few quotes and problems this week. Martin Gardner wrote a column in Scientific American on recreational mathematics from 1956 to 1981 and has published more than 70 books, the last one last week.

I wrote for 4.5 years a recreational math column in a Scandinavian monthly journal called Fakta from 1988 to 1992. Most of the problems were ‘inspired’ by Gardner’s columns, as his column, was inspired by problems from great puzzlists like Sam Lloyd and Henry Dudeney and input from knowledgeable readers and mathematicians.

When i started this blog I again copied problems from Gardner, and when they ran out, I found problem sites on the Net which I give credit to when I am inspired by them. It bears repeating that the best part of this blog are the comments, false or correct ones, submitted by you, the reader.

Winnie the Pooh is a bear with a small brain. I have one thing in common with him and I am not a bear. To illustrate: last week I went to Ko Chang an island close to the border with Cambodia. ‘Chang’ means elephant in Thai, but only last week I came to think of that Hsiang Ch’i, the chess played in China, must mean ‘the elephant game’ and that ‘Hsiang’ must mean ‘elephant’ in Chinese (Mandarin?). Yesterday I returned to Ban Chang, the town where I currently live, and then it struck me. I have lived for a year and a half in the ‘town of elephants’ without knowing it.

The advantages of being the chief editor of this blog are many. One is the company required mandatory holidays that are in place to guard against mental burn-out. In other words, we are off to the island of Koh Chang so the blog will be closed for a week. Happy reading, and commenting, on old posts!

We all seem to be obsessed with rankings. Students, chess players, and whole nations are assigned a number and put in a linear order. Why? I cry. Why reduce everything to one dimension? To find out who is the best! is the cry I get in return.

Here is the conclusion of a comment posted in New York Times that expands on why this linear ordering often is no more than nonsense.

Country-level rankings, even if accurate, simply don’t provide anything close to actionable insights for policymakers, civil society groups, or the private sector. - Read more

Several of my colleagues over the years have told me that the main purpose of mathematics in schools is to order the kids from bad to good so one has an easy way of deciding who shall be allowed to study, say, medicine. That can’t be true, can it?

White to move and win. Play it here.

- Is the above from a game between your wife and you?
- Sure is, but I don’t remember who were White.
- You must be joking!? Sure you remember!
- Look at the position and tell me whose move it is.
- You have forgotten that, too?
- It gets worse.
- Really?
- Tell me who won and how.
- Can I ask a psychic?

Problem creator: W. F. von Holzhausen, 1901.

The human race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television. – Unknown

- How is it going with your chess games?
- A most peculiar thing happened last night.
- The roof fell in?
- Almost. After I had made a move my wife refused to move!
- Why on earth didn’t she want to move? Was she tired?
- No. She said that whatever move she made I would checkmate her immediately.
- Was that true?
- I don’t know, but I said she had to play.
- She said that in chess you don’t have to move if you don’t want to.
- Is that true?
- According to my wife it is.

Above is shown the position before I moved. What did I play that made my wife reluctant to play on? I was White.

Problem source: The problem was created by T Taverner in 1881.

People who get nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children. – Bill Watterson

- I hear you have played another game of chess with your wife.
- Yes, and not only that, I won!
- Really?
- My wife took White and I mated her on my 5th move with Rh1.
- How is that possible?
- You tell me!
- What do you mean?
- Suggest a way that it could have happened.

Problem source: Richard Sabey in a comment posted yesterday.