Our website is being redesigned. This is a temporary page.The next meeting of BAMA will be an online Zoom meeting on February 7, 2022.
Instructions for how to join the Zoom meeting and a description of the meeting:
Vincent J. Matsko Algorithmic Puzzle Design
| Via Zoom at 7:30 pm February 7, 2023 https://scu.zoom.us/j/98541923182?pwd=c1FENjMrcVdSSkhGVkJNbUw2MmFFdz09 Please join meeting between 7:15 and 7:30 pm Meeting ID: 985 4192 3182 One tap mobile Join by phone: +1 (669) 900-6833 Password: 032555 +16699006833,,98541923182# Meeting ID: 985 4192 3182 |
The use of computer algorithms allows us to design puzzles that otherwise would be nearly impossible to create. Consider a puzzle involving 12-letter words that consist of four three-letter words, such as LITHOGRAPHER. How many such words are there? A brief algorithm searching a 75,000-word dictionary finds 21. Or what is the unique English word containing the sequence of letters elg? Yes, doppelganger, but you’d need a computer to check that this the only one. Another algorithm can search and find those three-letter that occur in exactly one word. Come hear about these and other puzzles that are impractical to create without computer algorithms. As a warmup, try this: circle additional numbers in the grid below so that the circled numbers in all rows and columns add to the same sum.
Vincent J. Matsko lives on a remote bluish planet in the Milky Way Galaxy. After doing a bunch of stuff other people told him to do for a while, he’s pretty much his own boss now. He writes puzzle books, teaches a calculus class, participates in a writing circle (where he’s working on a stage play), and designs digital artwork. He loves fish pie.