I am always harping on my students to write solutions well rather than aiming for just mathematically correct, and now I have a pair of problems to illustrate why. Shortlist 2011 N1 Here is Shortlist 2011 N1, proposed by Suhaimi Ramly: For any integer $latex {d > 0}&fg=000000$, let $latex {f(d)}&fg=000000$ be the smallest positive… Continue reading 2011 N1 = 2024 A2
Tag: writing
Words Spent
One of my favorite Djikstra programming quotes is about thinking via “lines of code spent” rather than “lines of code produced”. I started using this as a philosophy in my writing too: words spent. Background One of the things that’s surprised me about student writing is how poorly words are spent. You’ll have a solution… Continue reading Words Spent
The story of the AutoCarrot
1. Glazed carrots Okay. Imagine you’re, like, trying to make glazed carrots or something. Maybe a really simplified recipe looks something like: Cut your carrots into suitably sized pieces with a knife. Use a measuring spoon to get the right amount of oil, sugar, salt, etc. Throw the carrots and other ingredients into a frying… Continue reading The story of the AutoCarrot
Understanding with System 1
Math must be presented for System 1 to absorb and only incidentally for System 2 to verify. I finally have a sort-of formalizable guideline for teaching and writing math, and what it means to "understand" math. I've been unconsciously following this for years and only now managed to write down explicitly what it is that… Continue reading Understanding with System 1
On Reading Solutions
(Ed Note: This was earlier posted under the incorrect title "On Designing Olympiad Training". How I managed to mess that up is a long story involving some incompetence with Python scripts, but this is fixed now.) Spoiler warnings: USAMO 2014/1, and hints for Putnam 2014 A4 and B2. You may want to work on these… Continue reading On Reading Solutions
Things SPARC
[EDIT 2018/03/05: This description seems significantly less accurate to me now than it did a few years ago, both because my views/values have changed substantially, and because SPARC has changed direction substantially since I attended as a junior counselor in 2015. I'll leave it here as a reference, but should be taken with a grain… Continue reading Things SPARC
Writing
In high school, I hated English class and thought it was a waste of time. Now I'm in college, and I still hate English class and think it's a waste of time. (Nothing on my teachers, they were all nice people, and I hope they're not reading this.) However, I no longer think writing itself… Continue reading Writing
Power Overwhelming 