The Bricklayer's Challenge and Other Simple But Unsolved Problems with Dr. Barry Cipra

Abstract: A famous (albeit partly apocryphal) story has Gauss as a schoolboy speedily adding the numbers 1 to 100. When the speaker pondered how he might have approached the same assignment, he stumbled into an unsolved problem that might have tested Gauss himself. We will look at what little progress has been made toward solving the “Bricklayer’s Challenge,” along with a few other simple but unsolved problems the speaker has devised. 

Bio: Barry Arthur Cipra, is an American mathematician and freelance writer, regularly contributes to Science magazine and SIAM News.  He is a co-author of several volumes in the American Mathematical Society series What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences.

Dr. Cipra received his Ph.D. from University of Maryland College Park in 1980. He taught at MIT, Ohio State University, and St. Olaf College. He received the 1991 Merten M. Hasse Prize from MAA for his work on the Ising model, and in 2005 he received the JPBM Communications Award.

** Note: Dr. Cipra will also meet students in the 9th floor lounge in Van Vleck Hall (Math Department) on October 26 until 3:30pm.