“Problem of the Week” (POW) Series

Todd and I, after some discussion, have decided to start a new series of posts called “Problem of the Week“. Since the title is self-explanatory, there is nothing much to write about, except that this series will be a permanent fixture on our blog. Each week we will post a problem (unless both of us are too busy), and we invite solutions from all our readers, regular or not; in most cases solutions should be submitted through email within a week after the post. To keep things fair, we ask readers not to submit solutions in the comment section of a post. At the end of the allotted time, we will then select the most elegant solution (or anyway, one that we like) to a given problem, and post it together with the name of the proposer. (Note: solutions may be edited, or composed from solutions of more than one proposer.) Other people who submit correct solutions will also be acknowledged. In addition, credit will be given to all such people by having their names enshrined in the Problem-Solving Hall of Fame page, forever! Who could ask for anything more?!

Most of our problems will be “elementary”, meaning they won’t require knowledge of advanced areas of mathematics; generally they will require some knowledge of subjects such as elementary number theory, college-level calculus, basic algebra, trigonometry, inequalities, etc., and some “mathematical maturity”.

Please submit solutions to topological[dot]musings[At]gmail.com (remove the characters within the square brackets and replace them with the appropriate ones). You may send in your solutions in pdf, LaTeX or text format. (Though we prefer LaTeX and/or pdf submissions, we ask you not to worry too much about the format.) [Added May 15: in case of multi-part problems, please submit all the parts you intend to solve in one mailing. Credit will be awarded for each part correctly solved.]

I guess that’s it! Keep checking the blog for the next POW problem!