Mathematics is Focus of Two Grants C A M P U S C U R R E N T Puzzle-palooza


Junior Palmer Mebane celebrated victory with his U.S. teammates at the 19th World Puzzle Cham- pionship Oct. 24-29 in Paprotnia, Poland. The annual U.S. and


world Puzzle Champion- ships pit puzzlers against one another in an attempt to solve language-neutral logic puzzles. Competitors


win points for success and accuracy. The U.S. team, which placed second last year


behind Germany, is 11-6-1—gold, silver, bronze— in the 18 editions of the World Puzzle Champion- ship.


Mebane, a mathematics major, placed third at


the U.S. Puzzle Championship, which earned him a spot on the U.S. team. Mebane believes creating his own puzzles contributed to


his success. “Puzzle construction improves solving ability, too,” he said. Give your brain a workout with this logic challenge from


Mebane’s puzzle blog. He describes it as “one of my better ones in terms of quality, both due to aesthetics and the solve.”


Castle Wall Instructions Some cells contain a number and arrow; these cells are either white or black. The object is to draw a single closed loop passing through adjacent squares. Squares with a number and arrow in them may not be included in the loop. All of the black cells must be outside of the loop, and all of the white cells must be inside of the loop. Furthermore, if a cell has a left or right arrow, the number in that cell tells the total length of horizontal seg- ments in the arrow’s direction. Likewise, if there is an up or down arrow, the number tells the total length of vertical segments. Equivalently, the number tells how many boundaries in the arrow’s direction are crossed by the path. The solution is unique. Find an example problem and solution here: http://mellowmelon.wordpress.com/castle-wall/


S t u d e n t N e w s


CELEBRATING 30 Years


Muddraker now online Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the now quarterly student newspaper, The Muddraker, is complemented by a website www.muddraker.com that acts as a blog, with timely short articles and reviews. The website will also contain PDFs of past issues (including those from the ’80s). Check for weekly updates, or add The Muddraker on Facebook.


F A L L /WI N T E R 2 0 1 0 H a r v e y Mu d d C o l l e g e


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