The Department of Mathematical Sciences

Spring Problem Contest

The Carnegie Mellon Math Club is proud to sponsor the 2007 Spring Problem Contest. This contest is open to teams of two or three Carnegie Mellon University undergraduates. The contest will last for five weeks, starting March 2-8, with a one week hiatus for spring break.

During each of the five weeks, your team will work to solve a problem. The winning team will be the one with the best overall performance on the five problems. Reasoning and ingenuity will be required, but advanced mathematics will not be necessary to solve any problems. The problems may be drawn from any area of mathematics -- geometry, probability, combinatorics, algebra, number theory and calculus are all fair game.

Questions about the contest should be directed to Dr. Handron

To Enter the contest, send a single email with the names of your team members to handron@andrew.cmu.edu. Please include the words "Problem Contest" in the subject line.

Final Results - Available Now

Prize Money:

$500 in prize money will be awarded to the three top teams as follows.

First Place: $250
Second Place: $150
Third Place: $100

Here is
Problem #5

View the first problem
View the second problem
View the third problem
View the fourth problem

The Rules

  1. The contest will be open to teams of two or three Carnegie Mellon Undergraduates.
  2. You may consult any published work, including the internet. You may not consult faculty, students not on your team, or others. Your submission should include a list of references consulted.
  3. Problems will be posted each Friday, and solutions will be due the following Friday at 3:20. Submissions may be emailed to handron@andrew.cmu.edu (preferred) or placed in Dr. Handron's mailbox in WEH 6113.
  4. Among correct solutions, clear and easy to read submissions will be ranked higher than confusing, hard to follow solutions. Also, solutions using more elementary techniques will be preferred to those using advanced techniques.
  5. The entries in this contest will be considered to fall under Carnegie Mellon's Policy on Cheating and Plagiarism
  6. The decisions of the judges shall be final.