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Nim (cuneiform)
Nim is a mathematical game, mathematical game of strategy in which two players take turns removing (or "nimming") objects from distinct heaps or piles. On each turn, a player must remove at least one object, and may remove any number of objects provided they all come from the same heap or pile. Depending on the version being played, the goal of the game is either to avoid taking the last object or to take the last object. Nim is fundamental to the Sprague–Grundy theorem, which essentially says that every impartial game is equivalent to a nim game with a single pile. History Variants of nim have been played since ancient times. The game is said to have originated in China—it closely resembles the Chinese game of 捡石子 ''jiǎn-shízi'', or "picking stones"—but the origin is uncertain; the earliest European references to nim are from the beginning of the 16th century. Its current name was coined by Charles L. Bouton of Harvard University, who also developed the complete t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematical Game
A mathematical game is a game whose rules, strategies, and outcomes are defined by clear mathematical parameters. Often, such games have simple rules and match procedures, such as Tic-tac-toe and Dots and Boxes. Generally, mathematical games need not be conceptually intricate to involve deeper computational underpinnings. For example, even though the rules of Mancala are relatively basic, the game can be rigorously analyzed through the lens of combinatorial game theory. Mathematical games differ sharply from mathematical puzzles in that mathematical puzzles require specific mathematical expertise to complete, whereas mathematical games do not require a deep knowledge of mathematics to play. Often, the arithmetic core of mathematical games is not readily apparent to players untrained to note the statistical or mathematical aspects. Some mathematical games are of deep interest in the field of recreational mathematics. When studying a game's core mathematics, arithmetic theory i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferranti
Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The firm was known for work in the area of power grid systems and defence electronics. In addition, in 1951 Ferranti began selling an early computer, the Ferranti Mark 1. The Belgian subsidiary lives on as Ferranti Computer Systems and as of 1994 is part of the Nijkerk Holding. History Beginnings Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti established his first business Ferranti, Thompson and Ince in 1882. The company developed the Ferranti-Thompson Alternator. Ferranti focused on alternating current power distribution early on, and was one of the few UK experts. To avoid confusion, he is often referred to as Dr Ferranti to distinguish him from the Ferranti company itself. In 1885 Dr Ferranti established a new business, with Francis Ince and Charles Sparks as partners, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disjunctive Sum
In the mathematics of combinatorial games, the sum or disjunctive sum of two games is a game in which the two games are played in parallel, with each player being allowed to move in just one of the games per turn. The sum game finishes when there are no moves left in either of the two parallel games, at which point (in normal play) the last player to move wins. This operation may be extended to disjunctive sums of any number of games, again by playing the games in parallel and moving in exactly one of the games per turn. It is the fundamental operation that is used in the Sprague–Grundy theorem for impartial games and which led to the field of combinatorial game theory for partisan games. Application to common games Disjunctive sums arise in games that naturally break up into components or regions that do not interact except in that each player in turn must choose just one component to play in. Examples of such games are Go, Nim, Sprouts, Domineering, the Game of the Amazons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nimber
In mathematics, the nimbers, also called ''Grundy numbers'', are introduced in combinatorial game theory, where they are defined as the values of heaps in the game Nim. The nimbers are the ordinal numbers endowed with ''nimber addition'' and ''nimber multiplication'', which are distinct from ordinal addition and ordinal multiplication. Because of the Sprague–Grundy theorem In combinatorial game theory, the Sprague–Grundy theorem states that every impartial game under the normal play convention is equivalent to a one-heap game of nim, or to an infinite generalization of nim. It can therefore be represented as ... which states that every impartial game is equivalent to a Nim heap of a certain size, nimbers arise in a much larger class of impartial games. They may also occur in partisan games like Domineering. Nimbers have the characteristic that their Left and Right options are identical, following a certain schema, and that they are their own negatives, such that a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob And Alice
Alice and Bob are fictional characters commonly used as placeholders in discussions about cryptographic systems and protocols, and in other science and engineering literature where there are several participants in a thought experiment. The Alice and Bob characters were invented by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman in their 1978 paper "A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-key Cryptosystems". Subsequently, they have become common archetypes in many scientific and engineering fields, such as quantum cryptography, game theory and physics. As the use of Alice and Bob became more widespread, additional characters were added, sometimes each with a particular meaning. These characters do not have to refer to people; they refer to generic agents which might be different computers or even different programs running on a single computer. Overview Alice and Bob are the names of fictional characters used for convenience and to aid comprehension. For exampl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Misère Game
Misère ( French for "destitution"), misere, bettel, betl, or (German for "beggar"; equivalent terms in other languages include , , ) is a bid in various card games, and the player who bids misère undertakes to win no tricks or as few as possible, usually at no trump, in the round to be played. This does not allow sufficient variety to constitute a game in its own right, but it is the basis of such trick-avoidance games as Hearts, and provides an optional contract for most games involving an auction. The term or category may also be used for some card game of its own with the same aim, like Black Peter. A misère bid usually indicates an extremely poor hand, hence the name. An open or lay down misère, or misère ouvert is a 500 bid where the player is so sure of losing every trick that they undertake to do so with their cards placed face-up on the table. Consequently, 'lay down misère' is Australian gambling slang for a predicted easy victory. In Skat, the bidding ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet (; 18 August 1922 – 18 February 2008) was a French writer and filmmaker. He was one of the figures most associated with the '' Nouveau Roman'' (new novel) trend of the 1960s, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon. Alain Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on 25 March 2004, succeeding Maurice Rheims at seat No. 32. He was married to Catherine Robbe-Grillet (née Rstakian). Biography Alain Robbe-Grillet was born in Brest (Finistère, France) to a family of engineers and scientists. He was trained as an agricultural engineer. During the years 1943 and 1944, he participated in compulsory labor in Nuremberg, where he worked as a machinist. The initial few months were seen by Robbe-Grillet as something of a holiday, since, in between the very rudimentary training he was given to operate the machinery, he had free time to go to the theatre and the opera. In 1945, he completed his diploma at the National Institute ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Last Year At Marienbad
''Last Year at Marienbad'' (french: L'Année dernière à Marienbad; released in the United Kingdom as ''Last Year in Marienbad'') is a 1961 Left Bank film directed by Alain Resnais from a screenplay by Alain Robbe-Grillet. Set in a palace in a park that has been converted into a luxury hotel, it stars Delphine Seyrig and Giorgio Albertazzi as a woman and a man who may have met the year before and may have contemplated or started an affair, with Sacha Pitoëff as a second man who may be the woman's husband. The characters are unnamed. Plot In an ornate baroque hotel populated by wealthy individuals and couples who socialize with each other, a man approaches a woman and claims they met the year before at a similar resort (perhaps at Frederiksbad, Karlstadt, Marienbad, or Baden-Salsa) and had a romantic relationship, but she responded to his request to run away together by asking him to wait a year, which time has now elapsed. The woman insists she has never met the man, so he proc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French New Wave
French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconoclasm. New Wave filmmakers explored new approaches to editing, visual style, and narrative, as well as engagement with the social and political upheavals of the era, often making use of irony or exploring existential themes. The New Wave is often considered one of the most influential movements in the history of cinema. The term was first used by a group of French film critics and cinephiles associated with the magazine '' Cahiers du cinéma'' in the late 1950s and 1960s. These critics rejected the ''Tradition de qualité'' ("Tradition of Quality") of mainstream French cinema, which emphasized craft over innovation and old works over experimentation. This was apparent in a manifesto-like 1954 essay by François Truffaut, ''Une certaine tenda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematical Games Column
Over a period of 24 years (January 1957 – December 1980), Martin Gardner wrote 288 consecutive monthly "Mathematical Games" columns for ''Scientific American'' magazine. During the next years, through June 1986, Gardner wrote 9 more columns, bringing his total to 297, as other authors wrote most of the "Mathematical Games" columns. The table below lists Gardner's columns. Twelve of Gardner's columns provided the cover art for that month's magazine, indicated by "over in the table with a hyperlink to the cover. Other articles by Gardner Gardner wrote 5 other articles for ''Scientific American''. His flexagon article in December 1956 was in all but name the first article in the series of ''Mathematical Games'' columns and led directly to the series which began the following month. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, and G. K. Chesterton.Martin (2010) He was also a leading authority on Lewis Carroll. ''The Annotated Alice'', which incorporated the text of Carroll's two Alice books, was his most successful work and sold over a million copies. He had a lifelong interest in magic and illusion and in 1999, MAGIC magazine named him as one of the "100 Most Influential Magicians of the Twentieth Century". He was considered the doyen of American puzzlers. He was a prolific and versatile author, publishing more than 100 books. Gardner was best known for creating and sustaining interest in recreational mathematicsand by extension, mathematics in generalthroughout the latter half of the 20th century, principally through his "Mathema ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tinkertoy
The Tinkertoy Construction Set is a toy construction set for children. It was designed in 1914—six years after the Frank Hornby's Meccano sets—by Charles H. Pajeau, who formed the Toy Tinker Company in Evanston, Illinois to manufacture them. Pajeau, a stonemason, designed the toy after seeing children play with sticks and empty spools of thread. Pajeau partnered with Robert Pettit and Gordon Tinker to market a toy that would allow and inspire children to use their imaginations. After an initially-slow start, over a million were sold. The cornerstone of the set is a wooden spool roughly two inches (5 cm) in diameter, with holes drilled every 45 degrees around the perimeter and one through the center. Unlike the center, the perimeter holes do not go all the way through. With the differing-length sticks, the set was intended to be based on the Pythagorean progressive right triangle. The sets were introduced to the public through displays in and around Chicago which in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
