Dots and boxesDots and boxes is a pencil-and-paper game for two players (sometimes more). It was first published in the 19th century by French mathematician Édouard Lucas, who called it la pipopipette. It has gone by many other names, including dots and dashes, game of dots, dot to dot grid, boxes, and pigs in a pen. The game starts with an empty grid of dots. Usually two players take turns adding a single horizontal or vertical line between two unjoined adjacent dots.
Impartial gameIn combinatorial game theory, an impartial game is a game in which the allowable moves depend only on the position and not on which of the two players is currently moving, and where the payoffs are symmetric. In other words, the only difference between player 1 and player 2 is that player 1 goes first. The game is played until a terminal position is reached. A terminal position is one from which no moves are possible.
PhariseesJewish social movement and school of thought Pharisees פרושיםHistorical leaders Simeon ben Shetach Salome Alexandra Hyrcanus II Founded167 BCDissolved73 ADHeadquartersJerusalemIdeology Theocracy Oral Torah Populism ReligionRabbinic Judaism The Pharisees (/ˈfærəsiːz/; Hebrew: פְּרוּשִׁים, romanized: Pərūšīm, lit. 'separated ones') were a Jewish social movement and school of thought in the Levant during the time of Second Temple Judaism.
Winning Ways for Your Mathematical PlaysWinning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays (Academic Press, 1982) by Elwyn R. Berlekamp, John H. Conway, and Richard K. Guy is a compendium of information on mathematical games. It was first published in 1982 in two volumes. The first volume introduces combinatorial game theory and its foundation in the surreal numbers; partizan and impartial games; Sprague–Grundy theory and misère games.
MisèreMisère (French for "destitution"), misere, nullo, bettel, betl, beddl or bettler (German for "beggar"; equivalent terms in other languages include Spanish: contrabola, pobre, and Italian: devole) 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.David ApplegateDavid L. Applegate is an American computer scientist known for his research on the traveling salesperson problem.
Hebrew languageHebrew is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until after 200 CE and as the liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period) and Samaritanism. The language was revived as a spoken language in the 19th century, and is the only successful large-scale example of linguistic revival.
Game treeIn the context of combinatorial game theory, a game tree is a graph representing all possible game states within a sequential game that has perfect information. Such games include chess, checkers, Go, and tic-tac-toe. A game tree can be used to measure the complexity of a game, as it represents all the possible ways that the game can pan out.
Paper-and-pencil gamePaper-and-pencil games or paper-and-pen games (or some variation on those terms) are games that can be played solely with paper and pencils (or other writing implements), usually without erasing. They may be played to pass the time, as icebreakers, or for brain training. In recent times, they have been supplanted by mobile games. Some popular examples of pencil-and-paper games include tic-tac-toe, sprouts, dots and boxes, hangman, MASH, paper soccer, and spellbinder.
MathematicsMathematics is a field of knowledge concerned with abstract concepts such as numbers, geometric shapes, sets, functions, and probabilities. It uses logical reasoning and proof to study and establish their properties, often expressed as theorems, formulas, and equations. Mathematics is used to model and solve problems in science, engineering, technology, economics, and everyday life.
John Horton ConwayJohn Horton Conway (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) was an English mathematician. He was active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He also made contributions to many branches of recreational mathematics, most notably the invention of the cellular automaton called the Game of Life.
University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is a collegiate public research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's third-oldest university in continuous operation. The university's founding followed the arrival of scholars who left the University of Oxford for Cambridge after a dispute with local townspeople.
Mike PatersonMichael Stewart Paterson, is a British computer scientist, who was the director of the Centre for Discrete Mathematics and its Applications (DIMAP) at the University of Warwick until 2007, and chair of the department of computer science in 2005. He received his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from the University of Cambridge in 1967, under the supervision of David Park.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.