Solutions to Technical Problems from April 2
Alice and Bob alternately mark the squares of a 4×4 square grid, with Alice going first. If a 2×2 sub-grid is completely marked after a player’s turn, then he or she loses. Who can force a win, and what is the winning player’s strategy?
Dropping the phone
“SAAM Says” is a collection of narratives by sexual assault survivors and victim advocates being published during MIT Sexual Assault Awareness Month. This is the second of four pieces in the series.
Technical Problems 3
Technical Problems is a weekly column consisting of puzzles and math problems intended to be accessible to undergraduates of all majors. The column features new problems each week as well as solutions to the problems posed two weeks earlier. The solutions to last week’s problems will be included in the column next week. If you are interested in having one or more of your solutions published in the column, please send them to general@tech.mit.edu.
Spiral
“SAAM Says” is a collection of narratives by sexual assault survivors and victim advocates being published during MIT Sexual Assault Awareness Month. This is the first of four pieces in the series.
Harder than MIT
I am an MIT alum, and I suffer from POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). Before reading about the tragic news of MIT student Christina E. Tournant’s death, most of you had probably never heard of POTS. Most of the doctors that I have seen have also never heard of POTS. However, more people have POTS than multiple sclerosis (MS) or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Experts estimate that POTS impacts one to three million Americans, 85 percent of whom are female.
Technical Problems
Technical Problems is a new weekly column consisting of puzzles and math problems intended to be accessible to undergraduates of all majors. The column will feature new problems each week as well as solutions to problems posed in previous weeks. If you are interested in having one or more of your solutions published in the column, please send them to general@tech.mit.edu.
Reminiscences of MIT in the mid-1950s
Heading off to the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology in late August, 1954, I believed that I was doing a public service to the nation. America was in the early stages of the Space Race with the Soviet Union, and my guidance counselor at Dayton, Ohio’s Fairmont High School had convinced many of us graduating seniors that it was a civic duty to become engineers and help advance the nation’s chances of winning that historic race. Little did I know then that beating the Commies in space, and to the moon, would have little to do with my activity at MIT.
The hilly road back to MIT
My friend Emily was one of the many MIT students admitted to McLean, a psychiatric hospital, last semester after the death of Phoebe Wang.
Norbert and me
My home in South Dayton (now Kettering), Ohio, seemed a long way away from the MIT campus in the fall of 1954. Living in the East Campus quadrangle, I was restless and homesick, and having trouble sleeping nights. This situation led me to take a part-time student job as switchboard operator for East Campus on the late night or graveyard shift, as it was called. If I were going to be up all night anyway, I might as well get paid.
Let’s fall in love
How hard is it to be in love with a complete stranger? According to Stony Brook University psychologist Arthur Aron, it’s as simple as a 90-minute, 36-question session. In his study, pairs of heterosexual strangers sat in the same room and asked each other a series of increasingly personal questions that fostered closeness. Several of the 33 pairs went on dates right after the experiment and one pair went to the altar six months later and invited the researchers to attend.
Cambridge blues
As the team captain of the Cambridge Blues Basketball Club pulled up to the rendezvous point in the heart of Cambridge, I and three other 2-meter gentlemen watched the cheeky fellow, grin in tow, pull up and declare: “All that was left boys. Hop in.” I was fortunate enough to play for the Cambridge Blues Basketball Club during my full year abroad at King’s College, Cambridge University, and the memory of that baby blue Fiat being pushed to its physical limits is something that I will cherish forever. The only thing missing from the car was a big red nose and a flower that squirted Lucozade (we had the comically large shoes, after all).
Saying it loud
Editor’s note: The following is an edited version of a speech delivered by the author in 2012 at the MIT Black Graduate Student Association’s Ebony Affair.
For the love of all material things
During Thanksgiving, one of the most cherished American traditions, my housemates and I decided to honor another cherished American tradition: shopping! And so, we merrily went to Macy’s at midnight of Thanksgiving.
The hardest part
Ten days ago, I was walking with someone to Next House and she asked me what I thought the hardest part of college was. I thought about the question for a while and replied “consistency.” I’ve only been here for a few months, but everything is so fluid in college that I have tremendous control over what I do in my day-to-day life and because of that, it is hard to create a strong structure to my days.
Events Nov. 25 – Dec. 01
Events Nov. 25 – Dec. 01 Tuesday (7 p.m. – 8 p.m.) The List shows ART21 “Secrets” — E15-070 Wednesday (1 p.m. – 2 p.m.) Game of Thrones: Food for Thought, with Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder and guest speakers — W11 Thursday (1:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.) MIT Free English Class, sponsored by Baptist Student Fellowship, Baptist Campus Ministry — W11-190 (Main Dining Room) Friday (7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.) International Students Association hosts Thanksgiving dinner, $5 tickets at entrance — W4 (McCormick Dining Room) Saturday (7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.) Thanksgiving Ballroom Social, free for MIT students, $6 other students, $8 MIT affiliates, $10 others — W20 (Sala de Puerto Rico) Sunday (8 p.m. – 11 p.m.) International Folk Dancing, teaching 8 p.m. — 9 p.m., free for MIT/Wellesley students, suggested $1 donation for others — W20 (Lobdell Dining Hall) Monday (4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) Health Insurance Plan Choice with speaker Jonathan Gruber, sponsored by Public Finance/Labor Workshop — E62-650 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
