Welcome to the TAMU Math Circle!

The Texas A&M Math Circle is an outreach activity that brings 5th - 12th grade students into direct contact with mathematical professionals in an informal setting to work on fun and interesting topics in mathematics. The goal is to help students become passionate about math.  Our instructors range from professors and graduate students at Texas A&M to experts from industry, all of whom are eager to share with students their passion for mathematics and its applications.

This year's meetings:

For the Spring 2024 semester, we will have Saturday meetings on 1/27, 2/3, 2/10, 2/17, 3/2, 3/23, 4/6, 4/20, 4/27,  and 5/4.

February 24 is the Mathematics & Statistics Fair. March 9 and 16 are both adjacent to Texas A&M's Spring Break. March 30 is Easter weekend. April 13 is the Physics Festival. We will not be having Math Circle on any of these days. For the Math & Stat Fair, we encourage you to attend with your students and to sign up at the link provided. We also encourage you to bring your students to the Physics Festival - there is no sign-up required for the Festival.

There are two types of sessions being offered:

• 1:00 - 3:00 Discovery Activity

• 3:00 - 4:00 Problem Solving

Each is offered at three levels:

• Beginner (for those on Pre-Algebra and below)

• Intermediate (for those on Algebra 1 and Geometry)

• Advanced (for those on Algebra 2 and above)

All 6 groups are meeting in person with the exception of the Advanced Problem Solving group, which will be meeting in a hybrid form, both in-person and on-line via Zoom. For information on attending the Advanced Problem Solving group via Zoom, please contact Kun Wang <kwang@tamu.edu>.

The in-person events will take place on the first floor of the Blocker building. Drop-off and pick-up will be inside of Room 128.

Program for Last Week (Saturday, April 20):

April 20, 2023

Discovery Learning: Beginner Group (in Pre-Algebra and below)

Speaker: Dr. Youngho Yoo, Texas A&M University

Title: Subtraction Game

Abstract: Start with a pile of 20 chips. Each of two players take turns removing some chips (1, 2, 3 or 4) from the pile. The person who removes the last chip wins. Do you want to go first or second? What is a good strategy?

Discovery Learning: Intermediate Group (in Algebra I or above)

Speaker: Dr. John Weeks, Texas A&M University

Title: Neverending War

Abstract: The games of War, Beggar-My-Neighbor, and Sticks offer examples of games that we can modify to be never-ending. In the game of Sticks, we ask the players to find a way to play so that the game enters a cyclical pattern where the game never ends. We then continue with the card games War and Beggar-My-Neighbor: if we allow a limited deck, can we choose how cards are positioned in the deck so that the game never terminates? By making these games cooperative rather than competitive, we stretch the rules of the games and find some beautiful results along the way.

Discovery Learning: Advanced Group (in Algebra II or above)

Speaker: Dr. Frank Lin, Texas A&M University

Title: Biased Coins

Abstract: A fair coin is a coin that comes up as heads or tails with equal probability. We may cry foul when a coin flip is shown to use a biased, unfair coin; however, mathematicians are simply intrigued. How can we expand what we learn from biased coins to finding probabilities? Inn particular, we will see how coin flips can be used to choose between n alternatives with equal probability. This will introduce us to the mathematical notion of probability distributions.

Problem-Solving: Beginner Group (in Pre-Algebra and below)

Instructors: Dr. Kun Wang (Texas A&M), Dr. Xin Liu  (Texas A&M),  Dr. Bo Zhu (Texas A&M), Dr. Simone Cecchini (Texas A&M)

Problem-Solving: Intermediate Group (in Algebra I or above)

Instructors: Dr. Jinmin Wang (Texas A&M), Dr. Suhan Zhong (Texas A&M), Dr. Zhizhang Xie (Texas A&M), and Xiaoyu Su (Texas A&M)

Problem-Solving: Advanced Group (in Algebra II or above)

Instructors: Dr. Samson Zhou (Texas A&M), Dr. Sherry Gong (Texas A&M), Dr. Collin Victor (Texas A&M), Abishek Hariharan (Texas A&M) and Andrew Yu (Harvard University)

Please visit our Registration page to register your student(s).