A Festival of Mathematics A Sourc1St Edition Alice Peters Full Chapter

A Festival of Mathematics: A
Sourcebook 1st Edition Alice Peters

Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/a-festival-of-mathematics-a-sourcebook-1st-edition-al
ice-peters/
A Festival of
Mathematics
A Sourcebook
A Festival of
Mathematics
A Sourcebook
Alice Peters
Mark Saul
•••
•••••• AMERICAN
~vAMS
...
••··•
MATHEMATICAL
SOCIETY
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
Berkeley, California Providence, Rhode Island
Advisory Board for the MSRI/Mathematical Circles Library
Titu Andreescu Zvezdelina Stankova
David Auckly James Ta nton
Helene Barcelo Ravi Vakil
Zuming Feng Dia na White
Tony Gardiner I van Yashchenko
Andy Liu Paul Zeitz
Alexander Shen Joshua Zucker
Tatiana Shubin (Chair)
Scientific Editor: David Scott
This volume is published with the generous support of the Simons Foundation
and Tom Leighton and Bonnie Berger Leighton.
2020 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 97-01, 97D50, 97E30, 97U30, 97U40.
For additional information and updates on this book, visit

www .ams.org/bookpages / mcl- 28
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Peters, Alice, 1946- author. I Saul, Mark E. , author.
Title: A festival of m athematics : a sourcebook / Alice Peters, Mark Saul.
Description: Berkeley, California : MSRI Mathem a tical Sciences R esearch Institute ; Providence,
Rhode Isla nd : American Mathematical Society, [2022] I Series: MSRI m athem atica l circles
library, 1944-8074 ; 28 I
Identifiers: L CCN 2021052340 I ISBN 9781470453381 (paperback) I 9781470469559 (ebook)
Subject s: LCSH: Mathem atics- Study a nd teaching. I Mathematics teachers- Tra ining of. I AMS:
Mathem atics education - Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) p ertaining
to mathem atics education. I Mathematics education - Education a nd instruct ion in m a themat-
ics - Teaching problem solv ing and h euristic strategies. I Mathematics education - Edu cation
of foundations of m a them atics - Logic (educational aspects). I Mathematics education - Ed-
ucational m aterial a nd media, educationa l technology in mathematics education - Teachers'
manuals a nd pla nning aids (aspects of mathem a tics education). I Mathem atics educatio n -
Educational m aterial a nd m edia, educationa l t echnology in m athematics education - Problem
books, competitions, examinations (aspects of m a them atics education).
Classification: LCC QAll.2 .P555 2022 I DDC 510.71 /2-dc23/eng/ 20211208
L C record availa ble at https: / / lccn.loc .gov / 2021052340
DOI: https://doi.org/ 10.1090/saul2/ 28
Copying and reprinting. Individua l r eaders of t his publication, a nd nonprofit libraries acting
for them, are permitted to make fair use of the m ateria l, s uch as to copy select p ages for use
in teaching o r research. Permission is granted to quote brief passages from this publica t ion in
reviews, prov ided the customary acknowledgment of the source is given.
Republication, systematic copying, or multiple reproduction of a ny m aterial in t his publication
is permitted only under license from t he American Mathematical Society. Requests for permission
to reuse portions of AMS publication content are ha ndled by the Copyrig ht Clearance Center. For
more information, p lease visit www.ams.org/publications/pubpermissions.
Send requests for transla tion rights and licensed reprints to reprint-permission©ams.org.
@ 2022 by t he a uthors . A ll rights reserved.
Printed in t he United States of America.
{§) The paper used in this book is acid-free a nd falls w ithin the g uidelines
established to ensure p ermanence and durability.
Visit the AMS home p age at https: / /www.ams.org/
V is it the MSRI home page at http://www . msri . org/
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 27 26 25 24 23 22
To the memory of Nelson Blachman,
who inspired his daughter Nancy in her study of mathematics
Contents
Foreword Xl
Preface xv
Acknowledgements XIX
Part 1. Activity Guides 1
Chapter 1. Color Triangle Challenge 3

Some Init ial Explorations 4
Toward a Generalization 9
Further Generalizations 13
Applying Arithmetic 16
Connection to t he Binomial Coefficients 18
Historical Notes 21
Chapter 2. Magic Squares and Algebra 23

Constructing a Magic Square 23
The Geometry of Magic Squares 31
Some Facts about Groups 34
Uniqueness of the Magic Square: Some Combinatoric Results 36
New Magic Squares from Old 37
The Vector Space of a Magic Square 41
Magic Squares and Tic-tac-toe 49
Historical Notes 50
Chapter 3. Nim 53
One-Row Nim 53
Nim Variants 61
Two-Row Nim 63
Historical Notes 64
Chapter 4. Palindrome Grab! 67

The Basic Game 67
The Greedy Game 69
vii
Vlll CONTENTS
The Patient Game 71

Historical Notes 74
Chapter 5. To Twos, Too! Two Twos? More? 77
SDP2 Representations 77
SP2 Representations 81
S2P2 Representations 85
Some Extensions 89
Historical Notes 90
Chapter 6. Prisoner Puzzle 93
Last Man Sitting 93
Lucky 7? 96
Changing of t he Guard 99
Historical Notes 101
Chapter 7. Broken Calculators 103

Calculator 1 103
Calculator 2 105
Calculator 3 108
Calculator 4 109
Calculator 5 110
Chapter 8. Dominoes and Checkerboards 113

Constructing Tilings 114
Counting Tilings 121
Chapter 9. Fair Division 131
Rectangles, Triangles, Squares 131
Quadrilaterals and Squares 136
Chapter 10. Jumping Julia 153
Mazes and Graph Theory 153
Make Your Own Maze 161
Part 2. Activity Handouts 167

Chapter 1. Color Triangle Challenge 169
Some Init ial Explorations 170
Toward a Generalization 171
Applying Arithmetic 171
Chapter 2. Magic Squares and Algebra 175
Constructing a Magic Square 175
CONTENTS IX
The Geometry of Magic Squares 177

Uniqueness of the Magic Square: Some Combinatoric Results 178
New Magic Squares from Old 179
Chapter 3. Nim 181
One-Row Nim 181
Nim Variants 182
Two-Row Nim 182
Chapter 4. Palindrome Grab! 183
The Basic Game 183
The Greedy Game 184
The Patient Game 184
Chapter 5. To Twos, Too! Two Twos? More? 185
SDP2 Representations 185
SP2 Representations 185
S2P2 Representations 186
Some Extensions 187
Chapter 6. Prisoner Puzzle 189
Last Man Sitting 189
Lucky 7? 189
Changing of the Guard 190
Chapter 7. Broken Calculators 191
Calculator 1 191
Calculator 2 191
Calculator 3 191
Calculator 4 192
Calculator 5 192
Chapter 8. Dominoes and Checkerboards 193
Constructing Tilings 193
Counting Tilings 195
Chapter 9. Fair Division 197
Rectangles, Triangles, Squares 197
Quadrilaterals and Squares 198
Chapter 10. Jumping Julia 203
Mazes and Graph Theory 203
Make Your Own Maze 207
Foreword
I founded the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival so that others could

have fun exploring mathematics, as I did when I was in junior high and
high school. I wanted to offer inspirational opportunities similar to what
my father offered me, especially to students who didn't have a parent who
enjoys playing with mathematics.
When I was in high school in Palo Alto during the 1970s, my mathe-
matics teacher gave interested students bimonthly qualifying problem sets
for a mathematics contest at Saint Mary's College in Moraga, California.
The first few problems were usually easy, and solving one would boost my
confidence in tackling the next. Students who received sufficient points on
the year's qualifying problems were invited to the contest toward the end of
the school year. I didn't enjoy the competition itself nearly as much as I'd
enjoyed doing the qualifying problem sets. In fact , exploring those problems
with my father was one of the things I have enjoyed most in my entire life.
It certainly influenced me to study mathematics.
In the spring of 2005, when I attended a forum called "Sharing Solu-
tions: Promising Practices in Science & Math Education" sponsored by the
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) , I asked MSRI's deputy
director, Hugo Rossi, whether he knew what happened to t he Saint Mary's
Mathematics Contest. He didn 't , but he emailed a note to some of his
colleagues asking what they knew about it. Joshua Zucker, a mathematics
teacher at Castilleja School, an all-girls middle and high school in Palo Alto,
responded; he had a book containing problems from the contest, which he
had won in his high school days at a different mathematics contest in South-
ern California.
When we connected, Joshua and I brainstormed ideas for organizing an
event for middle and high school students. We bot h wanted to create an
event that emphasized fun rather than competition. We decided to call the
event a Festival. There would be two dozen or so tables with mathematics
problems, puzzles, games, and activities, each with a facilitator, checking
and guiding students who needed or desired assistance, in a way similar to
how my father had encouraged and guided me.
xi
Xll FOREWORD
Since the Festival was meant to nurture students' interest in mathemat-

ics, we wanted to let them work individually or in groups, as they preferred.
The problems and activities were related to one another and became pro-
gressively more difficult-we even included research problems whose answers
we didn't know ourselves. We hoped that each attendee would be able to
find something engaging and rewarding.
We wanted to name the Festival for someone inspirational, and I sug-
gested Julia Robinson. I had learned about her after watching a pre-release
version of George Csicsery's documentary Julia Robinson and Hilbert 's Tenth
Problem. Julia was a great mathematician renowned for solving, together
with Yuri Matijasevich, Martin Davis, and Hilary Putnam, Hilbert's Tenth
Problem. When we began to plan the Festival, we were able to contact
her sister, Constance Reid, who gave us permission to use Julia 's name.
The Festival was intended to honor her legacy and to encourage students to
pursue mathematics.
Constance told us that Julia had often been annoyed when people re-
ferred to mathematics as "math," so we were careful to call the event the Ju-
lia Robinson Mathematics Festival. My husband, David desJardins, emailed
Peter Norvig, a co-worker from his days at Google, and asked if Google
would host the first Festival. Feeling that the event would encourage girls
and minorities-groups underrepresented in the company's workforce-to
go further in mathematics, Google was willing to give it a try.
In March 2007, Joshua sent announcements for the Festival to many
junior high and high school mathematics teachers in the San Francisco Bay
Area. We were concerned that we might not get many students to sign up ,
but within a few weeks, the Festival was oversubscribed. With more regis-
trants than space, we asked Google for a tent to accommodate additional
students, which they provided.
The Festival featured 30 tables with activities, puzzles, games, and prob-
lems. When a participant showed insight, creativity, or perseverance, or
solved a problem correctly, the facilitator at t hat table gave the student a
raffle ticket. Students with winning tickets received a math book and/ or
Google paraphernalia, e.g., water bottles, umbrellas, hats, and jackets.
Since the response to that first Festival was so enthusiastic, we hosted
another Festival the following year. With computational geometry driving
a digital revolution in filmmaking , senior scientist Tony DeRose, lead of
Pixar's Research Group, offered to host the Festival on May 4 , 2008 at
Pixar Animation Studios.
The initial format worked so well during the first years that we have
not changed it. Julia Robinson Mathematics Festivals (JRMFs) are non-
competitive celebrations of mathematics, its great ideas, and its intriguing
problems. The problems h ave low thresholds and high ceilings. JRMFs in-
spire K - 12 students to think critically and to explore the richness and beauty
FOREWORD Xlll
of mathematics through collaborative, creative problem-solving. Partici-

pants are supported by volunteers, lovers of mathematics from different dis-
ciplines, including mathematicians, teachers, engineers, programmers, older
students, and other members of the mathematical community.
A Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival is an extracurricular event that
is organized locally, but supported by a national network of advisors, math-
ematicians, and experienced Festival hosts. The program la unched in 2007
at Google has grown exponentially over the past decade. JRMF has hosted
over 500 events (Festivals and webinars) with participants in 29 states, the
District of Columbia, one t erritory (Puerto Rico) , and 19 foreign countries.
The Festivals engage many types of students, including those who don't
enjoy participating in competitions or working under time pressure. A Fes-
tival is also a community event, bringing together institutions and orga-
nizations to celebrat e mathematics. Anyone can be a Festival or webinar
host- parents wanting to get their children more interested in mathematics,
educators looking to build excitement in their classrooms, administrators or
community members eager to reach out and engage kids and adults in their
region.
The National JRMF organization provides advice from experienced Fes-
tival hosts; activities (puzzles, games, problems, online apps) tailored to the
needs of the audience; publicity and organization items, such as signs, ban-
ners, swag available at cost; and a free online registration system. These
services are offered free of charge to hosts, although there might be incidental
costs associated with venue rental, materials, and staffing.
I hope you find the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival puzzles, games,
activities, and problems in this book, and on the jrmf.org website, enjoyably
thought-provoking.
Try solving them yourself before checking out the hints or solutions
given in the book. The Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival problems that
Mark Saul and Alice Peters present in this book are just a small sample of
the hundreds of problems presented at Festivals. If you have other prob-
lems or solutions that you think would be of interest, please send them to
info@jrmf.org so that we can consider adding them to the library of activi-
ties.
For much more information, to sign up to host a Festival, or to attend
a Festival, please visit jrmf.org.
-Nancy Blachman
Founder, Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival
Burlingame, California
October, 2020
Preface
This book is about enjoying mathematics, about using the mind as an ath-
lete uses the body in a joyful game. Its inspiration is the Julia Robinson
Mathematics Festival, a n organization that supports non-competitive after-
school mathematical activities.
The activities in this book are just a few of the many that the Julia
Robinson Mathematics Festival has developed over the years. The problems
have a low threshold, but their ceiling is high. A game or puzzle intrigues,
then stimulates thought, that then becomes serious mathematics before the
reader is aware of the transition. A gentle on-ramp leads to an exhilarating
ride t hrough fantastic mental landscapes.
Almost anyone, at any level, can begin to engage in the sequences of
problems in each chapter. Most of the chapter problems begin with situa-
tions that require no more than simple arit hmetic or intuit ive concepts of
symmetry- and sometimes not even that. On a deeper level, the beginning
problems require intuitive logic, but not the notion of a strategy for play
or algorithm for solution. These more sophisticated ideas emerge as the
student works the puzzle, plays the game, or solves the problems that come
later. As soon as solvers can understand the statement of the first prob-
lem in a chapter, they can engage in the solution, progressing to the next
step whenever they are ready. And if students never get to the next step,
they will have learned something significant, just from understanding the
difficulties of the situation.
A Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival is a social occasion to learn
mathematics. In a large open space, tables are provided on which a va-
riety of problem materials are made available. ( Each chapter in this book
is a sample of the materials at a single Festival table.) Each table has a table
leader or facilitator, who manages the activity- but does not teach in t he
traditional sense. Students are free to wander among the tables, choosing
for themselves an activity to engage in and the amount of t ime t hey spend.
Informal social groups form around the activit ies. Students bring old friends
and make new friends. Facilitators observe and support, but intervene only
minimally.
xv
XVI PREFACE
For those planning a Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival, we have

included hints for organization, marked with a Julia Robinson logo in the
margin.
Our activities have been selected and presented based on feedback from
previous Festivals. A good problem is one that attracts students, gets them
interacting, and holds their attention for at least half an hour. The at-
tractive and accessible nature of the problems in this book are a result of
observing student engagement at a Festival, followed by a careful honing of
the materials to improve them for the next Festival.
We have written this book for a wide audience. We specifically target
facilitators at Julia Robinson Mathematics Festivals, or leaders of after-
school math circles. However, the book can also b e used in more formal
situations, including whole class activities where the teacher must give more
structure to the activity. We have chosen problems that can be used with
or without the structure of a formal classroom. The book can also be used
for self-study by a student alone.
We h ave departed somewhat from the usual presentation of problems
and solutions. The focus of the book is on mathematics and teaching. So
we have put the activity guides first . The problem statements, which often
come first in contest-problem books, are given in P art II. Some readers may
want to try the problems themselves, only later looking at the teaching
notes. And students working alone should certainly look at t he problems
first. These readers can simply turn to the activit ies section at the start of
their reading. In fact , there is no reason to begin a reading of t he book with
Chapter I. Each problem starts the exploration afresh.
The activity guide notes are more than just solutions. They are essays
about the mathematics involved, about how the first and simplest steps
mimic or foreshadow bolder progress towards deeper results. They also
contain t eaching notes gleaned from exp erience with students working these
problems. They offer hints for listening to the students and point out the
typical (and sometimes atypical) pathways that students find in working the
problem.
T he historical notes are not meant to be comprehensive. Rather, they
are there to entice t he reader to look into the people and cultures behind
the mathematics. We hope that including such notes in problem books will
become standard practice.
The best leaders are followers-followers of the minds of t he students,
looking at where t hey are, anticipating t heir next thoughts, and offering
the minimal support necessary for the student to achieve the next insight.
Hence, it is important t hat these notes be used appropriately. They are not
meant as lesson plans in the traditional sense. Rather , t hey are meant as
signposts to the user of what might lie ahead and which pathway to take.
So, for example, we sometimes offer a suggestion for a hint to t he stu-
dent , often in the form of a question. It is important that the teacher or
leader use these hints sparingly, giving as little support as possible so t hat
PREFACE XVll
students progress independently in their work. A hint given too early de-
prives the student of discovery, a hint given too late risks frustration. Timing
is everything. But timing cannot be put between the pages of a book. This
book-like any teaching guide-is only as good as the leader who uses it.
We hope readers will use it wisely.
These caveats are not meant to restrain the reader's delight in the book.
However you use it, in whatever order you read the materials, we wish you
joy in reading. We have enjoyed putting this material together and have
learned a lot in the process. We hope you will learn something as well. And
have fun while learning.
- Mark Saul and Alice Peters
Acknowledgements
It takes a village to produce a volume. We are pleased to acknowledge the

contributions of several people in the mathematics community who have
contributed to this book.
We wish to thank Nancy Blachman for founding the Julia Robinson
Mathematics Festival (JRMF) and for her generous support of the produc-
tion of this book. You can read about what led her to found the Festival in
her Foreword.
We also thank Joshua Zucker, the first Director of the JRMF, for his
guidance and for bringing Blachman's initial concept to reality. Many of the
problems presented in this book were posed by him and have been used at
Julia Robinson Mathematics Festivals.
We appreciate the work of Florence Fasanelli, who researched the history
of the problems and added enlightening notes about the p eople and cultures
that developed them.
Skona Brittain, with assistance from her daughter Rochelle Brittain,
went above and beyond what we grew to expect from editors and contributed
significantly to the correctness of the wording and mathematical content of
this manuscript.
Under the guidance of Skona Brittain, Kritika Ravichander created at-
tractive and informative illustrations for some of the chapters.
We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the following mathe-
maticians, whose work on the mathematical expositions improved the con-
tent of this book significantly: Hyman Bass, Edward Barbeau, Roger Howe,
William McCallum, Robin Pemantle. We also thank Nick Rauh for his
contribution to the notes for Chapter 5.
We are particularly grateful to David Scott for his careful reading and
re-reading of the manuscript and for his sensitive and helpful comments.
x ix
Part 1
Activity Guides
Chapter 1
Color Triangle Challenge
We start with a row of five colored disks. Each disk is one of three colors.
We then form a row of four colored disks beneath the initial row , according
to the following rules:1
• If the two disks above the disk to be placed are of the same color, then
the disk below is also that color.
• If the two disks above the disk to be placed are of different colors, then
the disk below is of the third color.
We repeat the process, thus forming a row of four disks , then three disks,
etc., until we arrive at a row of just one disk. The challenge is to predict the
color of that final disk by looking at the five init ial disks. The more general
problem would be to study t he action of t his iterative rule on init ial strings
of any number of disks.
This is a classic example of a problem that can be worked on several
levels. Younger students will have fun playing wit h t he pattern of format ion.
More sophisticated students will enjoy an alyzing t he various sit uations t hat
arise. Advanced students will find connections to well-known mathematical
objects and serious investigations.
We start our analysis using very simple tools, that students in elementary
school have. We then move to an arit hmetization of t he problem , suitable
only for more advanced students. But even advanced students should prob-
ably start with the simpler analysis, jumping to the arithmetic whenever
appropriate.
We will use red, yellow, and blue disks:
1
• o•
The Color Triangle C hallenge presented here is the creation of two mathematicians
who h ave worked to popularize mathem atics, E hrhard Behrends (1946- ) from Germany
a nd t h e British mathem atician Steve Humble (1965- ). It was published in Th e Mathemat-
ics Intelligencer, Volume 35, Issue 2 (2013) , pp. 10-15. http:/ / www. ehrhard-behrends.
de/pdf_zaubern/behrends_hurnble .pdf .
3
4 1. COLOR TRIANGLE CHALLENGE
Manipulatives are essent ial t o this activity. They help organize students'
exp eriences. In addition, brightly colored chips or counters will attract
a crowd of curious students, who can then get "hooked " on the game .
Looking up "colored chips" or "counting chips" online will bring up links
t o a number of vendors of this inexpensive manipulative, which can be
used for many other activit ies as well.
For a Festival, the facilitator should probably have a few examples of com-
plet ed triangles ready to show students, so that they can learn t he rule of
formation quickly. These can be printed out , or simply left on the table (in
an undisturbed corner) t o show p articipants who ap proach .
Here is an example:
Some Initial Explorations
(1) For each of t he init ial st art ing rows below, make a guess about what
the final (single) color will be. Then construct the color t riangles to
see if your guess was correct.
(a) - - - - -
S olution: The final single disk is blue.

SOME INITIAL EXPLORATIONS 5
Solution: The final single disk is yellow.
It is not hard to see that if any row contains just one color , all
the following rows will contain that color. This observat ion can be
elicited from students now, or after working Problem l(e) .
(c) - 0 - 0 -
Solution: The final single disk is red.
See Problem 1 (b) for a possible insight that students might have.
Another important insight is that P roblems 1 (b) and 1 (c) ar e iso-
morphic; i.e., they have the same structure. This may be h ard
for students t o articulat e, even if t hey see it. The p oint is t hat
the sp ecific colors are not important. What is important is which
colors match and which do not .
(d) - - - - -
Solution: The final single disk is red . This pattern is harder t o
pick out. The last color in each row alt ernat es between red and
yellow. Students can experiment t o see how this pat tern continues
with an initial row of n blue and one red disk.
(e) - - - - -
Solution: The final single disk is blue.
Note: this is a tricky one! Only a few students will be able to predict
the final color. While it is usually easier to predict t hings if t here are
many disks of a single color, this is not always the case. The pattern
seems to vary wildly with the placement of the single disk of a different
color.
Compare the following initial row and solution with the previous
one:
Students should work these problems to become comfortable with

the rule of formation and to b egin to make conj ectures about what
is happening. It is unlikely at this stage that they will get a useful
insight into the problem.
For each of Pro blems 1 (a )-1 (e), students can be encouraged to
make up t heir own problem that follows the same pattern. Because
SOME INITIAL EXPLORATIONS 7
the "same pattern" is not well-defined, answers will vary. Students

can be encouraged to describe their pattern (which is sometimes
not easy) .
One insight that younger students should get is that the last color is in
fact determined by the initial array. At first, many younger students
think of the situation as a guessing game. Gradually, they become
aware that each row is determined by the previous row. Older or more
sophisticated students will know this without prior experimentation.
At this point it often becomes clear to students that the generated

pattern is a complicated one. So the facilitator might have to ask
how to break it down. The next two problems do this.
(2) How many different starting rows of three disks are there?
Solution: The real problem is to define "different." Certainly three

red disks and three blue disks as starting rows are not really different.
They are isomorphic in the same sense that Problems l(b) and l(c)
are. While very young students may see this, they may have trouble
describing it.
Similarly, a starting row of red, red, blue (RRB) and red, red,
yellow (RRY) are isomorphic. Exchanging blue and yellow renders the
two diagrams below identical.
One way to enact this for younger students is to ask them to construct
the diagram for RRB. Then ask them to guess-and-check the outcome
for RRY. Most will then get the idea of isomorphism.
So we can say that RRB and RRY are not really different enough
to count them differently. What about RRB and BRR? Even younger
students will see that the "flipping the row around" or "reading the row
backwards" doesn't change how we think of the situation. Younger stu-
dents can then count the rows of three disks to determine the different
ones. One way to break this into cases is to consider how many disks
are the same color.
• If a ll three disks are the same color (BBB, RRR, YYY) , there is
only one case and it is isomorphic to BBB.
• If there are two disks the same color, there are two cases: BBR or
BRB. Every other arrangement is isomorphic to one of these, ei-
ther by" flipping" the row or by permuting (exchanging) the colors.
• If every disk is a different color, there is only one case: BRY.
Students can be asked how many actual arrangements there are
that are isomorphic to BRY. The answer is six, and this can lead to a
discussion of counting permutations. The corresponding question for
BBR or BRB is more difficult. We must select two colors, and the order
in which we select them is significant(!). For example, if we replace B
and R (in the arrangement BBR) by R and Y, respectively, we get
RRY. But if we replace B and R by Y and R , respectively, we get
YYR, which is different. So in selecting two colors to replace B and
R , we are counting permutations again~and not combinations. There
are six ways (counting order) to select two colors out of three.
This gives 12(!) rows isomorphic to BBR, because we can flip each
arrangement backwards. But only six rows isomorphic to BRB, because
this arrangement is symmetric: we don't get a new one by reading
it backwards. This counting problem gets significantly more difficult
with a row of four or more chips and leads to some advanced topics in
combinatorics.
At this point it may be useful to write down the four patterns with
three disks. We give the colors an order, which is the alphabetical order
of their names in English: blue, then red, then yellow. This will help
us to avoid two rows that are isomorphic.
Students will also come up with some interesting hypotheses. Some

hypotheses may even fit all four cases. But it would be unusual at this
point for a student to be able to describe any pattern that is useful for
more general cases. The facilitator should lead students to ask about
the situation with four disks.
Students can now "read off" the result starting with three disks, by
classifying the init ial row as isomorphic to one of these. This exercise
provides practice with the notion of isomorphism.
0 -
-
- - - - --
0 0 0
0
- 0
TOWARD A GENERALIZATION 9
(3) Determine the final color in these situ ations starting wit h four disks.
(a) - - - -
Solution: Students should see right away t hat the result is blue.
Solution: The final disk is yellow.
(c) - - - -
(d) - 0 - -
Solution: T he final disk is yellow.
-
- 0
Toward a Generalization
(1) We have already found the solution for a st arting row wit h four blue
disks. We now want to investigate some more cases starting with four
disks. W h at is the final color of the single remaining disk in each case?
10 1. COLOR T RIANGLE CHALLENGE
(a) - - - -
Solution: The final disk is blue.
(c) - - Q -
(d) W hy is it useful to study these three examples, along with t he one

in Problem 3(a) from the previous section? What do they all have
in common?
Solution: The most fruitful way to describe what t hese examples

have in common is to note t hat t hey all begin and end wit h t he
same color. A little thought will show that in fact these are the
only arrangements of four disks that b egin and end with the same
color, up to isomorphism. And t hey all end up wit h t he single
blue disk.
TOWARD A GENERALIZATION 11
This shows:
The o rem 1. If a row of four disks begins and ends with the same color,
then the final disk is of that same color.
Note: This is not the case if we start with three disks or five disks.
Now we want to investigate what happens if the beginning and ending

colors are different.
(2) What is the resulting disk color for each of the following initial rows?
(a) - - - -
--- --- 0
(c) - - - -
- - 0

(d) - - 0 -
- - -000
- - - 0
(e) - Q - -
-- -- - 0
0
(f) - 0 0
•o•
e
-- 0
0
0
- -
- - 0
All the results come out wit h the final disk yellow! Again, a litt le
thought will show that these six arrangements are t he only arrange-
ments (up to isomorphism) of four disks for which the first and last
disks are different colors. And they all result in t he third color.
The orem 2. If a row of four disks begins and ends with different colors,
then the final disk is the third color.
We can rephrase bot h t heorems combined as follows:

For a row of four disks, the final disk is determined by the first and last
disk, by the same rule that det ermines each n ew row.
This is an interesting (and even excit ing!) result t hat cracks t he prob-
lem wide open. For example, students can go back to the problems
starting wit h five disks (which is why we start wit h five , and not four).
FURTHER GENERALIZATIONS 13
We look again at Problem 1(b). Here is how it plays out in detail:
- 0 - 0 - 0 - ® ®
0 0 ®
0 ®
0
The key insight is that if we ignore the rightmost entry in each of the
first four rows (those not in color above), then the remaining triangle is
one that begins with four disks , and follows t he same rule of formation
as the whole triangle. Since it begins wit h blue and ends wit h red, t he
result (on t he next-to-last line) must be yellow.
Similarly, if we ignore the leftmost entry in each of the first four
rows (t hose not in color below) , t he remaining triangle is again one
starting with four disks, so we can jump right to the next-to-last row
and predict that it will also be yellow. Then we only need look at the
row of two disks , and we get the result : yellow.
®
® - - -
®
0
0
0
0
0
® 0
0
So we can easily go from a row of five disks to a row of two disks.
Students can now go back to the problems with five-disc rows and do them
in their head , for practice. Note that there is no easier shortcut for five-letter
rows. We must break them down into two overlapping four letter rows.
Further Generalizations
(1) Suppose we start with t he following six-disk row:
e e ooo e
What will the result be?
Solution: We can again take the disks four at a time. The result of
each of t hese subproblems give us a row wit h t hree disks, which is easy
to resolve.
Looking at the starting row
e e ooo e
and working from left to right , we first look at
e e oo
and know from Theorem 2 that the result is one red disk.
Next we look at
e ooo
and can easily find that the result is one blue disk.
Finally, we look at
ooo e
which results in a red disk.
Writing this three-disk row from the results above we have
---
So with this method, we we can jump from six disks to three. And
then continue according to our rules to get
00
0
(2) Predict the result of the following seven-disk row:
e e o e o ee
Solution: An initial row of seven is interesting. We get four sub-rows
of four each, which then form another row of four , and we can predict
t hings rather quickly:
Working from left to right with groups of four disks, we have
• Disks 1- 4 gives the result yellow
• Disks 2- 5 gives the result blue
• Disks 3-6 gives the result red
• Disks 4- 7 gives the result yellow

This gives us a row of four disks: 0 - - 0
which results in one yellow disk.
FURTHER GENERALIZATIONS 15
More advanced students may be able to recognize that we only need

to look at the first four disks from the left and t he last four on the
right. This is true because in a starting row of four disks, the result is
determined by the first and last disks.
(3) What will happen if we start with an initial row of eight disks or an
initial row of nine disks?
Solution: For an initial row of eight disks , there will be five groups of
four. So we jump to a row of five disks, then to a row of two disks,
then to the final result.
For an initial row of nine disks there will be six groups of four. So
we jump to a row of six disks, then a row of three disks, then the result.
(It is probably not necessary-unless students are having fun-to
actually work these.)
(4) What about an initial row of 10 disks? Try this with the st arting row
- - oo ____ _ _
(We will stop with 10, because certain patterns will suggest themselves which
require more sophistication to investigate.)
Solution: We can break this initial row into seven (overlapping) groups of
four disks each:
- - oo - oo - oo --
o---
That there will be seven rows is hinted at by the experimentation in
Problem 3.
Using Theorems 1 and 2, these seven rows of four reduce to:
-- -- -o-
Repeating the process, we can break down this row of seven into four rows
of four disks:
-- -- ----
-- -o --0-
Again using the results of Theorems 1 and 2, we have
o ee o
which gives the result of yellow.
There is another way we can look at this problem. Suppose that we replace
one or two colors with Xi where Xi can be any of the colors. (We will use
the notation of a circled letter to represent the colored disks.) We begin
with
As above, we get seven groups of four disks each:
~~~
~~~~
and continuing the process we have
~~~~
0®00
... and the result is still 0! All of the X's in the middle end up not
counting.
But what if the X is on the end of a row of 10? That analysis is more
difficult, but it turns out t hat the final disk is again det ermined only by the
first and last disks.
Students may want to investigate this on their own. Or they can skip
over this case to the next sect ion, wher e it is explained more formally.
Applying Arithmetic
We can use arithmetic tools to analyze the color t riangles puzzle. Because
we have three colors we can do arithmet ic modulo 3.
Students who don't know this t erminology can sometimes intuit the
concepts just by calling the arithmetic "rem ainders when you divide
by 3" .
APPLYING ARITHMETIC 17
Suppose we let blue= 0, red= 1, and yellow = 2. We can then express

the law of formation of each row arithmetically, by examining the sum of the
numbers representing each color. We use+ here to mean addit ion modulo 3.
We will use EB, for the time being, to represent the result of two adjacent
disks.
Rule Arithmetic Equivalent

B EB B gives B 0 + 0 gives 0
B EB R gives Y 0 + 1 gives 2 (not 1)
B EB Y gives R 0 + 2 gives 1 (not 2)
R EB R gives R 1 + 1 gives 1 (not 2)
R EB Y gives B 1 + 2 gives O (which is 3 modulo 3)
Y EB Y gives Y 2 + 2 gives 2 (not 1, which is 4 modulo 3)
TABLE 1. Rules for row formation using arithmetic modulo 3.
Table 1 gives all of the possibilities (the color of the resulting disk does
not depend on the order of t he two original colors). Table 1 certainly doesn't
look like addition modulo 3. Notice that in each case, addition eit her gives
the correct answer (zero) or the "opposite" answer (1 when the result should
be 2, and 2 when the result should be 1).
Noting that 2 = -l(mod 3) , we can see that for any colors a and b, t hat
a EB b =-(a + b)(mod 3).
T his observation gives a key to the arithmetic analysis of t he game. For
example, let's take a general row of four disks:
a b C d
-(a + b) -(b + c) -(c + d)
(a+2b+c) (b+2 c +d)
- (a + 3b + 3c + d) ( 1)
But of course, 3b = 0 and 3c = 0 (mod 3) . So the resulting number is

-(a+ d) , which is just what we would get by ignoring the middle t wo disks.
We know t his from Theorem 2 in the first section, but here we have used
the tools of arithmetic to show it more elegantly. A similar an alysis can be
applied wit h starting rows of any number of disks.
(1) Apply arithmetic analysis to an initial row of five disks.

Solution: The reader may suspect that something is going to generalize.
So we will use subscripts, rather t han separate letters. And we will
b egin with the subscript 0. In the computation below, the value of
each ai is 0, 1 or 2. For reasons which will become clear , we will not
reduce modulo 3 unt il the very end.
ao
-(ao + 3a1 + 3a2 + a3) -(a1 + 3a2 + 3a3 + a4)

(ao+4a1 +6a2 + 4a3+a4) (2)
Reducing modulo 3, we get t he result ao + a 1 + a3 + a4 .
(2) Check that this result matches with our computations in Problems
l(a)- 1(e) .
Connection to the Binomial Coefficients
It is not hard, looking at Expressions (1) and (2) to spot the binomial
coefficients. A binomial coefficient represents the number of combina-
tions of r items that can be selected from a set of n items and is written
as (;). It also represents an entry in P ascal's triangle (Figure 1). These
numbers are called binomial coefficients because they are coefficients
in the binomial theorem.
In fact, one way to describe the resulting color for a row of n
disks uses t he dot product. The dot product of two vectors, a =
(a1, a2 , ... , an) and b = (b1 , b2, . . . bn), is defined as a 1b1 + a2b2 + . . . +
anbn .
• We take the dot product of the original row values (expressed as
a vector) and row number (n - 1) of Pascal's Triangle (where we
st art counting the rows wit h 0), taken modulo 3.
• We multiply this dot product by (- 1r- 1 and reduce modulo 3.
1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
110 10 5 1
5
1 6 15 20 15 6 1
1 7 21 35 35 21 7 1
1 8 28 56 70 26 28 8 1
F IGURE 1. Pascal's Triangle.
CONNECTION TO THE BINOMIAL COEFFICIENTS 19
(3) How would we prove this?
Solution: As is the case with many problems involving binomial coef-

ficients, a proof by induction is not too difficult . We give an example,
not a proof, showing that t he case for n = 5 implies the case for n = 6.
A fully written-out proof is then not much more t han an exercise in
keeping track of subscripts.
We assume the result for any row of five disks. Suppose a row of
six disks is notated as
We will compute the penult imate row (consisting of two disks).

The first disk is the result of starting with the first five colors in t he
row above, so it is simply
The second disk in the penultimate row is t he one resulting for
By the induction hypothesis, this is
Note that the index of the binomial coefficient has not increased, but
the subscript of each a has.
We have computed arithmetically the two chips in the penult imate
row. To get the final chip (resulting from starting with our original
six), we add the expressions for t he two chips we have, multiply t his
sum by -1 , and reduce modulo 3. We get -1 times:
But we know by t he usual law of formation for rows of Pascal's triangle

that
(~) + (~) = (~)
(~) + (~) = (~)
(: ) + (~) = ( ~)
(!) + (: ) = ( : )
Also, for completeness, we note that
So we h ave
which can be rewritten as
ao + (~)a1 + (~)a2+ (~)a3+ (:)a4 + a5.

This completes the proof.
The heart of t he proof is that t he rule for forming t he coefficients
of each row of a color triangle is the same as t he rule for forming each
row of Pascal's Triangle.
(4) We have seen that for n = 4 (a row of four disks), t he color of t he

result ing disk depends only on the first and last disk. The interior
disks of the row don't matter. Find some more values of n for which
this is true.
Solution: Now that we know that the coefficients of the resulting disk
color are the entries in Pascal's Triangle, we can see that we are really
asking which rows of Pascal's Triangle are all O modulo 3 (except for
t he init ial and final entries, which must be 1) .
Students can have fun computing this triangle. A copy of the first 35
rows is given in Figure 2. The rows 4, 10, and 28 satisfy t he condition
we describe. Students will easily conj ecture t h at the pattern cont inues
for rows numbered 3k + 1, where k = l , 2, .. ..
HISTORICAL NOTES 21
1
1 1
1 2 1
1 0 0 1
1 1 0 1
1
1 2 1 1
2 1
1 0 0 2
0 0 1
1 1 0 2
2 0 1 1
1 2 1 2
1 2 1 2 1
1 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 1
1 1 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 1 1
1 2 1 0
0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1
1 0 0 1
0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1
1 2 1 1
2 1 0 0 0 1 2 1 1 2 1
1 0 0 2
0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1
1 1 0 2
2 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 2 2 0 1 1
1 2 1 2
1 2 1 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1
1 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
1 1 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
1 2 1 0
0 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1
1 0 0 1
0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
1 1 0 1
1 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1
1 2 1 1
2 1 0 0 0 2 1 2 2 1 2 0 0 0 1 2 1 1 2 1
1 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 20 0 1
1 1 0 2
2 0 1 1 0 2 2 0 1 1 0 2 2 0 1 1 0 2 2 0 1 1
1 2 1 2
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1
1 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 1 1
1 2 1 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1
1 0 0 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1
1 2 1 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 1 2 1
1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1
1 1 0 2 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 2 0 1 1
FIGURE 2 . T he first 35 rows of Pascal's Triangle computed

mod 3.
Historical Notes
W hat is now known as Pascal's Triangle h as appeared in many cultures
over the centuries, so it is difficult to say where it was first thought of, or
by whom. We can distinguish two characterizations of t he entries to the
triangle. The "additive" characterization is G) + (nt1) = (~: i), where n
is t he row and k is t he column. T he "multiplicative" characterization is
(~) = n !/k!(n - k) !.
In the 3rd century BC, the Indian mathematician Achary Pingala wrote
about the additive formula, and in the 9th century AD, Mahavira gave the
multiplicative characterization. A third Indian mathematician, Halayudha
(10th century) , gave an early example of these numbers placed in a triangle
form [A. W. F. Edwards, (2013), "The Arithmetical Triangle" in Robin Wil-
son, John J. Watkins, (eds.) , Combinatorics: Ancient and Modern, Oxford
University Press, pp. 166- 180].
The Persian mathematician Al-Karaji (953-1029) described the trian-
gle in a book that is now lost. Later, the poet and mathematician Omar
Khayyam (1048- 1131) used it in the extraction of roots (in a book also
lost) [Dirk J. Struik, "Omar Khayyam, Mathematician" in The Mathemat-
ics Teacher Vol. 51, No. 4 (April 1958) , pp. 280-285]. Today, in Iran,
students study the Khayyam triangle.
In China, the mathematician Yang Hui (1238- 1298) wrote of lost work
done earlier on the triangle by Jia Xian in the 11th century, so Chinese stu-
dents today study the Yang Hui triangle [Shen Kangshen, John N. Crossley
and Anthony W-C. Lun, The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, Ox-
ford University Press, 1999, p. 228].
Likewise, Italian students learn about the Triangolo di Tartaglia, named
for the mathematician Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia, who published six rows of
the triangle in 1556 [A. W. F. Edwards, (2013), "The Arithmetical Trian-
gle" in Robin Wilson, John J. Watkins, (eds.), Combinatorics: Ancient and
Modern, Oxford University Press, pp. 166- 180].
The French mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) collected some
results in Traite du triangle Arithmetique, written in 1654, and used them
to solve problems in probability theory. The triangle soon acquired the name
"Pascal's Triangle" in English texts.
Chapter 2
Magic Squares and Algebra
In the classroom, magic squares are usually seen as brain teasers, or venues
for practicing addition. We will show how they can actually be used to
introduce and develop concepts from higher mathematics.
In this activity, we use an ancient and well-known puzzle to illustrate

concepts of mathematics that were developed in modern times. It is
important t hat students work with some ma nipulative to accomplish t he
construction of t he magic squares. Ordinary p laying cards are fine to
begin with: ignore the suits and just use the numbers. For magic squares
with larger numbers, often students don't need the cards anymore. Or,
they can simply use slips of paper with the larger nu mbers written on them.
Note that for this activity it is not essential that the playing cards form a
standard deck. Many leaders of math circles or math festivals collect worn
or incomplete decks of cards, which can be used in many activities.
Const ru cting a M agic Square

(1) F ill in x and y so that the sum of the numbers in each of the three
rows is the same:
3 9 2
5 X 7
y 3 8
Solution: From the first row, we see that the common sum must be
3 + 9 + 2 = 14.
So 5 + x + 7 = 14, and x = 2. Then y + 3 + 8 = 14 and y = 3.
(2) Look at the square array of numbers below.
4 8 7
6 10 4
1 9 8
23
24 2. MAGIC SQUARES AND ALGEBRA
The sums of the columns (reading up and down) are different:
4 8 7
6 10 4
1 9 8
Column sums: 11 27 19
But if you switch the positions of two of the nine numbers, you can
make the column sums equal. Can you find those two numbers?
Hint: If the column sums are equal, what must each column sum be?
Solution: We follow t he hint. If we add t he column sums together, we

get
11 + 27 + 19 = 57.
This must be t he sum of all nine numbers. Since there are t hree
columns, each column sum must be 57/3 = 19. Now that we know
the target sum, we can search for the two numbers to switch. The
third-column sum is correct, so we should avoid t he numbers in the
t hird column. The first-column sum is too small, by 8. The second-
column sum is too big, also by 8. So we need to increase the first
column by 8 and decrease the second column by 8. We can do t his if
we can locate two numbers next to each other that differ by 8. In fact,
we can just switch the 1 and the 9. We get
4 8 7
6 10 4
9 1 8
and t he column sums are each 19.
4 8 7
6 10 4
9 1 8
Column sums: 19 19 19
(3) Here is a square of numbers whose column sums are the same:
10 12 8
6 10 9
9 3 8
But t he row sums are not t he same. Can you make the row sums
the same, and still keep the column sums equal?
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
trade for ten days. As many as 20,000 horses are brought there for
sale from Beder, which is 20 kors distant, and besides every
description of goods; and that fair is the best throughout the land of
Hindostan. Everything is sold or bought in memory of Shikhbaludin,
whose fête falls on the Russian festival of the Protection of the Holy
Virgin (1st October).
In that Aland (Aladinand?) there is a bird, gukuk, that flies at night
and cries gukuk, and any roof it lights upon, there the man will die;
and whoever attempts to kill it will see fire flashing from its beak.
Wild cats rove at night and catch fowls; they live in the hills and
among stones. As to monkeys, they live in the woods and have their
monkey knyaz, who is attended by a host of armed followers. When
any of them is caught they complain to their knyaz, and an army is
sent after the missing; and when they come to a town they pull down
the houses and beat the people; and their armies, it is said, are
many. They speak their own tongues and bring forth a great many
children; and when a child is unlike its father or its mother, it is
thrown out on the highroad. Thus they are often caught by the
Hindoos, who teach them every sort of handicraft, or sell them at
night, that they might not find their way home, or teach them
dancing.—From India in the Fifteenth Century, in the Hakluyt Society
Publications, London, 1857.
FOOTNOTES:
[113] A thousand-man of the Russian army.

[114] Probably a mistake for Kaffa in the Crimea.
Apocryphal Legends about King Solomon. (XV.
century.)
Among the many apocryphal stories of the Old Testament
that were current in Russia the largest number centre about
King Solomon. They are mostly derived from Byzantine
sources which, in their turn, are often based on Jewish
apocryphal accounts; thus the Story of Kitovrás (evidently
transformed from Centaurus) is also given in the Talmud.
Kitovrás is mentioned in Russian literature in the fourteenth
century, but the following passage is from a manuscript of the
fifteenth.
THE STORY OF KITOVRÁS
Then came Solomon’s turn to learn about Kitovrás. He found out

that his habitation was in a distant wilderness. Solomon, in his
wisdom, prepared a steel rope and a steel hoop, and on this he
wrote an incantation in the name of God. And he sent his best boyár
with his men, and ordered them to take with them wine and mead,
and the fleece of sheep. And they came to the appointed place, and
behold, there were three wells, but he was not there. By the
instruction of Solomon, they emptied the three wells, and closed the
springs with the fleeces of the sheep, and filled two of the wells with
wine, and the third one with mead, but they themselves hid
themselves nearby, for they knew that he would come to the wells to
drink water. And he came, for he was very thirsty, and he lay down to
drink, but seeing the wine, he said: “Nobody becomes wise from
drinking wine.” But as he was very thirsty, he said again: “You are the
wine that gladdens the hearts of men,” and he emptied all three
wells, and lay himself down to sleep. The wine heated him up, and
he fell into a deep sleep. Then the boyár approached him, put the
hoop upon his neck, and tied the steel rope to him. When Kitovrás
awoke, he wanted to tear himself loose. But Solomon’s boyár said to
him: “The name of the Lord is upon you with a prohibition”; and he,
seeing the name of the Lord upon him, went meekly along.
His habit was not to go by the crooked road, but by the straight
road; and when he arrived in Jerusalem, they levelled the road for
him, and palaces were destroyed, for he would not go by the
crooked road. They came to the house of a widow. She wept loud,
and she begged Kitovrás with the following words: “I am a poor
widow.” He turned around the corner, without leaving the street, and
he broke a rib, and said: “A gentle word breaks bones, but a harsh
word rouses anger.” As he was led through the market-place, he
heard a man say: “Is there not a shoe that will wear seven years?”
and Kitovrás laughed out loud. And he saw another man who was
telling fortunes, and he laughed; and he saw a wedding ceremony,
and he wept....
Solomon asked Kitovrás: “Wherefore did you laugh at the man that
asked for a shoe that would last seven years?” And Kitovrás
answered: “As I looked at him, I saw that he would not live seven
days.” And Solomon said: “Wherefore did you laugh at the fortune-
teller?” And Kitovrás said: “He was telling people hidden things, and
he did not himself know that a gold treasure was right under him.”
And the King said: “Go and find out!” They went, and they found that
it was so. And the King said: “Wherefore did you weep when you
saw the wedding?” And he said: “I felt sorry for the groom, for I knew
he would not live another thirty days.” And the King had the matter
investigated, and he found that it was so.
Andréy Mikháylovich Kúrbski. (1528-1583.)
Kúrbski was a descendant of the Yarosláv princes who, as
he was proud of mentioning, derived their origin from the
great Vladímir. At twenty years of age he took part in an
expedition against Kazán, and a few years later he
distinguished himself at the storming of that Tartar city. Iván
the Terrible personally decorated him for his valour in these
and other expeditions against the Tartars, and sent him with
an army to Livonia to operate against the Livonian order. In
1563 Kúrbski lost an important battle against Poland. Fearing
a terrible vengeance from the cruel Tsar, not only for this
defeat, but also for having belonged to the party of Sylvester
and Adáshev, he fled to Poland, where he was received with
open arms by King Sigismund. As soon as he had reached
the city of Volmar, then in the hands of the Lithuanians, he
sent his faithful servant Váska Shibánov with an epistle (here
given) to the Tsar. Iván, upon learning from Shibánov that the
letter he brought him was from the traitor Kúrbski, struck the
sharp point of his staff through the messenger’s foot and
ordered him to read its contents. Shibánov did so, without
expressing any pain, though he was bleeding profusely.
Kúrbski had belonged in Moscow to the circle of the
enlightened churchman Maksím the Greek, who believed in
the importance of profane studies. Kúrbski had acquired
some knowledge of Latin and Greek, which he perfected in
his exile. In Poland he devoted himself to literary studies,
translating Chrysostom and Eusebius, and writing a series of
four epistles to Iván the Terrible, and others to other
prominent personages in Poland. His greatest merit consists
in his having written a History of Iván the Terrible, which is the
first work in the Russian language to deserve the name of
history; for, while the older chronicles gave accounts of
events, Kúrbski subordinated them to a general idea which
runs through the whole work.
Á
THE STORMING OF KAZÁN
If I wrote everything that took place around the city, there would be
a whole book of it. But it is worth mentioning that they used charms
against the Christian army by which they caused a great rainstorm.
From the beginning of the siege, and when the sun just began to
rise, there walked out upon the walls of the city, in our sight, now
their old men, now their women, and they began to howl satanic
words, all the time waving their garments to our army and turning
around in an improper manner. Then there arose a wind, clouds
were formed, however clear the day may have begun, and there
came such a downpour of rain that all the dry places were changed
into bogs and filled with water. And this happened only over our
army, and not elsewhere, so that it did not proceed from the
condition of the atmosphere.
Seeing this, the Tsar was advised to send to Moscow for the wood
from the Saviour’s cross, which is worked into the rood that always
lies near the crown of the Tsar. With God’s aid, they reached
Moscow in a very short time, travelling by water to Nízhni Nóvgorod
in swift Vyátka boats, making the journey in three or four days, and
from Nóvgorod to Moscow by fast relays. When the rood was
brought, into which is worked the wood from the Saviour’s cross on
which our Lord Jesus Christ suffered in the flesh for men, the
presbyters made a procession with Christian ceremonies and
blessed the water according to church use; through the vivifying
power of the cross, the pagan charms disappeared from that very
hour completely....
At the end of the seventh week[115] of the city’s investment, we
were ordered to prepare the next day before daybreak for a general
assault. This was to be the signal: when the powder would explode
and would demolish the wall, which had previously been undermined
and under which forty-eight barrels of powder had been placed.
More than half of the infantry was ordered to the assault, a third of
the army, or a little more, remaining in the field to guard the Tsar. We
were ready early in the morning, as we were ordered, about two
hours before daybreak. I was sent to make the assault at the lower
gate, above the river Kazán, and I had with me twelve thousand
soldiers. At the four sides of the city were placed strong and brave
men, some of them with large detachments.... The Tsar of Kazán
and his senators had been informed about all this, and they were
prepared against us, as we against them....
Then God helped us! My brother was the first to mount upon the
city wall by a ladder, and other brave soldiers were with him. Hacking
and spearing the Mussulmans about them, they climbed through the
windows of the great tower, and from the tower they rushed down to
the large city gate. The Mussulmans turned their backs on the gate
and ran up the high hill to the Tsar’s court, which was strongly
fortified with a high fence, between palaces and stone mosques. We
after them to the Tsar’s palace, even though we were burdened with
our armour and many brave men had wounds on their bodies, and
very few were left to fight against them. Our army which was left
outside of the city, seeing that we were within and that the Tartars
had run away from the walls, rushed into the city,—and the wounded
that were lying on the ground jumped up, and the dead were
resurrected. And not only they, but those in the camp, the cooks and
those that had been left to watch the horses, and others who follow
with merchandise, all ran into the city, not to fight, but to plunder: that
place was indeed full of the richest booty, gold and silver and
precious stones, and it teemed with sable furs and other costly
things.
LETTER TO IVÁN THE TERRIBLE
To the Tsar, glorified by God, who had once been illustrious in

orthodoxy, but who now, through our sins, has become the adversary
of both. Those who have sense will understand how that your
conscience is corrupt even beyond what is found among the
infidels.... I have not allowed before my tongue to utter any of these
things, but having suffered the bitterest persecution from you, and
from the bitterness of my heart I shall speak to you a little.
Why, O Tsar, have you struck down the mighty in Israel? Why
have you delivered to various deaths the generals given to you by
God, and why have you spilled their victorious, saintly blood in the
temples of the Lord, at your royal banquets? Why have you stained
the thresholds of the churches with the blood of the martyrs, and why
have you contrived persecutions and death against those who have
served you willingly and have laid down their lives for you, accusing
good Christians of treason and magic and other unseemly things,
and zealously endeavouring to change light into darkness and to call
bitter what is sweet?
Of what crime have they been guilty, O Tsar, and with what have
they angered you, O Christian vicar? Had they not, through their
bravery, destroyed haughty kingdoms, and made those subservient
to you by whom our forefathers had been once enslaved? Have not
the strong German cities been given to you by God, through their
wise foresight? Is that the way you have rewarded us, poor men, by
destroying us altogether? Do you, O Tsar, deem yourself to be
immortal? Or are you carried away by an unheard-of heresy and
imagine that you will not have to appear before the Supreme Judge,
the godlike Jesus, who will judge the whole world, but especially
cruel tormentors? He, my Christ, who sits on the throne of the
cherubim, at the right of the Supreme Power upon high,—will be the
judge between you and me.
What evils and persecutions have I not suffered from you! And
what misery and torment have you not caused me! And what mean
calumnies have you not brought down on me! So many various
miseries have befallen me that I cannot count them all to-day: my
heart is still oppressed with sorrow on account of them. But I shall
say this much: I have been deprived of everything, and through you I
am exiled from God’s own country. I did not implore with gentle
words, did not entreat you with tearful sobs, did not, through the
clergy, beg for any favour from you, and you have repaid me good
with evil, and my love with an irreconcilable hatred.
My blood, which has been spilled for you like water, cries to my
Lord against you! God sees our hearts: I have diligently searched my
mind, have invoked the testimony of my conscience, have looked
inwardly, have rummaged, and have not found myself guilty before
you in anything. I have all the time led your army, and have brought
no dishonour upon you: by the aid of the Lord’s angel, I have
obtained brilliant victories to your glory, and never have your armies
turned their backs to the enemy, but he has always been gloriously
vanquished to your honour. And this I did not in one year, nor in two,
but through a long series of years, and with much toil and patience. I
always defended my country, and little saw of my parents, nor was I
with my wife. I was continually out on expeditions, in distant cities,
against your enemies, and suffered much want and sickness, to
which my Lord Jesus Christ is a witness. I have frequently been
covered with wounds from the hands of the barbarians, in many
battles, and all my body is covered with sores. But all this, O Tsar, is
as if it had not been, and you have shown me your relentless fury
and bitter hatred which is more fiery than a furnace.
I wanted to tell you in order all my warlike exploits that I had
performed to your honour, my Christ aiding me, but I did not do so,
as God knows them better than man can, for He gives rewards for all
this, nay even for a glass of cold water; besides, I know that you
know all that as well. Know also this, O Tsar, that you will not behold
my face again in this world before the glorious coming of Christ. Nor
imagine that I will forgive you what has happened: up to my death
will I continually cry out against you in tears to the uncreated Trinity
in which I believe, and I call to my aid the Mother of the Prince of the
Cherubim, my hope and intercessor, the Virgin Mary, and all the
saints, God’s elect, and my forefather, Prince Feódor Rostislávich,
whose body is incorrupt, having been preserved for many years, and
emits an aromatic odour from his grave and, by the grace of the Holy
Ghost, causes miraculous cures, as you, O Tsar, well know.
Do not imagine, O Tsar, in your vanity that those who have been
innocently struck down by you, and who are imprisoned and unjustly
banished by you, have all perished; do not rejoice and boast your
vain victory. Those who have been slain by you stand before the
throne of God and ask for vengeance against you; and those of us
who are imprisoned or unjustly banished from our country cry day
and night to God! Though in your pride you may boast of your evil
power in this temporal, transitory world, and invent instruments of
torture against the race of Christians, and insult and tread under foot
the image of the angel, with the approbation of your flatterers and
companions of your table and with the approbation of your boyárs
who make your body and soul to perish ... yet this my letter, which is
wet with tears, I shall order to be placed in my tomb, in order to go
with you before the judgment seat of my Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Written in Volmir, a city of my lord, King August Sigismund, from
whom I hope favours and comfort for all my sorrows, through his
royal kindness, the Lord aiding me.
FOOTNOTES:
[115] The siege of Kazán began on August 23, and the city was
taken October 2, 1552.
Iván the Terrible. (1530-1584.)
Iván the Terrible united the qualities of a great ruler with
those of a most cruel tyrant. In his long epistles to Kúrbski he
develops a strong sarcastic vein and defends himself with
specious arguments, quoting copiously from the Bible and the
Church Fathers. He denies his cruelty, but admits the
execution of traitors, who, in his case, form an enormous
category.
LETTER TO PRINCE KÚRBSKI
Our God, the Trinity, who has existed since eternity but now as
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, has neither beginning nor end; through
Him we live and move about, through Him kings rule and the mighty
write laws. By our Lord Jesus Christ the victorious standard of God’s
only Word and the blessed Cross which has never been vanquished
have been given to Emperor Constantine, first in piety, and to all the
orthodox tsars and protectors of orthodoxy and, in so far as the Word
of God has been fulfillen, they, in eagle’s flight, have reached all the
godly servants of God’s Word, until a spark of piety has fallen upon
the Russian realm. The autocracy, by God’s will, had its origin in
Grand Prince Vladímir, who had enlightened all Russia through the
holy baptism, and the great Tsar Vladímir Monomákh, who had
received memorable honours from the Greeks, and the valiant great
Tsar Alexander Névski, who had obtained a great victory over the
godless Germans, and the praiseworthy great Tsar Dmítri, who had
obtained a great victory over the Hagarites beyond the Don, then it
passed to the avenger of wrongs, our ancestor, the great Tsar Iván,
the gatherer of the Russian land from among the ancestral
possessions, and to our father of blessed memory, the great Tsar
Vasíli, until it reached us, the humble sceptre-bearer of the Russian
empire.
But we praise God for the great favour He has shown me in not
permitting my right hand to become stained by the blood of my race:
for we have not snatched the realm from anyone, but by the will of
God and the blessing of our ancestors and parents, were we born in
the realm, were brought up there and enthroned, taking, by the will of
God and the blessing of our ancestors and parents, what belonged
to us, and not seizing that which was not ours. Here follows the
command of the orthodox, truly Christian autocrat, the possessor of
many kingdoms,—our humble, Christian answer to him who was an
orthodox, true Christian and a boyár of our realm, a councillor and a
general, but now is a criminal before the blessed, vivifying cross of
the Lord, a destroyer of Christians, a servant of the enemies of
Christianity, who has departed from the divine worship of the images
and has trodden under foot all sacred commands, destroyed the holy
edifices, vilified and trampled the holy vessels and images, who
unites in one person Leo the Isaurian, Constantine Kopronymos and
Leo of Armenia,—to Prince Andréy Mikháylovich Kúrbski, who
through treachery wanted to become a ruler of Yarosláv.
Wherefore, O Prince, if you regard yourself to have piety, have you
lost your soul? What will you give in its place on the day of the
terrible judgment? Even if you should acquire the whole world, death
will reach you in the end! Why have you sold your soul for your
body’s sake? Is it because you were afraid of death at the false
instigation of your demons and influential friends and counsellors?...
Are you not ashamed before your slave Váska Shibánov, who
preserved his piety and, having attached himself to you with a kiss of
the cross, did not reject you before the Tsar and the whole people,
though standing at the gate of death, but praised you and was all too
ready to die for you? But you did not emulate his devotion: on
account of a single angry word of mine, have you lost not only your
own soul, but the souls of all your ancestors: for, by God’s will, had
they been given as servants to our grandfather, the great Tsar, and
they gave their souls to him and served him up to their death, and
ordered you, their children, to serve the children and grandchildren
of our grandfather. But you have forgotten everything and
traitorously, like a dog, have you transgressed the oath and have
gone over to the enemies of Christianity, and, not considering your
wrath, you utter stupid words, hurling, as it were, stones at the sky....
We have never spilled blood in the churches. As for the victorious,
saintly blood,—there has none appeared in our land, as far as we
know. The thresholds of the churches: as far as our means and
intelligence permit and our subjects are eager to serve us, the
churches of the Lord are resplendent with all kinds of adornments,
and through the gifts which we have offered since your satanic
domination, not only the thresholds and pavements, but even the
antechambers shine with ornaments, so that all the strangers may
see them. We do not stain the thresholds of the churches with any
blood, and there are no martyrs of faith with us now-a-days....
Tortures and persecutions and deaths in many forms we have
devised against no one. As to treasons and magic, it is true, such
dogs everywhere suffer capital punishment....
It had pleased God to take away our mother, the pious Tsarítsa
Helen, from the earthly kingdom to the kingdom of heaven. My
brother George, who now rests in heaven, and I were left orphans
and, as we received no care from any one, we laid our trust in the
Holy Virgin, and in the prayers of all the saints, and in the blessing of
our parents. When I was in my eighth year, our subjects acted
according to their will, for they found the empire without a ruler, and
did not deign to bestow their voluntary attention upon us, their
master, but were bent on acquiring wealth and glory, and were
quarrelling with each other. And what have they not done! How many
boyárs, how many friends of our father and generals they have
killed! And they seized the farms and villages and possessions of our
uncles, and established themselves therein. The treasure of our
mother they trod under foot and pierced with sharp sticks, and
transferred it to the great treasure, but some of it they grabbed
themselves; and that was done by your grandfather Mikháylo
Tuchkóv. The Princes Vasíli and Iván Shúyski took it upon
themselves to have me in their keeping, and those who had been the
chief traitors of our father and mother they let out of prison, and they
made friends with them. Prince Vasíli Shúyski with a Judas crowd fell
in the court belonging to our uncle upon our father confessor Fedór
Mishúrin, and insulted him, and killed him; and they imprisoned
Prince Iván Fedórovich Byélski and many others in various places,
and armed themselves against the realm; they ousted metropolitan
Daniel from the metropolitan see and banished him: and thus they
improved their opportunity, and began to rule themselves.
Me and my brother George, of blessed memory, they brought up
like vagrants and children of the poorest. What have I not suffered
for want of garments and food! And all that against my will and as did
not become my extreme youth. I shall mention just one thing: once in
my childhood we were playing, and Prince Iván Vasílevich Shúyski
was sitting on a bench, leaning with his elbow against our father’s
bed, and even putting his foot upon it; he treated us not as a parent,
but as a master ... who could bear such presumption? How can I
recount all the miseries which I have suffered in my youth? Often did
I dine late, against my will. What had become of the treasure left me
by my father? They had carried everything away, under the cunning
pretext that they had to pay the boyár children from it, but, in reality,
they had kept it back from them, to their own advantage, and had not
paid them off according to their deserts; and they had also held back
an immense treasure of my grandfather and father, and made it into
gold and silver vessels, inscribing thereupon the names of their
parents, as if they had been their inheritance.... It is hardly necessary
to mention what became of the treasure of our uncles: they
appropriated it all to themselves! Then they attacked towns and
villages, tortured the people most cruelly, brought much misery upon
them, and mercilessly pillaged the possessions of the inhabitants....
When we reached the age of fifteen, we, inspired by God,
undertook to rule our own realm and, with the aid of almighty God,
we ruled our realm in peace and undisturbed, according to our will.
But it happened then that, on account of our sins, a fire having
spread, by God’s will, the royal city of Moscow was consumed. Our
boyárs, the traitors whom you call martyrs, whose names I shall
purposely pass over in silence, made use of the favourable
opportunity for their mean treachery, whispered into the ears of a
stupid crowd that the mother of my mother, Princess Anna Glínski,
with all her children and household, was in the habit of extracting
men’s hearts, and that by a similar sorcery she had put Moscow on
fire, and that we knew of her doings. By the instigation of these our
traitors, a mass of insensate people, crying in the manner of the
Jews, came to the apostolic cathedral of the holy martyr Dimítri of
Selún, dragged out of it our boyár Yúri Vasílevich Glínski, pulled him
inhumanly into the cathedral of the Assumption, and killed the
innocent man in the church, opposite the metropolitan’s place; they
stained the floor of the church with his blood, dragged his body
through the front door, and exposed him on the market-place as a
criminal,—everybody knows about this murder in the church. We
were then living in the village of Vorobévo; the same traitors
instigated the populace to kill us under the pretext (and you, dog,
repeat the lie) that we were keeping from them Prince Yúri’s mother,
Princess Anna, and his brother, Prince Mikhaíl. How is one not to
laugh at such stupidity? Why should we be incendiaries in our own
empire?...
You say that your blood has been spilled in wars with foreigners,
and you add, in your foolishness, that it cries to God against us. That
is ridiculous! It has been spilled by one, and it cries out against
another. If it is true that your blood has been spilled by the enemy,
then you have done your duty to your country; if you had not done
so, you would not have been a Christian but a barbarian:—but that is
not our affair. How much more ours, that has been spilled by you,
cries out to the Lord against you! Not with wounds, nor drops of
blood, but with much sweating and toiling have I been burdened by
you unnecessarily and above my strength! Your many meannesses
and persecutions have caused me, instead of blood, to shed many
tears, and to utter sobs and have anguish of my soul....
You say you want to put your letter in your grave: that shows that
you have completely renounced your Christianity! For God has
ordered not to resist evil, but you renounce the final pardon which is
granted to the ignorant; therefore it is not even proper that any mass
shall be sung after you. In our patrimony, in the country of Lifland,
you name the city of Volmir as belonging to our enemy, King
Sigismund: by this you only complete the treachery of a vicious
dog!...
Written in our great Russia, in the famous, royal capital city of
Moscow, on the steps of our imperial threshold, in the year from the
creation of the world 7072, the fifth day of July.
The Domostróy. (XVI. century.)
The Domostróy, i. e., House-government, is an important
document of the sixteenth century, as it throws a light on the
inner life of the Russians in the time of Iván the Terrible. Its
authorship is ascribed in the extant manuscripts to Sylvester,
the adviser of Iván the Terrible, but it is assumed that he was
only the last compiler of various codes of conduct that were
known in Russia before his day. At least, the whole production
bears the stamp of being a composite work. Two distinct
groups are discerned in it: the first has continual references to
the Tsar and the honours due him; the other deals with a
society whose chief interest is purely commercial, and
appeals to the judgment of the people, instead of to that of the
Tsar. From this the inference is drawn that the first had its
origin in Moscow, the second in Nóvgorod. The morality of the
Domostróy is one of external formalism. To preserve
appearances before God and men is, according to this code,
the chief aim in life.
HOW TO EDUCATE CHILDREN AND BRING THEM UP IN THE

FEAR OF GOD
If God send children, sons or daughters, father and mother must

take care of these their children. Provide for them and bring them up
in good instruction. Teach them the fear of God and politeness and
propriety, and teach them some handicraft, according to the time and
age of the children: the mother instructing her daughters, and the
father his sons, as best he knows and God counsels him. Love them
and watch them and save them through fear. Teaching and
instructing them and reasoning with them, punish them. Teach your
children in their youth, and you will have a quiet old age. Look after
their bodily cleanliness, and keep them from all sin, like the apple of
your eye and your own souls. If the children transgress through the
neglect of their parents, the parents will answer for these sins on the
day of the terrible judgment. If the children are not taken care of and
transgress through lack of the parents’ instruction, or do some evil,
there will be both to the parents and children a sin before God, scorn
and ridicule before men, a loss to the house, grief to oneself, and
cost and shame from the judges. If by God-fearing, wise and
sensible people the children be brought up in the fear of God, and in
good instruction and sensible teaching, in wisdom and politeness
and work and handicraft, such children and their parents are loved
by God, blessed by the clerical vocation, and praised by good
people; and when they are of the proper age, good people will gladly
and thankfully marry off their sons, according to their possessions
and the will of God, and will give their daughters in marriage to their
sons. And if God take away one of their children, after the confession
and extreme unction, the parents bring a pure offering to God, to
take up an abode in the eternal mansion; and the child is bold to beg
for God’s mercy and forgiveness of his parents’ sins.
HOW TO TEACH CHILDREN AND SAVE THEM THROUGH FEAR
Punish your son in his youth, and he will give you a quiet old age,
and restfulness to your soul. Weaken not beating the boy, for he will
not die from your striking him with the rod, but will be in better health:
for while you strike his body, you save his soul from death. If you
love your son, punish him frequently, that you may rejoice later.
Chide your son in his childhood, and you will be glad in his
manhood, and you will boast among evil persons, and your enemies
will be envious. Bring up your child with much prohibition, and you
will have peace and blessing from him. Do not smile at him, or play
with him, for though that will diminish your grief while he is a child, it
will increase it when he is older, and you will cause much bitterness
to your soul. Give him no power in his youth, but crush his ribs while
he is growing and does not in his wilfulness obey you, lest there be
an aggravation and suffering to your soul, a loss to your house,
destruction to your property, scorn from your neighbours and ridicule
from your enemies, and cost and worriment from the authorities.
HOW CHRISTIANS ARE TO CURE DISEASES AND ALL KINDS
OF AILMENTS
If God send any disease or ailment down upon a person, let him
cure himself through the grace of God, through tears, prayer, fasting,
charity to the poor, and true repentance. Let him thank the Lord and
beg His forgiveness, and show mercy and undisguised charity to
everybody. Have the clergy pray to the Lord for you, and sing the
mass. Sanctify the water with the holy crosses and holy relics and
miracle-working images, and be anointed with the holy oil. Frequent
the miracle-working and holy places, and pray there with a pure
conscience. In that way you will receive from God a cure for all your
ailments. But you must henceforth abstain from sin, and in the future
do no wrong, and keep the commands of the spiritual fathers, and do
penance. Thus you will be purified from sin, and your spiritual and
bodily ailment will be cured, and God will be gracious to you.
THE WIFE IS ALWAYS AND IN ALL THINGS TO TAKE COUNSEL

WITH HER HUSBAND
In all affairs of every-day life, the wife is to take counsel with her
husband, and to ask him, if she needs anything. Let her be sure that
her husband wants her to keep company with the guests she invites,
or the people she calls upon. Let her put on the best garment, if she
receives a guest, or herself is invited somewhere to dinner. By all
means let her abstain from drinking liquor, for a drunk man is bad
enough, but a drunk woman has no place in the world. A woman
ought to talk with her lady-friends of handwork and housekeeping.
She must pay attention to any good word that is said in her own
house, or in that of her friend: how good women live, how they keep
house, manage their household, instruct their children and servants,
obey their husbands, and ask their advice in everything, and submit
to them. And if there be aught she does not know, let her politely
inquire about it.... It is good to meet such good women, not for the
sake of eating and drinking with them, but for the sake of good
converse and information, for it is profitable to listen to them. Let not
a woman rail at anyone, or gossip about others. If she should be
asked something about a person, let her answer: “I know nothing
about it, and have heard nothing of it; I do not inquire about things
that do not concern me; nor do I sit in judgment over the wives of
princes, boyárs, or my neighbours.”
HOW TO INSTRUCT SERVANTS
Enjoin your servants not to talk about other people. If they have
been among strangers, and have noticed anything bad there, let
them not repeat it at home; nor should they bruit about what is going
on at home. A servant must remember what he has been sent for,
and he must not know, nor answer any other questions that are put
to him. The moment he has carried out his commission, he should
return home and report to his master in regard to the matter he has
been sent for; let him not gossip of things he has not been ordered to
report, lest he cause quarrel and coldness between the masters.
If you send your servant, or son, to tell, or do something, or buy a
thing, ask him twice: “What have I ordered you to do? What are you
to say, or do, or buy?” If he repeats to you as you have ordered him,
all is well.... If you send anywhere some eatables or liquids, send full
measures, so that they cannot lie about them. Send your wares after
having measured or weighed them, and count the money, before you
send it out. Best of all, dispatch under seal. Carefully instruct the
servant whether he is to leave the things at the house, if the master
be absent, or if he is to bring them back home....
When a servant is sent to genteel people, let him knock at the
door softly. If anyone should ask him, as he passes through the
courtyard: “What business brings you here?” let him not give him any
satisfaction, but say: “I have not been sent to you; I shall tell to him
to whom I have been sent.” Let him clean his dirty feet before the
ante-chamber, or house, or cell, wipe his nose, clear his throat, and
correctly say his prayer; and if he does not receive an “amen” in
response, he should repeat the prayer in a louder voice, twice or
three times. If he still receives no answer, he must softly knock at the
door. When he is admitted, he should bow before the holy images,
give his master’s respects, and tell his message. While doing so, let
him not put his finger in his nose, nor cough, nor clean his nose, nor
clear his throat, nor spit. If he absolutely must do so, let him step
aside. He must stand straight and not look to either side when
reporting the message; nor should he relate any matter not relevant
to the message. Having done his duty, he should forthwith return
home, to report to his master.
Songs Collected by Richard James. (1619-1620.)
Richard James, a graduate of Oxford, had been sent to
Russia to look after the spiritual welfare of the young
Englishmen who were connected with the Merchant
Company. He arrived in Moscow on January 19, 1619, and
started back by the way of Arkhángelsk on August 20 of the
same year. Having been shipwrecked, he was compelled to
pass the winter in Kholmogóry, from which place he left for
England the next spring. He took with him a copy of six songs
that some Russian had written out for him: they are now
deposited in the Bodleian Library. These songs are interesting
as being the oldest folksongs collected in Russia, and as
having been composed immediately after the events which
they describe.
The Song of the Princess Kséniya Borísovna is given in W.
R. Morfill’s Story of Russia, New York and London, 1890.
INCURSION OF THE CRIMEAN TARTARS[116]
Not a mighty cloud has covered the sky,

Nor mighty thunders have thundered:
Whither travels the dog, Crimea’s tsar?—
To the mighty tsarate of Muscovy.
“To-day we will go against stone-built Moscow,
But coming back, we will take Ryazán.”
And when they were at the river Oká,
They began their white tents to pitch.
“Now think a thought with all your minds:
Who is to sit in stone-built Moscow,
And who is to sit in Vladímir,
And who is to sit in Súzdal,
And who will hold old Ryazán,
And who will sit in Zvenígorod,

A Festival of Mathematics A Sourc1St Edition Alice Peters Full Chapter

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Festival of Mathematics A Sourc1St Edition Alice Peters Full Chapter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Festival of Mathematics: A

Sourcebook 1st Edition Alice Peters

For additional information and updates on this book, visit

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Part 1. Activity Guides 1

Chapter 1. Color Triangle Challenge 3

Chapter 2. Magic Squares and Algebra 23

Chapter 4. Palindrome Grab! 67

The Patient Game 71

Chapter 7. Broken Calculators 103

Chapter 8. Dominoes and Checkerboards 113

Part 2. Activity Handouts 167

The Geometry of Magic Squares 177

I founded the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival so that others could

Since the Festival was meant to nurture students' interest in mathemat-

of mathematics through collaborative, creative problem-solving. Partici-

For those planning a Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival, we have

It takes a village to produce a volume. We are pleased to acknowledge the

Color Triangle Challenge

We will use red, yellow, and blue disks:

Some Initial Explorations

S olution: The final single disk is blue.

Solution: The final single disk is yellow.

Students should work these problems to become comfortable with

the "same pattern" is not well-defined, answers will vary. Students

At this point it often becomes clear to students that the generated

Solution: The real problem is to define "different." Certainly three

Students will also come up with some interesting hypotheses. Some

Solution: The final disk is yellow.

Solution: The final disk is blue.

Solution: The final disk is blue.

(d) W hy is it useful to study these three examples, along with t he one

Solution: The most fruitful way to describe what t hese examples

Now we want to investigate what happens if the beginning and ending

Solution: The final disk is yellow.

Solution: The final disk is yellow.

Solution: The final disk is yellow.

We can rephrase bot h t heorems combined as follows:

We look again at Problem 1(b). Here is how it plays out in detail:

Looking at the starting row

• Disks 2- 5 gives the result blue

• Disks 3-6 gives the result red

• Disks 4- 7 gives the result yellow

More advanced students may be able to recognize that we only need

Using Theorems 1 and 2, these seven rows of four reduce to:

Again using the results of Theorems 1 and 2, we have

As above, we get seven groups of four disks each:

Suppose we let blue= 0, red= 1, and yellow = 2. We can then express

Rule Arithmetic Equivalent

But of course, 3b = 0 and 3c = 0 (mod 3) . So the resulting number is

(1) Apply arithmetic analysis to an initial row of five disks.

-(ao + 3a1 + 3a2 + a3) -(a1 + 3a2 + 3a3 + a4)

Reducing modulo 3, we get t he result ao + a 1 + a3 + a4 .

Connection to the Binomial Coefficients

(3) How would we prove this?

Solution: As is the case with many problems involving binomial coef-

We will compute the penult imate row (consisting of two disks).

The second disk in the penultimate row is t he one resulting for

By the induction hypothesis, this is

But we know by t he usual law of formation for rows of Pascal's triangle

(~) + (~) = (~)

(~) + (~) = (~)

which can be rewritten as