Math 191: Putnam Problem Solving Seminar

Instructors: Prof. Andrew Bernoff and Prof. Nick Pippenger (and Prof. Francis Su who is on sabbatical in Fall of 2009)
Place & Time: Tuesday evenings from 6:00-7:30

Putnam Classic will meet in Beckman B126 starting September 8th.
Putnam TNG will meet in Beckman B134 at roughly the same time starting on September 15th.
This year the William Lowell Putnam Competition will be on Saturday, December 5th

Credit & Requirements: All HMC students are welcome to attend the seminar. You may register for Math 191 as a one credit course. To receive credit you must attend every meeting of the seminar (with at most one unexcused absence) and submit a written solution to a Putnam problem by the end of the semester.

Annoucements

The Putnam Examination is on Saturday, December 5th. Remember that it is 8-11am AND 1-4 pm on that day.
The Putnam Seminar will NOT meet on the Tuesday of Fall Break (October 20th, 2009).
The Putnam Seminar will NOT meet on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (November 24th, 2009).
If you are signed up for the seminar or want to take the exam, subscribe to putnam-l. To do this send an
e-mail to listkeeper@hmc.edu with the line subscribe putnam-l in the body of the message.
The last required meeting of the Putnam Seminar will be on Tuesday, December 1st.

Overview

Each fall we run two seminars oriented towards problem solving:

Putnam Classic - This is a seminar aimed at college first and second-year students, and is certainly suitable for frosh. Typically, we give a short lecture on a subject, such as induction, and then hand out a slate of problems. Students work in small groups, and forty-five minutes later pizza arrives, and students present solutions to the problems. To give you an idea of what the seminar is like, here is a problem set on induction.

Date	Topic	Classic Problem Set
9/08/09	The Pigeonhole Principle	Putnam Classic #1
9/15/09	Polynomials	Putnam Classic #2
9/22/09	Sets and Counting	Putnam Classic #3
9/29/09	Probability	Putnam Classic #4
10/06/09	Modular Arithmetic and Divisibility	Putnam Classic #5
10/13/09	The Extreme Principle	Putnam Classic #6
10/27/09	Binomial Coefficients	Putnam Classic #7
11/03/09	Find a Pattern	Putnam Classic #8
11/10/09	Inequalities and Extrema	Putnam Classic #9

Putnam TNG - This is a more advanced seminar ("TNG" stands for the "The Next Generation" -- a reference familiar to the trekkies among you) oriented around exclusively Putnam problems. Problems are handed out each week and the students are expected to have worked at least one problem and to be ready to present it in class.

Date	Topic	TNG Problem Set
9/15/09	Probability	Putnam TNG #1
9/22/09	Finite and Countable Sets	Putnam TNG #2
9/29/09	Mathematical Games	Putnam TNG #3
10/06/09	Series & Estimation	Putnam TNG #4
10/13/09	Number Theory	Putnam TNG #5
10/27/09	Euler's Formula & Trigonometry	Putnam TNG #6
11/03/09	Riemann Sums	Putnam TNG #7
11/10/09	Geometry	Putnam TNG #8
11/17/09	Functional Equations	Putnam TNG #9

Miscellany

The HMC Putnam Resource Page has links to Putnam Resources and some history of the Putnam at HMC.
Some pictures from the Putnam Seminar.
Mug Shots - Pictures of the beautiful Putnam mugs given to all HMC Putnam participants.

Putnam Homepage * Mathematics Department * Harvey Mudd College

Maintained by Andrew J. Bernoff
Last Updated on 10-3-09