You are currently enrolled in Math576 Combinatorial Game Theory. This course is taught 100% on the Web in a synchronous format. Students are required to participate in Lectures at 11:40am-12:55pm every Tuesday and Thursday. Please login to Blackboard for the Zoom link of lectures or check your email.

Instructor:  Prof. Lincoln Lu email: lu@math.sc.edu Virtual Office hours: TTh 1:00PM-- 2:00PM or by appointment. VirtualLecture time: TTh 11:40AM-12:55PM Credit Hours:  3		Lecture notes and homework assignment Lecture note I Lecture note II Lecture note III Lecture note IV homework 1 solution homework 2 solution homework 3 solution homework 4 solution homework 5 solution

Prerequisite:  C or better in MATH 344, 544, or 574, or consent of the Undergraduate Director

Textbook:   Winning ways for your mathematical plays (vol I), second edition,  by Berlekamp, Conway, and Guy   published by A K Peters, Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Learning outcomes:   Through this course, students learn the winning strategy in in certain combinatorial games such as Nim, Hackenbush, and Domineering. They will learn equalities and inequalities among games, Sprague-Grundy theory of impartial games, games which are numbers. We shall cover most parts of the textbook and some supplemental material.

Homework:   Homework will be assigned roughly every other week. Please convert it into a single pdf file and upload it through Blackboard by the midnight of next Friday.

Reading:  Reading the sections of the textbook corresponding to the assigned homework exercises is considered part of the homework assignment.

Exams:  There will be two exams given during lecture time.

Final project:   There is no final exam for this class. Instead, you will have a final project. Please form a group of two and do only one of the following projects. Each group will write a report of at least 4 pages and make a presentation in the classes.

1. Design a combinatorial game and analyze it. The game should have two players moving alternatively. Whoever gets stuck in his/her turn is the loser.
2. Implement any games using any computer language and any interface at your choice. It can play against user.

Grading: The homework is 30%. The first exam is 20%. The second exam is 20%. The final project is 30%. Your final grade is based on the percentage as follows.

Grading Scale

Links:

• Game of Life at Wikipedia
• Golly
• Janson's life page This site has a nice collection of Game of Life patterns including glideer guns with various periods.

Peg Solitaire

• Peg Solitaire at wikipedia
• George Bell's Peg Solitaire Page
• A nice applet for Peg Solitaire
• Jurgen Koller's Peg Solitaire web site

Rubik's Cube

• Rubik's Cube at wikipedia
• Beginner Solution to the Rubik's Cube
• How to Solve the Rubik's Cube
• Solving Rubik's Cube for speed
• How to solve a Rubik's Cube at youtube
• http://www.schubart.net/rc/