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A comment on The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke.".

Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by PieSquared on Monday November 30, 2009 @04:36PM (#968744)
I know the professor who writes this blog, Bill Gasarch. I was thinking of interning with him (at our high school, we do an internship + report about it in our senior year), but then decided against it because the math is a bit too abstract and unapplicable to (as Gasarch would put it) make me "properly enthused". He seems like a great guy. Anyway, while I haven't read the entire thing, I would suggest reading the book he has online - it's quite interesting, and it goes into more detail about colorings and such, so anyone who likes this post will find the book interesting as well.
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Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by nandemo on Monday November 30, 2009 @06:02PM (#968887)
> but then decided against it because the math is a bit too abstract and unapplicable

Combinatorics isn't really abstract as far as math goes. In fact some call it concrete mathematics.

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Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by PieSquared on Monday November 30, 2009 @10:12PM (#969160)
Combinatorics isn't, but... coloring grids of squares?

Not that I really have anything against abstract mathematics. It's still very cool, but it's just not going to get me very excited - or at least this exact branch of it, I guess.

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Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by drbaskin on Tuesday December 01, 2009 @12:03AM (#969262)
I'm not one to say that coloring grids of squares sounds fascinating to me, but nandemo's point still holds -- as far as mathematics goes, it's pretty concrete.
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Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by ahn on Tuesday December 01, 2009 @01:24PM (#970285)
>Combinatorics isn't really abstract as far as math goes.

Huh? Is it naturally abstract?

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Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by hyperbovine on Monday November 30, 2009 @07:33PM (#969010)
The opportunity to work directly with a university professor while still in high school is fantastic. Wish I'd had it. I hope you ended up taking advantage of it with someone else. Even if you're not totally absorbed in the research, this will give you a huge leg up when you reach college.
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Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by PieSquared on Monday November 30, 2009 @10:14PM (#969162)
Living near the University of Maryland and NIST and etc, there really are a bunch of opportunities to work with professors and researchers in high school - it's really quite great. I hope (slash think, but knock on wood) that I'm going to be able to work with either another math professor or a theoretical physicist over the summer. :)
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Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by mshafrir on Tuesday December 01, 2009 @02:25AM (#969406)
magnet program?
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Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by PieSquared on Tuesday December 01, 2009 @09:08PM (#971324)
Yup, it's the Montgomery Blair High School Magnet Program - it's in Silver Spring, Maryland. The funding cuts are kind of hurting it, but it's a very good education, especially if you put your own effort into it too.

(Are you, perhaps, somehow associated with this or another magnet program in the MD area?)

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Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by mshafrir on Wednesday December 23, 2009 @01:56PM (#1012577)
I graduated from the Magnet program in 2000.
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