assignments
due Fri Sep 8
Week Zero
- Play several games of Dots and Boxes.
due Tue Sep 12
Week 1
- Add a website to the wiki page.
- Read Chapter 1 of Berlekamp and play with some problems from Chapter 3
- Describe a good and/or bad move from a game of Dots and Boxes.
- Think about half-hearted and hard-hearted handouts for two squares.
due Fri Sep 22
Week 2
- Dots-and-Triangles: Investigate.
This the first formally graded assignment. Here are a few things you might like to consider:
- Can you generalise the 'shoebox' technique?
- Can you always make a hard-hearted handout?
- A game tree would be neat...
- How big? Experiment and make one that's not too big to be cumbersome, but not too small to be pointless (a game tree showing that A wins the one triangle game won't impress me, though I guess it's more impressive than one "showing" that B wins it...)
- To get a good size, you might also consider filling in one or more of the sides of the starting board, analogously to the swedish and icelandic versions of dots-and-boxes.
- Can you generalise the long chain rule?
Explain your ideas and use examples to illustrate them. You may use sources, including working with each other, but be sure to make clear what is your work and what is not. The write-up must be your own.
due Thu Sep 28
Week 3
Read Chapter 1 of Math and Politics and do questions 2, 10, 15 and two questions of your own choosing from 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. Put in the envelope outside my office by 3pm (note that it is due on Thursday, not Friday). This is a graded assignment.
due Tue Oct 10
Week 4/5
Read Chapter 2 of Math and Politics (you should have already done this). Do questions 6, 10, 11, 12 and 15. This is a graded assignment
due Tue Oct 10
Week 5
Come to class ready to discuss whether the passing of academic policy at Marlboro is equivalent to a weighted voting system.
due Thu Oct 19
Week 6
From Math and Politics: Chap 3, questions 4, 5, 7, 10 and 12a and Chap 8, questions 7 and 8. Also, show that the passing of academic policy at Marlboro has dimension 2 (where there are 41 faculty, 347 students and everyone goes to (and votes at) Faculty/Town Meeting as appropriate, and faculty minds do not change between the initial vote and any request from Town Meeting to reconsider). This is a graded assignment, due at noon on 19th Oct.
Quiz
due Tue Nov 14
Week 7
From Math and Politics, Chapter 7: 1, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 16 (graded assignment).
due Wed Nov 22
Week 8
From Math and Politics, Chapter 6: 7, 10, 11, 13. (graded assignment).
due Fri Dec 1
Week 10
- tit-for-tat
- one of two-tits-for-tat or tit-for-two-tats
- tit-for-tat with a probabilistic component (either 1/8 chance of D without provocation or 1/8 chance of C when D is called for by tit-for-tat)
- your own strategy (explain it)
Also, try and get the highest possible score (100 is a target to shoot for).
