Math Games

from Around the World

Compiled by Eva Varga

October 2012

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Copyright Policy

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Table of Contents
Hex page 4

Shongo Network page 6

Game Sticks page 8

Nine Men’s Morris page 9

Tower of hanoi page 11

Enrichment Activities page 13

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Hex
Hex is a strategy board game played on a hexagonal grid, theoretically of any
size and several possible shapes, but traditionally as an 11×11 rhombus.
The game was invented by the Danish mathematician Piet Hein, who introduced
it in 1942 at the Niels Bohr Institute. It became known in Denmark under the
name Polygon. In 1952, Parker Brothers marketed a version. They called their
version "Hex" and the name stuck.
Hex players employ logic and problem-solving skills to come up with the winning
strategy. Additionally, players use spatial visualization - the ability to create
mental pictures - to predict pathways.

Winning
The player who makes a continuous path from his or her colored side to the
opposite side wins! Winning examples are shown below.

Getting Ready
• Remove all games pieces (colored beads work well) from the board.
• Each player picks a color.
• Decide who goes first.

Rules
• Each player must take a turn - no passing.
• On each turn, a player may place a game piece on any empty space.

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HEX
game board

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Shongo Network
Shongo is a game is named after the Shongo people of the Democratic Republic
of Congo (formerly Zaire). The Shongo people construct intricate networks, often
using readily available material such as sand and sticks. Beautiful interlacing
networks are often used as cloth designs.
A Belgian visitor to the Congo Basin saw some children playing a game in the
sand. Expressing interest, he was invited to join the group of children and was
asked to reproduce some figures the children had drawn. To their great joy, the
visitor was completely stumped! Not only were the Shongo children good at
tracing networks because they used them in their games, but people from the
Shongo tribe would also draw networks as they told stories, as a representation
of the story.

How to Play
Get a pencil and paper and try to draw this simple
pattern without re-tracing and without lifting your pencil.
Start at A and end at B.

Determining whether networks are traceable and, if so, whether there are
multiple ways to trace them, is an important part of network or graph theory. It
involves the use of pattern recognition, problem solving, and logic. A Swiss
mathematician named Leonhard Euler (1701-1783) looked for ways to predict
whether a network could be traced and discovered an interesting relationship
between the number of even and odd vertices (points where lines cross). As you
find traceable networks, what can you discover about the number of even and
odd vertices? Can you discover any other ways to predict whether a network is
traceable?

Here's a slightly more complicated pattern.

Try to draw this pattern without re-tracing
and without lifting your pencil.
Start at A and end at B.

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Can you duplicate this network?
Put your pencil anywhere you wish to start,
and see if you can complete the pattern
without taking pencil from paper.

Here are a few more Shongo Networks for you to try:

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Games Sticks
Among Native Americans, both men and women devised a variety of games.
Using materials from their environment such as wood, bones, animal teeth,
walnut shells, fruit pits, and pottery pieces, they fashioned gaming sticks and
dice. They employed two methods of scoring - one in which counters were
passed hand to hand and the other in which counting boards or abacuses tallied
scores. Native Americans often gambled items of value. In California, for
example, shells might be wagered by someone from a coastal tribe, while
obsidian might be wagered by someone from the Sierra Nevada.

Winning
The player who collects all the counters wins!

Getting Ready
• Each player collects 6 game sticks (a popsicle stick with one side painted red
and the reverse side black - actually any two colors will work).
• Place 10 counters in the bank (anything works - beans, poker chips, or counting
bears).

Rules
• Each player tosses the sticks - the player with the most red sides up goes first.
• Take turns tossing the sticks.
• Scoring:
• If you toss the sticks and all 6 land with red facing up, take 3 counters.
• If you toss the sticks and all 6 land with black facing up, take 2 counters.
• If you toss the sticks and you get 3 or each color facing up (3 red and 3
black), take 1 counter.
• When no counters remain in the bank, players take counters from each other.

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Nine Men’s Morris
Nine Men’s Morris is a strategy game for two players that emerged from the
Roman Empire. The game is also known as Nine Man Morris, Mill, Mills, Merels,
Merelles, and Merrills in English. This game is also known as "Cowboy
Checkers" and was once printed on the back of checkerboards. Nine Men's
Morris is a solved game in which either player can force the game into a draw.
Variants of Nine Men's Morris include Three Men's Morris, Six Men's Morris,
and Twelve Men's Morris.

Winning
The objective of the game is to make mills - vertical or horizontal lines - of three
pieces in a row.

Getting Ready
• The game begins with an empty board.
• One player takes 9 blue pieces; the other player takes 9 red pieces (poker
chips or colored beads can be used).
• Take turns placing your pieces on the empty circles.

Rules
• On each turn, move one of your pieces into an empty circle. Do not jump over
pieces.
• Mills:
• If you make a row of your pieces along any line, you have a mill.
• Any piece in a mill is safe.
• Each time you make a mill, you can remove one of your opponent’s pieces
that is not part of a mill.
• Each player must take a turn - no passing.

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Nine Men’s Morris
game board

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Tower of
Hanoi
The Tower of Hanoi (sometimes referred
to as the Tower of Brahma or the End of
the World Puzzle) was invented by the Pura Ulun Danu Temple, Bali
French mathematician, Edouard Lucas, in
1883. He was inspired by a legend that tells
of a Hindu temple where the pyramid puzzle might have been used for the mental
discipline of young priests. Legend says that at the beginning of time the priests in the
temple were given a stack of 64 gold disks, each one a little smaller than the one
beneath it. Their assignment was to transfer the 64 disks from one of the three poles to
another, with one important provisional - a large disk could never be placed on top of a
smaller one. The priests worked very efficiently, day and night. When they finished their
work, the myth said, the temple would crumble into dust and the world would vanish.

The number of separate transfers of single disks the priests must make to transfer the
tower is 2 to the 64th minus 1, or 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 moves! If the priests
worked day and night, making one move every second it would take slightly more than
580 billion years to accomplish the job!

You have significantly fewer disks than 64 in this version. Can you calculate the number
of moves it will take you to move the disks from one of the three poles to another?

Getting Ready
• Print and cut out pieces.
• Stack disks largest to smallest on "pole A".

Rules
• Transfer all the disks from one "pole" to another.
• You may move only one disk at a time.
• A large disk may not rest on a smaller one at any time.

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Enrichment Activities:
• Plot the game origins on a world map.
• Research the games of another country - perhaps a country you are learning
about in history or geography.
• Learn to play a game enjoyed by your grandparents.
• Teach others how to play a traditional game of choice. Consider doing so at
an adult retirement home.

More Traditional Children’s Games

From Around the World:

10 Fun Games from Around the World

http://www.parents.com/fun/games/educational/games-from-around-the-world/

Traditional Children’s Games from Around the World

http://www.topics-mag.com/edition11/games-section.htm

Games with Sticks, Stones, or Small Metal Objects

http://www.topics-mag.com/edition11/games-sticks-stones.htm

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