Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MATH 5 PPT Q3 - Mathematical Games
MATH 5 PPT Q3 - Mathematical Games
Now change the game in some way and analyse your own version.
Laser Wars
Two tanks are armed with laser
beams that annihilate anything which
lies to the North, South, East or West
of them. They move alternately. At
each move a tank can move any
number of squares North, South, East
or West but it cannot move across or
into the path of the opponent's laser
beam.
A player loses when he is unable to
move on his turn.
Play the game on the board shown, using two objects to represent “tanks”.
Try to find a winning strategy which works wherever the tanks are placed
to start with. Try to change the game in some way.
Kayles
This is like an old 14th century game for 2 players, in which a ball is
thrown at a number of wooden pins standing side by side. The size of
the ball is such that it can knock down either a single pin or two pins
standing next to teach other. Players alternately roll a ball and the
person who knocks over the last pin (or pair of pins) wins.
Try to find a winning strategy.
(Assume that you can always hit the pin or pins that you aim for, and
that no one is ever allowed to miss).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Players take turns claiming a number – perhaps by putting their
initial(s) in that cell – but they must allow the number to be seen
clearly. The winner is the first player to claim three numbers which
add up to 15. The player may actually possess more than three
numbers, but only three of them can be counted.
This may look pretty uninteresting, but do not be deceived!
(Make 15 analysis)
Difficult to analyse? How many ways are there
of making 15 with three numbers chosen from
the above selection? This should reveal that
some numbers are ‘better’ than others. Try
setting out the nine numbers as a magic square
and have players select their numbers from that
by crossing them out with their own distinctive 4 9 2
signs (like maybe an O and an X). What game
are you really playing? Is it now easier to 3 5 7
analyse? Does it even need analysing? This is a
very practical example of an isomorphism. 8 1 6
Blox
Draw a grid of any convenient size and shape.
Players take turns putting their own distinctive mark (say an O and
an X) in any cell. The only restriction is that no two cells which are
side by side, touching along a common edge, may have the SAME
type of mark in them. The winner is the last player who is able to
make an allowed mark.
End to End
Draw a strip of any convenient number of cells.
Place a counter in one end cell.
O
Players take turns advancing the counter towards the other end. In
one turn a player may advance the counter 1, 2 or 3 cells. The
winner is the player who actually moves the counter into the end
cell. As a variation, it could be that the player who is forced to
move into the end cell is the loser.
Odd wins
Draw a strip of 13 cells.
O O O O O X X X X
Players start at opposite ends. In turns players put their own marks
in 1, 2 or 3 cells. Players must fill cells as they work from their
own ends; no blanks may be left. When all the cells have been
occupied, then the winner is the player who has made an ODD
number of marks.
Variation 1
Allow the marks to be placed anywhere, with the single
restriction that, if 2 or 3 cells are filled in during one turn then
they must be adjacent cells.
For example:
A wolf, a goat and a cabbage must be moved across a river in a
boat holding only one besides the ferryman. How must he carry
them across so that the goat shall not eat the cabbage, nor the
wolf the goat? From: Problems for the Quickening of the Mind
by Alcuin of York (c. 775).