Volume 16
, Issue 2

1980

Meleda, or Chinese rings, is a game of Chinese origin which, so the story goes, was invented by the soldier hero Hung Ming (181-234 A.D.) who gave it to his wife when he went to war.

Counting is not always as simple as $1,2,3,\cdots$, but, as I hope to show in these articles, it can be a lot more interesting.

The harmonic series:
$$S=1^{-1} + 2^{-1} + 3^{-1} + 4^{-1}+\cdots$$ is divergent, that is if we add enough terms together, we can produce a partial sum which is as large as we like.

Is a degree in mathematics any use? I mathematics at university interesting? Is it fun?

Algernon announced that on his birthday this year his age would be equal to the sum of the digits of the year in which he was born. When was he born?

We shall consider some problems involving the roots $\alpha, \beta$ and $\gamma$, say, of the cubic equation
$$x^3 + qx + r = 0$$

Dear Sir, Do you think that there would be two people in your class whose birthdays fall on the same day and month?

Q.455 The rule for leap years runs as follows: A year which is divisible by 4 is a leap year except that years which are divisible by 100 are not leap years unless they are divisible by 400.

Q.429 Let $a$ be a positive integer. Prove that the fraction \$(a^3 + 2a)/a^4 + 3a^2 + 1) is in its lowest terms.