There is no Nobel Prize for mathematics*–but there’s lots of math involved in Nobel Prizes. Word problems….
- If 7 of us fly to Stockholm on the redeye,
plot our best distribution onto airplane seats, bearing in mind that
Amity’s husband Colin has very long legs and neither of Frank’s parents
should have to
sit immobilized for too long. -
Which will be harder and take more time: to find the required
white-tie-and-tails Nobel outfit in Boston and lug it to Stockholm, or
to figure our how to take 8 different measurements of my husband and
then convert them all into metric so that someone in Stockholm can rent the outfit for him? - Rank
these four events in order of probabability: Lightning will strike Mel
Gibson, Lightning will strike Mel Brooks, Betsy Devine will have
triplets nine months from now, Frank Wilczek will need to wear
white-tie-and-tails to some event unrelated to Nobel Prizes.
Show all calculations, and remember, neatness counts.
* According to urban legend,
Alfred Nobel cold-shouldered math because his wife was sleeping with a
mathematician. Nobel was a bachelor, so it’s hard to guess how this
rumor got started–except that it was no doubt by a mathematician.