Thinking about a Carnival of Mathematics
That’s #39 – hosted by It’s the Thought that Counts. Clever name, huh?
It’s a new blog to me. The authors are A (computer science) and Z (physics). Subtitle: “critical analysis and interesting ideas.” Self-description of content: “commentary on all manner of topics — politics, society, science, morality, religion, and whatever else comes to mind.” So, the writing’s good. While your looking at the Carnival, and trying the puzzle, you might take an extra peek around.
Puzzle? Yup. Just for fun, he (she? they?) leads off with a combinatorial poser (39 people sitting around a circular table, none in the right place…) (Looks combinatorial, but might bend quicker to algebra).
Reminds me of this old problem, that appears never to have gotten a general solution on this blog. I’ll repost, soon.
JD2718 
I was lucky enough to have one of my posts listed in this carnival, although it hasn’t exactly led to a rush of readers :).
Thanks for the link the interesting puzzle, which I will think about while on the way to a rather tedious family barbeque I have to go to tomorrow. I’m also planning to redo (properly this time!) my answers to your earlier post about dice throwing probabilities — I’m rather embarassed at the incorrect answers in my comment.
In return, here’s a puzzle for you to have a think about:
http://joningram.org/blog/2008/08/a-quickie-on-quadratics/
Is it known yet who the next host will be? I had been thinking of submitting something for this carnival, but I couldn’t figure out who to send my submission to.
Can you submit directly to the Carnival? Otherwise we’ll need to contact Alon.