Abstract: Grab ten coins (or other small objects). Take eight coins and arrange them into piles. At each turn, rearrange the coins according to the following rule: remove the top coin from each pile, possibly eliminating piles, and form a new collected pile of coins. Repeat this process over and over. What happens? Did you return to your original arrangement? How can we visualize the process? In this webinar, we will take a look at this dynamical system popularized in the chapter “Bulgarian Solitaire and Other Seemingly Endless Tasks” in “The Last Recreations” by Martin Gardner in the early 1980s and introduce state graphs.
Registration link: https://tinyurl.com/math-english60