Problem of the Week

The problem of the week will return in the Fall 2025 semester. We thank everyone who participated this Spring. For the Summer, we suggest reviewing problems from past semesters and working on the additional problems posted at the bottom of the provided solutions.

Overview

Every other Monday (starting 01/27/25), we will post a problem to engage our mathematical community in the problem solving activity and to enjoy mathematics outside of the classroom. Students (both undergraduate and graduate) are particularly encouraged to participate as there is no better way to practice math than working on challenging problems. If you have a solution and want to be a part of it, e-mail your solution to Marcin Mazur (mazur@math.binghamton.edu) by the due date. We will post our solutions as well as novel solutions from the participants and record the names of those who've got the most number of solutions throughout each semester.

When you submit your solutions, please provide a detailed reasoning rather than just an answer. Also, please include some short info about yourself for our records.

Previous Problems and Solutions

Problem 7 We did not receive any solutions.

Problem 6 Solution submitted by Emily (Qingyue) Liu, Josiah Moltz, and Andrew Zhou (a high school senior from Cincinnati, OH).

Problem 5 Solution submitted by David Biddle, Raisha Chowdhury, Robert Kroplewski, Emily (Qingyue) Liu, Josiah Moltz.

Problem 4 Solution submitted by Josiah Moltz and Dr Mathew Wolak.

Problem 3 Solved by Ashton Keith (Purdue University), Josiah Moltz, and Dr Mathew Wolak.

Problem 2 Solved by Josiah Moltz and Dr Mathew Wolak.

Problem 1 Solution submitted by David Biddle, ChatGPT via Prof. Vladislav Kargin, Colin McCann jointly with Michael Mancuso, Maxwell Meyers, Ethan Tong.