The Colorado Mathematical Olympiad and Further Explorations: From the Mountains of Colorado to the Peaks of Mathematics

by Alexander Soifer

This book dramatically (by a factor of 2.5) expands its predecessor, the 1994  Colorado Mathematical The First Ten Years and Further Explorations.  It conveys the spirit and the exciting history of the competition as well as an outline of all original problems and solutions that have been created for the contest over 20 years mostly by the author. Some of the problems were inspired by Russian mathematical folklore; for example, the 1989 Sugar Cubed problem was written in a pleasant Lewis Carroll-like story. Other entertaining problems involve Olde Victorian Map Colourings, King Authur and the Knights of the Round Table, Crawford Cowboy Had a Farm, Santa Claus and his elves painting the plane, etc. The twenty "Further Explorations" form a unique feature, not found in any other Olympiad each exploration takes off a solved Olympiad problem and leads the reader to the forefront of mathematics. These bridges allow young mathematicians to engage in mathematical research all of their own. Part V of the book gives the microphone to the winners, who describe the role of this Olympiad in their lives and share their successful careers.

448 pages, Paperback

First published April 13, 2011

About the author

I was once born in Moscow.
I was born free in a country that did not tolerate free men.
And so I left as a refugee, and earned my freedom in the US of A.
Freedom is easy to obtain: just allow it to yourself. However, in order to keep it, one must exercise it, daily.