JPGray, I'm calling you out

[alarcojon]

I've never known you to back down from a good mathematical challenge, but here it is...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=850338&mesg_id=867437

Anyone else care to give this one a try?

[KitchenWitch]

1. I am sending you healing vibes

Although it was not leukemia, I am an almost 20 year cancer survivor myself (Hodgkins Lymphoma).

[alarcojon]

2. Thanks KW

for the inspiration and the kind words here and in the other thread. Now knowing you are a cancer survivor, I really would like to meet you when I wind up at U of M.

Any thoughts on the math problem?

[KitchenWitch]

3. Oh my goodness, I will have to put my thinking cap on!

When are you going to be at the U?

[alarcojon]

4. Probably another month or so

I tried to make the last Twin Cities reunion, but couldn't quite pull it off.

I'll PM you when I know more.

[KitchenWitch]

5. Sounds great, I would love to meet you!

The U campus is really kind of fun!

[jpgray]

12. Let me know as well

Even though I'm empty and shallow, and have no ideas and nothing interesting to say, I'd like to show. :D

[alarcojon]

I'd love to meet you too

I didn't realize you were in the Twin cities area.

I'll let you know.

[jpgray]

6. Bad night for it--my thinking cap was mistaken for a gin receptacle

:D

Nice to you around these parts. I'll bookmark this thread and give it my best (meaning I'll force my guitar students to draw hexagons all day under the guise that it's related to the circle of fourths, and then claim all the credit when they solve it).

[alarcojon]

8. Don't worry - I'll be waiting

Enjoy your evening of drunken reverie.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. My dear alarcojon!

How wonderful to see you tonight, sweetie!

How are you feeling? Wish I could do something more to help you heal...

I feel so helpless at this distance!

And the mathematical challenge? :scared:

I was NEVER any good at that!

:loveya: :hug:

[alarcojon]

10. CalPeg

I am feeling quite well under the circumstances. Chemo has come a long way in the last few years, most notably in the quality of the anti-nausea medications. I have not been nauseous at all and have in fact quite a hearty appetite.

You, my dear, are the true pillar of DU. Bless you for your kind words.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. Ah, my dear alarcojon.......

I love you, truly I do.......

You are the BEST!

Get well, damn it!

I really want you to do that!

:loveya: :hug: :loveya:

[BikeWriter]

9. What the fuck is this. can I buy you all a beer?

[Telly Savalas]

13. Hey!

Good to see you back here!

[alarcojon]

14. I will be here as much as I can, Kojak

probably mainly about this time.

Surely YOU have some thoughts about the math problem - ol JP is too shit-faced to give it a whirl, apparently.

[jpgray]

15. More shit-for-brains than shit-faced, I'm afraid.

Let's race, Telly. It will make Aesop's interspecies track and field classic a reality. :D

[Telly Savalas]

21. I'll work on it.

:hi:

[enigmatic]

16. Can I have a 2+2 math challenge instead?

to say I suck at math is to say that Yakov Smirnoff's career has passed him by:)

[alarcojon]

17. Yakov Smirnoff!

:rofl:

[Orsino]

18. You could simplify the problem...

...by removing the spurious "regular" restriction on the hexagon.

But, no, I'm not even going to try to solve the problem. It may be possible, through great effort and patience, to teach a pig to sing. When you're done, though, all you have is a singing pig. :shrug:

[alarcojon]

19. Regularity is certainly not needed

as a professor, I have just found that it often makes the problem easier to work with. And you come up with some pretty pictures, too!

In fact, this can be played as a game: two players, one with a red pen and one with a blue pen, take turns forming straight edges joining two vertices which have not previously been joined. The loser is the one who is first forced to make a triangle of their own color. Then my question becomes - must there always be a loser?

Hint: if you start with a pentagon, there need not be a loser. This should not be hard to verify.

If you solve the problem, you may be a singing pig, but one who has explored an interesting realm of pure mathematics.

[Orsino]

20. Yes.

Someone who finds beauty in a singing pig might also enjoy working this problem. :-)

I wouldn't dream of dissuading him/her, and will join in the congratulations for anyone who comes up with a solution. It smells like a topology problem, doesn't it? Or network theory?

Hmm. Express it as a function of VLANs, and I might understand the problem.

[alarcojon]

22. It's straight up graph theory

yo