DIMACS - RUTGERS EXPERIMENTAL MATHEMATICS SEMINAR

Sponsored by the Rutgers University Department of Mathematics and the
Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS)

Co-organizers:

Brian Nakamura, Rutgers University, bnaka {at} math [dot] rutgers [dot] edu

Doron Zeilberger, Rutgers University, zeilberg {at} math [dot] rutgers [dot] edu

Title: Coloring Statistics of an m x n grid

Speaker: Jocelyn Quaintance, Rutgers University and West Virginia University

Date: Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:00pm

Location: Hill Center, Room 705, Rutgers University, Busch Campus, Piscataway, NJ

Abstract:

You are given an m x n chess board and c cans of paint. Each can of paint has its own paint brush. The goal is to color each square of the chess board using this selection of c colors. There is one catch. Before painting each square you must shut your eyes and arbitrarily select a paint brush. When you are finished how many edge adjacent squares share the same color? This talk explains how humans and computers apply probabilistic methods to answer such a question.

See: http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~bnaka/expmath/