Thane Plambeck

Five hundred elementary polynomial factoring problems

Download Factoring500problems (PDF)

Enjoy

Sander's blackboard

Sander's blackboard, originally uploaded by Arthur van Dam.

More on Dozenegger

Bill Gosper writes:

Nice work!  This is the first solution by an actual customer!

> Thane wrote:
> There are two disks that can be swapped
>

You have the first copy of the four 80% models I made.  I actually wouldn't have sold them had I known there were multiple solutions.  If this were the intended solution, I would have noticed something so simple as a two-piece swap.

I'm not sure how much more you want me to reveal.  I can tell you:

Whether or not these two solutions were known,
How many solutions to the 80%er are known,
How near or far Greg's are wrt the intended,
How to decode the bottom.

I'm willing, but perhaps not able, to tell you all the known solutions, as I no longer own an 80%er.

In response to learning of the unintended solutions, I sold two 81%ers, based on a solution by Emma Cohen.  Before I could make any more, she found a solution that led to the 82%er, which still remains otherwise unsolved!  (Cheny Xu, who solved many of my earlier designs in 5-7 min, has been working on the 82%er for *months*.)

All three versions have the same cavity--just successively larger pieces.

Greg's Dozenegger Solution

Greg's Dozenegger Solution, originally uploaded by thane.

Greg solved the disk-packing puzzle that I got from Bill Gosper a few months ago.