What is MSRI and why is it putting up math puzzles?

MSRI stands for Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. It is a non-profit independently administered institution located on the University of California campus in Berkeley. Most of its activities center around research programs of several months and workshops of one to two weeks focused on topics in contemporary mathematics. Mixed in with these, MSRI sponsors outreach events to educate the public about the vitality of mathematics and the need for strong mathematical education of the whole population, from school children to senior citizens. Advanced mathematics lies behind almost everything we do nowadays. Have you ever wondered how barcodes, airline flight schedules, the Internet connections and searches, medical imaging, balancing options in environmental conservation, and other complicated tasks actually work? Behind the scenes there are mathematicians. Many people feel that the mathematics taught in school was dull, and seems irrelevant to their lives now. We hope to create a more positive image of mathematics as a living and breathing activity, accessible and fun, for people of all backgrounds, ages, and educational levels. We hope that you are finding these problems interesting and challenging. If you are interested in further opportunities for pre-college youngsters to learn different and more advanced mathematics than they see in school, and to get training for national and international competitions, please link to the Berkeley Math Circle (BMC) and the Bay Area Mathematical Olympiad (BAMO). Jim Tanton is our principal problem coordinator, and the sometimes author, sometimes editor, of the Hints, Solutions, and Taking it Further. You may want to check out his other activities at www.stmarksschool.org/smtoday/academics. There are a great many puzzle sites on the web. An excellent one, full of good puzzles, is http://www.nrich.maths.org.uk sponsored by Cambridge University. Many of the puzzles, like ours, have the potential to lead the reader into deeper parts of mathematics. No monetary awards are offered; however, the best solutions are posted. A very eclectic collection of puzzles, some with deeper mathematical roots, others not, is found at http://www.cut-the-knot.org/games.shtml . Another good site, especially for younger kids, is http://www.gschool.org/pages/program/Abacus.html . In this case full solutions (answers with explanations) are required, and students, or groups of students, accumulate points over the course of a year. Privacy Statement As stated above, we wish to emphasize that the information you have supplied will be used solely for statistical purposes connected with this project and will not be sold, used or redistributed for any other purpose. You will receive no communication from MSRI other than a notification of an award. Submissions of answers will be electronically collected, correct answers sorted into a separate pool, and the winner will be drawn randomly from that pool. Of those who have correctly solved the main problem, another pool will be created for those who have correctly solved the challenge problem. There will be another random drawing to determine the winner of the additional $100. There are no restrictions on entrants, except that employees, general members, workshop participants, and any other direct affiliates of MSRI are ineligible for an award. Members of sponsoring institutions, however, are eligible to participate. If you are the parent/guardian of a child under the age of 15, and your child has submitted a form and you would like all of your child's personal information removed, please e-mail the webmaster@msri.org to have this information removed from our database. Please include "Personal data removal" as the subject heading and please include the name and e-mail address used by your child on the contest form in the body of your e-mail message.