Nim Workshop

Introductions (3 minutes) Sit with the kids in a circle, and ask each one to stand up and introduce himself. They can say their name, what they want to be when they grow up, or anything else. Nim Game (5 minutes) Today we are going to play a game. This game is special for a couple of reasons. First, its actually an ancient game that is said to have originated in China. Variants of the game have been found in Europe and Africa too. Secondly, Nim is really cool because it seems like its purely random who wins, but there are actually hidden strategies you can use. Now I am going to tell you the rules of the game then were going to break off into pairs and play the game for a little while. The rules of the game are this: Make four different piles of coins. The first pile should have four pennies, the second should have 3, then 2 and the last pile is just a single coin. You and your partner should take turns taking pennies from the table. The rules are that you can only take from one pile at a time! However you may take as many pennies as you want from each pile. For example in the 4 pile, I could take one penny or I could take all of them. Or I could take the one penny that is alone in its pile. You and your partner take turns taking pennies and the person who clears the table of pennies wins. Give examples from the board: What moves can I make here? Can I do this? (no) Does anyone have any questions? Transition (1 minute) Play game 2-3 times in groups (5 minutes) Teaching Note: Teacher(s) go around to each table to answer questions about how rules work Discussion of strategies (5 minutes) So what did you guys think about the game? Did you win? What were you thinking when you played?

Did you notice any patterns? Did you have a strategy? What do you guys think about player Xs strategy? Teaching Note: writes student responses on board. All your strategies are great! All of your strategies fall under one big winning strategy! Do you want to know what this strategy is? Transition (1 minute) Intuitive Description of Nim-sum (10 minutes)

Explain the base-case situation of having two piles with one stick each and how it is deterministic who wins Extend this to having piles of 2, 1 Extend again to having piles of 2, 2 Introduce the strategy of reducing any board to one of the above situations Practices with an example (5, 4, 2, 1, 1), involving the students. Noor asks, would you like to see how mathematicians would formalize this? If there is no overwhelmingly obvious reaction, have the students vote. If a majority would like to see it, Go through a quick lesson on converting (small) numbers to binary Introduce the definition of "nim sum", which uses binary Analogy: its like adding you learned in 3rd grade, but without carrying Define the winning strategy based on this definition (always leave the board with nim sum=0 to win)

Teaching Note: summarize key rules on the board as they are said. Play game again using new strategy (5 minutes) Teaching Note: Teacher(s) go around to each table to answer questions and see whether students are using (and understand) the winning strategy Discussion and Wrap-up (10 minutes) Key concepts: Winning strategy - Games are not always arbitrary; math can be used to find the best strategy.

Deterministic game a game whose initial conditions and previous moves decide what the best next move should be. Winning strategies exist in games that are deterministic. So how did knowing the winning strategy help you play this game? Was it easier or harder? Did you use the winning strategy? ( or did just knowing that there is a winning strategy help?) Now will the nim-sum strategy work with all games? (A: Probably not. It works specifically because of the rules of this game.) Lets pretend that we allowed each player to only take one penny at a time. Do you think there would be a winning strategy for this game? (A: Going first will ensure that you win if there are an odd number of pennies, while going second will ensure you win if there are even number of pennies) Is this game deterministic? (Yes, it is.) Why or why not? (It is because the outcome of who wins the game is pre-determined; determined before the game starts and depends on the initial conditions.) Do you think deterministic math games are relevant to real life? Can you think of an example where they are important? (A: Discovering winning strategies can help you make better choices in life and have more control over your environment. This is an important concept in economics, where academics model real-world events as deterministic games, and then draw conclusions about how people should act based on what the winning strategies are of that game. One example is how much to bid on an item an auction so that you end up paying the lowest price for the item you desire. Of course, you would also have to know how other people will act in response to your bid to find a winning strategy of how to bid. What economists often do is to make predictions of how other people will respond to your bid, and then say, given that other people act this way, your best choice is to bid this amount, since it is the winning strategy of the game. This type of economics research is called Game Theory. ) Do you have any extra questions or comments? (Wait 10 seconds.)

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Authors: Noor, John Tebes, Corinne Carland