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I am looking for online games and puzzles to complement an introductory combinatorics class that I am teaching. For example, the game Planarity will be useful when we cover planar graphs.

I would prefer games that occur within the browser rather than needing to download a program before playing, but any games will be appreciated.

Roughly, the topics for the course are permutations/combinations, inclusion/exclusion, recurrence relations, generating functions, Hamilton cycles, matchings, and chromatic numbers.

Here is a related question on online games, but not specifically combinatorics.

Community
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D Poole
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1 Answers1

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First of all, sudoku is an easy way to talk about latin squares, although probably everyone has seen sudoku by now.

Another simple one is the game "set." It is not online (although you could probably find it). You can go into the properties of each card (each has a number, shape, color, and shading), and there are some simple properties to observe. For example, since each property has three options, any two cards determine a third card to complete a set. You can also go into how many cards you need to guarantee a set, etc.

Nim is also a popular combinatorics game. There is a way to guarantee a win detailed here.

pancini
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