Pancake2
Haymaker, K. (2020). Flipping Pancakes. In K. Barnes (Ed.). Math Circle Activity Database. American Institute of Mathematics. https://mathcircles.org/activity/flipping-pancakes

Flipping Pancakes

Contributor(s):
The Pancake Problem, first posed in 1975, is a sorting problem with connections to computer science and DNA rearrangements, which leads to discussions of algorithms, sequences, and the usefulness of approximations and bounds. The original problem was first posed by mathematician Jacob Goodman under the pen name “Harry Dweighter” (read it quickly) in 1975, and it has delighted math enthusiasts (including undergraduate Bill Gates) ever since!

Activity Guide

Article written by Katie Haymaker and originally published in the Winter/Spring 2016 edition of the MTCircular.

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