Gary Antonick ( ;[
]
Education and career
Antonick has a BS in Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Harvard Business School.[ Gary Antonick Stanford University Human Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute] In 2019, he taught a course at Stanford University, titled Math in the Wild: Using Mathematical Thinking to Solve Messy Real-World Problems, alongside Keith Devlin.[ Gary Antonick: MBA, Stanford University & Harvard University]
Numberplay
From December 2009 to October 2016 Antonick wrote the puzzle themed "Numberplay" column for The New York Times.[ A Numberplay Farewell Gary Antonick, New York Times, October 31, 2016. Outgoing writer of The Times’s Numberplay column, shares a lesson learned from seven years of puzzle-solving.] The puzzles generally involved math or logic problems.[ About numberplay, the puzzle suite for math lovers of all ages by Gary Antonick, The New York Times, April 8, 2013] They came from many sources, and many were descended from columns by the celebrated Scientific American columnist Martin Gardner.[ Martin Gardner’s Impromptu By Gary Antonick, New York Times, November 30, 2015] He often wrote about Gardner and considered him to be the leading popularizer of recreational mathematics.[ Martin Gardner’s The Monkey and the Coconuts "Martin Gardner, the American science and math writer who popularized the notion of recreational mathematics." in Numberplay The New York Times:, October 7, 2013][ Martin Gardner Hated Doing Puzzles, Says Diaconis Mathematical Association of America, October 15, 2014] Conferences called Gathering 4 Gardner are held every two years to celebrate Gardner's legacy, and Antonick has twice spoken at these events.[ The Neuroscience of Curiosity video by Gary Antonick, G4G Celebration published on Oct 22, 2014][ Projectile on an Incline-No Calculation video by Gary Antonick, G4G Celebration, Published on Jul 19, 2018] He also supports the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival.
Among the many classic problems of recreational mathematics featured in "Numberplay" are The Prisoner's Dilemma, The Two Child Problem, The Monty Hall Problem, The Monkey and the Coconuts, The Two-cube Calendar, and The Zebra Puzzle. Sometimes "Numberplay" was used to celebrate other mathematicians such as Paul Erdős,[ The Improbable Life of Paul Erdős in Numberplay The New York Times, March 25, 2013] or simply to report a breakthrough in mathematics or game theory.[ Google Artificial Intelligence Beats Expert at Go Game by Gary Antonick, February 1, 2016]
"Numberplay" columns led to five sequences originated by Antonick[OEIS sequence numbers A227050, A051732, A247653, A247654, and A240567] being listed in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS)[ Sequences originated by Gary Antonick On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences]
English Channel Swim
On August 8, 1988, Antonick swam the English Channel, starting from Dover, England, and finishing in France 8 hours and 46 minutes later.
External links
