Tuesday, May 31, 2011

ARML trip details

Hi everyone,

Here are a few last minute details about this weekend's trip. First,
I am attaching a list of students and coaches below, along with team
assignments, transportation details, and room assignments. Room
assignments are subject to change, but we will try to keep roommates
together as much as possible. Team assignments have been shuffled a
little to reflect who will not be attending or who hasn't been
showing up to practices..

Please understand there is a chance some of you may move up to A1 or
A2 still depending on how many permission slips do not get submitted
this week. If you have not yet turned in a notarized permission slip,
I feel sorry for you and truly hope you manage to get those express
mailed to us in time to board the bus. It would really be a shame for
you to miss out on going to ARML with no refund due to something as
simple as not following the rules about permission slips. You know who
you are.. :)

As for transportation, those of you who are listed as bus passengers
need to be to the end of Palm Drive at Stanford BEFORE noon on
Thursday to board the bus. We will make an attempt to contact you if
you are not at the bus, but the bus will not wait an excessive amount
of time for you. The bus should arrive to Las Vegas late Thursday
night and will leave around 4:30 Saturday (there will be no late bus
this year, but we'll bring it up again as an option next year
because it's, you know, fun)..

For those of you flying, after ARML I will process $50 refunds to
those of you who followed the rules regarding which flights to book
and when. Please make sure Kendra has your address for the check. I
will send a separate email to you with contact information for all the
people on your flight. There will be at least one parent on each
authorized flight, and you are to meet with this parent before going
through security together at SJC. If you are on an authorized flight,
I will meet you at the airport Thursday night for transportation to
UNLV, and we also have transportation arranged to the Las Vegas
airport for your return flight..

As for what to pack, make sure to bring clothes and whatever personal
care items you would bring for a two-night stay in a hotel. I'd like
to encourage you to participate in a tradition we had back in the 90s
when I was on the Texas team and wear your oldest ARML shirt on
Thursday; for my part, I will be wearing a hideous purple shirt with
an armadillo on it from 1991 FTW. Jeff has me beat chronologically,
but let's see if he still has a shirt from the 80s. :) Please pack
lightly but feel free to bring games to play in the dorms Thursday and
Friday nights. Socially acceptable games at ARML include mafia, mao,
toe (not for real money), and other card games; chess; Frisbee
(ultimate, golf, or other varieties); and
let's-try-to-beat-William-Chen's-record-at-Rubik's-Cube.
Socially unacceptable games include video game systems with a finite
number of controllers, and anything that will cause people to get hurt
and/or heat stroke..

The t-shirt you selected is the not-the-same-as-last-year one, and
these will be distributed at noon on Friday. Your coaches will
instruct you where to assemble for your team meeting on Friday at
noon. Please make sure to bring money for snacks and drinks if you
wish; we may not have sufficient infrastructure to keep a constant
supply of pizza and bottled water available this year, but it is
important to keep hydrated in Las Vegas, and there are plenty of
vending machines available on campus..

Just in case you need some contact phone numbers, here are a few:

Tim Sanders 816-210-3147 Airport Trawler (and Head Coach)

Jeff Soesbe 916-213-7068 Assistant (to the) Head Coach

Moor Xu 541-206-7651 Bus Jockey (and A1 Coach)

Silas Johnson 650-906-0581 Room Guru (and A2 Coach)

Finally, I believe you all have received Silas's document on how to
have fun, be safe, and win at ARML; if not, please email Moor for a
copy. I would also encourage you to go to the following links for some
relevant documents:

Campus Map
http://go.unlv.edu/drupal/assets/maps/pdf/main-building-abbrev.pdf

Mathematical Conventions
http://www.arml.com/arml_registration_2010/ARMLConventions_since_2008.pdf

Part of the Competition Program
http://www.arml.com/arml_registration_2010/outside_2011_UNLV.pdf

Rest of the Program
http://www.arml.com/arml_registration_2010/inside_2011_UNLV.pdf

Have a safe trip to Las Vegas, and I'll see you all in a couple of
days! Apologies if the formatting of the spreadsheet below doesn't
come out well on your computer..

-Tim

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Re: Information for ARML

Just a quick note that there's a typo in the previous email: the username and password are still sfba and arml; the password that I gave before is outdated.

-Moor

On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 9:35 PM, Moor Xu <moorxu@stanford.edu> wrote:
Hi everyone, 

At today's final ARML practice, we used the 2000 power question, 1995/1997 relays, and 1997/1998/1999 team rounds. I've posted those practice materials on our website, http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/. As before, to access the materials, use username = math and password = scribble. Please work through these problems. I've also uploaded solutions to last week's homework. 

For our final ARML homework of the year, we have the 2005 and 2006 individuals; these have also been posted on the website. Here are submission forms for those tests:

I've also uploaded an ARML orientation guide containing suggestions regarding packing and strategy. This was also passed out today in practice. This guide exists at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/guide.pdf.

Regarding transportation and logistics: Tim will send out information via email in the next few days. In the meantime, we will have two buses this year, leaving Stanford at noon on Thursday and arriving back at Stanford after midnight on Sunday. I will have complete lists of bus assignments by Thursday. You can tell me your preference for a bus assignment by filling out the Google Docs form here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dHBBVDFpeXBzVTRLamtUcXl1OThiOWc6MQ#gid=0. The deadline to fill this out is 9:00pm on Tuesday, May 31.

Let me know if you have any questions, and see you on Thursday!

-Moor

Information for ARML

Hi everyone, 

At today's final ARML practice, we used the 2000 power question, 1995/1997 relays, and 1997/1998/1999 team rounds. I've posted those practice materials on our website, http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/. As before, to access the materials, use username = math and password = scribble. Please work through these problems. I've also uploaded solutions to last week's homework. 

For our final ARML homework of the year, we have the 2005 and 2006 individuals; these have also been posted on the website. Here are submission forms for those tests:

I've also uploaded an ARML orientation guide containing suggestions regarding packing and strategy. This was also passed out today in practice. This guide exists at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/guide.pdf.

Regarding transportation and logistics: Tim will send out information via email in the next few days. In the meantime, we will have two buses this year, leaving Stanford at noon on Thursday and arriving back at Stanford after midnight on Sunday. I will have complete lists of bus assignments by Thursday. You can tell me your preference for a bus assignment by filling out the Google Docs form here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dHBBVDFpeXBzVTRLamtUcXl1OThiOWc6MQ#gid=0. The deadline to fill this out is 9:00pm on Tuesday, May 31.

Let me know if you have any questions, and see you on Thursday!

-Moor

Friday, May 27, 2011

Final ARML practice this Saturday

Hi everyone, 

Our final ARML practice will be this Saturday, May 28, from 2pm-5pm at the usual place: room 380-380X in the basement of building 380 at Stanford. This is the last practice before the tournament. (We'll be in Las Vegas in less than a week!) Please join your team at practice this Saturday in order for the teams to practice most effectively. At the practice, we'll also discuss some details about contest logistics.

A number of you still need to do the homework for this week. The homework is the 1999, 2000, and 2001 individuals, and the problems are posted online at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/. Use (username = sfba) and (password = arml) to access the tests. Here are the submission links:


See you at practice!

-Moor

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Practice recap and more homework

Hi everyone, 

At Sunday's practice, we worked through the 2000 and 2001 individual and relay rounds, and the 2001 or 2011 NYSML power rounds (depending on team). As usual, these practice materials have been posted online at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/. Use (username = sfba) and (password = arml) to access these materials. I encourage you to look at the problems and solutions. I've also posted solutions to last week's homework.

There is more homework for this week. I've posted the 1999, 2000, and 2001 ARML individual rounds on the problems site.
Just as for last week, please do these problems under realistic testing conditions and submit your answers to the Google Docs forms listed below:


The next (and final) practice will be at Stanford on Saturday, May 28, from 2pm to 5pm. It is important that you come to the final practice, and I hope to see you then. In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

-Moor

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Practice on May 22

Hi everyone, 

Just a quick reminder that our next practice is this Sunday at the same place and time as last week: 2pm-5pm at Stanford, in room 380-380X. Please come to the practice to support your team. Also, a number of you still need to submit the homework for this week, so please do this as soon as possible.

As I said in the previous email, here are the homework submission forms:
1996 ARML: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en&hl=en&formkey=dFFieWxrRTlMZWk4ampSR3VzVUlrWWc6MA#gid=0
2004 ARML: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFJJeDJCalBrOUxBTUZNdTFBSVdzb0E6MA#gid=0
2007 ARML: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHpzSU9MUmNwVi1zQTQwTmtxdFNPa1E6MA#gid=0
These practice materials have been posted online at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/. As before, to access the practice materials, use (username = sfba) and (password = arml).

Nick's proof workshop slides have been posted online at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/proofs.pdf. If you did not go to the workshop, you may want to read through these slides.

-Moor

Friday, May 20, 2011

Update on Saturday Stay

Just a quick note to let you know that anyone wishing to stay in Las
Vegas the Saturday night of ARML needs to pay by Sunday so we can let
ARML know who will be around the extra night. Again, you can pay for
the extra night at http://mathleague.org/store.php

-Tim

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Thursday, May 19, 2011

T-shirt voting and extended stay in Vegas

Hi Everyone,

So we only had a handful of people elect to fly to ARML (everyone must
realize how awesome it is to ride the bus!), which means we will be
taking two buses to ARML this year. What does this mean for you? It
opens up the possibility for you to stay overnight Saturday if
you're interested and we can get enough people to buy in. Some of
you have inquired about the possibility of staying over Saturday,
which was never an option with a single bus because some people have
to be back for Sunday, but now we can consider this as a possibility.
There is some additional cost associated with staying another night,
so if you are interested I will need to collect an additional $40; if
we do not get enough people to choose the extended stay option we will
send both buses back Saturday and refund the $40 of anyone who pays to
stay longer. The late bus would leave Sunday morning from Las Vegas
and get home at a reasonable hour (that may make it an attractive
option for those of you whose parents aren't interested in driving
to Stanford after midnight to meet the early bus), and we will
organize an activity in Las Vegas Saturday night for those of you who
want to stay..

If you would like to stay in Las Vegas Saturday night, go to
http://mathleague.org/store.php to pay the additional $40; this option
will be available on a first come first served basis until the Sunday
bus is full. We need to know soon (within the next week I would guess)
who is staying late so I can get that list to ARML. Any parents who
are interested in staying over should just let us know; I will cover
your additional costs..

Finally, t-shirt voting is ready to go; for those of you who care what
the shirt looks like, go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M7SXSKL and
make your selection. You need to complete the survey by Monday so we
can know which shirt to order. You'll notice that one of the shirts
is a repeat of last year's; if you don't like the options, make
sure to submit your own design next year.. :)

-Tim

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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

ARML practices and homework

Hi everyone, 

We worked through the 2004 power round and the 1996 and 2007 individual and relay rounds at Sunday's practice. These practice materials have been posted online at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/. As before, to access the practice materials, use (username = sfba) and (password = arml). I encourage you to look at the problems, think about the ones that you didn't finish, and read the solutions.

Regarding homework: I've posted solutions to last week's homework. If you haven't done the homework yet, please do the problems. If you've done the homework, you should read the solutions and check your answers. Even if you got the problems right, reading the solutions might still give insight into simpler or more elegant solutions.

There is more homework for this week. I've posted the 1996, 2004, and 2007 ARML individual rounds on the website, and just as for last week, please do these problems under realistic testing conditions and submit your answers to the Google Docs forms listed below:


For most of you, your individual score is your largest contribution to your team's score, and it is the only portion of the team score over which you have complete responsibility. As such, doing the homework is essential to your team's success.

I understand that a number of you have conflicts with Sunday practices. However, due to a multitude of other conflicts, the only feasible time for practice next weekend is again Sunday. The next practice will be Sunday, 5/22, at the usual place and time: 2pm-5pm at Stanford. Unless there is significant opposition, the final practice is scheduled for Saturday, May 28, 2pm-5pm at Stanford. Please come to practice if at all possible.

Any questions or concerns? Please let me know.

-Moor

Saturday, May 14, 2011

ARML practice on May 14

Hi everyone, 

This is just a quick reminder that we have an ARML practice tomorrow (Sunday, May 14) at Stanford. The time and place are the same as last week: 2pm-5pm in building 380, room 380-380X. I sent out three individual rounds as homework last week; please do those problems and submit them to the given google docs forms. In addition, please bring a sample proof writeup to practice for tomorrow's proof workshop. I believe that doing the homework problems is essential to success at the contest, so please work out the problems and submit your answers!

-Moor

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

ARML practice materials and homework

Hi everyone, 

Thanks to those of you who came to Sunday's practice at Stanford. This week, we used the 2002 and 2008 team and relay rounds and the 2002 power round.

I have posted practice materials from the last practice at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/, and I also include the 2003 test that was used at the practice on April 30. The site will ask you to log in; use username = sfba and password = arml. Please take a look at the tests and work out some of the problems.

Each week, we will assign some homework problems will be done outside of practices. For this week, please do the 2002, 2003, and 2008 individual rounds (downloadable from the link above). Please work on the problems under testing conditions (time yourselves and avoid distractions) and submit your answers to the following forms:


There will also be a proof writing workshop at the next practice for those of you who want to learn more about writing proofs. In preparation for this workshop, please carefully write up a solution to the latest proof problem that you know how to do (out of problems 1b, 3, 4a, 4b, 5, 6, 7, 8a, 8b, 10, 11, 12) from the 2002 power round (downloadable from the link above) and bring your solution to the next practice. If you cannot attend this practice, you can email your solution (scan or typed) to Nick Wu (huaiyu.wu2010@gmail.com) for comments.

Regarding practice dates: I understand that some of you are unable to attend Sunday afternoon practices, and I am working to possibly reschedule a practice to a different time. However, due to a number of unavoidable conflicts, the next practice will remain at May 15th from 2pm to 5pm at Stanford. Future practice dates will be finalized soon.

Finally, SFBA ARML does have its own AoPS forum at http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/viewforum.php?f=670, and I encourage you to use it for discussion. This is a private forum. If you do not yet have access, send me your AoPS username and I will grant access.

-Moor

Sunday, May 8, 2011

flight option still available

okay everyone, one more flight option for your return; note that the
flight returns to Oakland, not San Jose, but it's a lot cheaper since
Southwest has bumped up the cost of the return flights to San Jose:

Las Vegas - Oakland, 7:15-8:45, Flight 2057

we still need a few more people to fly, so i'm holding the $50 rebate
deal open through midnight tonight. you can find all the acceptable
flights at http://sfba-arml.blogspot.com/

-Tim

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Saturday, May 7, 2011

ARML practice this Sunday

Hi all, 

I am organizing this year's ARML practices at Stanford. The first practice will be this Sunday, May 8. We will meet from 2pm to 5pm in the basement of building 380, in room 380-380X. A map to this building can be found at http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=01-380.

At practices, we will have a number of practice tests, including team rounds, power rounds, and relay rounds. There may also be short workshops about topics in problem solving. I will distribute practice materials via this email list after each practice, and I will also send out some extra problems each week that we did not use at practice. In order to ensure the success of your team, please attend practices regularly.

Our tentative practice schedule is to meet May 8, May 15, May 22, and May 28 from 2pm to 5pm at Stanford, but these dates can be moved if there are significant conflicts. I have already heard from some people that Sunday practices might not be ideal. If you have conflicts with these dates, please reply and let me know your availability, and I will take this into consideration for scheduling practices.

-Moor

new flight option

Hi all,

Southwest has flipped prices on its Saturday flights and now the 8:10
flight is $131 and the 6:00 flight is $79 (it was the other way around
earlier). So i'll open up another Saturday flight option:

Las Vegas to San Jose, 6:00 - 7:25, Flight 1737

Same deal, 50 bucks, yadda yadda. Get me your confirmation by midnight
today..

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Friday, May 6, 2011

website update

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know that i have set up a blog at
http://sfba-arml.blogspot.com/ where all emails to this year's ARML
mailing list will be collected for reference. This blog is linked from
the team website as well. Also, please note that our practice schedule
is now online with the next practice at Stanford this Sunday from 2-5.
Finally, remember to get me copies of your confirmation by tomorrow
night if you are flying to Las Vegas so i can get you a partial refund
of your fee..

-Tim

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ARML transportation, t-shirts, and roster

Hi everyone,

First, let me say thank you for coming out to the practice last
Saturday; we had way more students at that practice than i imagined
would show up, and i was overwhelmed by the turnout. Thanks for your
dedication!

Let's talk transportation for a minute. i've got a bus scheduled to
leave Stanford at noon on the 2nd, but with over 80 students going
this year we have quite a bit more passengers than can fit on one bus.
i know the bus ride is the best part of ARML, but i need to convince
at least two dozen of you to fly in order to fit everyone else on the
bus. So here's what i can offer: i will refund $50 of your ARML fees
to any student who books a flight and forwards me their confirmation
email by midnight Saturday (send this email to
operations@mathleague.org). Parents are encouraged to fly as well if
that works for you. Now here are your options for flights; you must
select from these flights if you plan to fly to ARML:

June 2, San Jose to Las Vegas (either flight is acceptable)

Southwest 625 (leaves at 8:55) OR Southwest 2379 (leaves at 9:35)

June 4, Las Vegas to San Jose

Southwest 3152 (leaves at 8:10)

Next is some information from Ted Alper about T-shirts for this year:

==============================================
Subject: 2011 SFBA ARML team t-shirt design competition!

Hi, everyone. We need a team t-shirt for ARML -- and you have a chance
to design it! Any student who wishes to submit a design is very
welcome to do so; we will vote on the designs in in mid-May.

Here are the ground rules -- please read them carefully, even the ones

at the end!

(a) it should include the words "SFBA" or "San Francisco Bay Area" or
both

(b) it should include the words "ARML" or "American Regions

Mathematics League" or both

(c) It should include at least the year (2011). You *could* also
include
the specific days (June 3 & 4), and/or "UNLV" or "Las Vegas, Nevada"
or "University of Nevada, Las Vegas" or some variant of this.

(d) It should NOT include anything that might be considered offensive
to other students, parents, teachers, or, really, anyone. This has
never been a problem in the past, but we do explicitly reserve the
right to censor submissions that fail to meet this criterion.

(e) it should not use copyrighted material, unless you own the
copyright!

(f) a maximum of 4 colors (and different shades count as different
colors! This will be silk-screened, so subtle blending and mixing of
these 4 colors is out; On the other hand, half-tones are ok.) Front
and back count separately -- that is, you could have 2 colors on each
side, or 3 on one side and 1 on the other, or simply have JUST front
artwork with 4 colors. You don't need to count the background color of
the shirt.

(g) It would be helpful if you can produce your design in a
high-resolution version (preferably TIFF, PSD, or EPS formats, the
sort of thing you can do with Photoshop, GIMP, or Paint.NET, etc.) for
the printers. Low-resolution designs do NOT look good on t-shirts! If

you don't have the tools to do this, don't worry, the t-shirt company
art staff can often redo your design in a higher-resolution format if
you can't, but there's no guarantee it will be exactly the same.

Email me ( Ted "dot" Alper "at" gmail "dot" com) the files, with a
NAME for the design, and I'll upload them for public viewing.

(h) You need to make your submission no later than Monday, May 16, at
noon. (that's in just two weeks!) Once the voting begins, we will not
be able to add late submissions. The last day of voting will be
Monday, May 23. (The design will be given to the printer the next day)

Ted Alper

==============================================

Finally, here is a list of students we have going so far, for your
information. Students are arranged alphabetically. For privacy
reasons, please do not post this on the internet anywhere. If your
name is spelled incorrectly or doesn't show up, or if you reversed
your first and last names when you signed up, please let us know so we
can make sure our records are correct. Moor will be assigning students
to teams at practice:

[redacted]