On the weekend of June 8th-9th 2024, Mathateca took part in Christchurch City Libraries’ board game festival, Tabletop Tūranga.
We taught and explored two simple strategy games: Mancala on Saturday and Hex on Sunday - and had a look at some of the mathematics behind each game. Check out our resources page to download the handouts from both days.
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For those that attended Mathateca's Saturday display at the recent Tabletop Tūranga and are on a Mancala binge, enjoy this variation where players take it in turns to take all of the seeds from any cell and sow them one by one into the next cells. If the final seed brings the total number of seeds in a cell to a prime number, those seeds are won by the player. https://www.transum.org/Software/Fun_Maths/Games/Wari.asp
Also try Ross's extension puzzle: You have 48 seeds distributed over 12 cells. Is it possible to get from any distribution to any other distribution (of 48 seeds) using only mancala moves?