The Pi Mu Epsilon 100th Anniversary Problems: Part Ii

As 2014 marks the 100 anniversary of Pi Mu Epsilon, we thought it would be fun to celebrate with 100 problems related to important mathematics milestones of the past century. The problems and notes below are meant to provide a brief tour through some of the most exciting and influential moments in recent mathematics. No list can be complete, and of course there are far too many items to celebrate. This list must painfully miss many people’s favorites. As the goal is to introduce students to some of the history of mathematics, accessibility counted far more than importance in breaking ties, and thus the list below is populated with many problems that are more recreational. Many others are well known and extensively studied in the literature; however, as our goal is to introduce people to what can be done in and with mathematics, we’ve decided to include many of these as exercises since attacking them is a great way to learn. We have tried to include some background text before each problem framing it, and references for further reading. This has led to a very long document, so for space issues we split it into four parts (based on the congruence of the year modulo 4). That said: Enjoy!