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  1. Math

    Pentomino Battleships

    Many of you are probably familiar with the two-player, pencil-and-paper (or electronic) game known as Battleships. There are 12 different pentominoes, each one consisting of five adjacent squares. Traditionally, each pentomino is identified by the letter of the alphabet that it roughly resembles. On separate 10-by-10 grids of squares, each player deploys a fleet consisting […]

    By Ivars Peterson

  2. From the November 18, 1933, issue

    “ROSETTA STONE” OF PREHISTORIC AMERICA Frank M. Setzler of the Smithsonian Institution is shown pointing to a little pottery bowl which he likens to the Rosetta Stone of the Nile because it is decorated with two kinds of art design, one known and the other unknown. Together with other discoveries made under Mr.