Articles containing proofs | Recreational mathematics | Solved games | Combinatorial game theory | Mathematical games
Nim is a mathematical game of strategy in which two players take turns removing (or "nimming") objects from distinct heaps or piles. On each turn, a player must remove at least one object, and may remove any number of objects provided they all come from the same heap or pile. Depending on the version being played, the goal of the game is either to avoid taking the last object or to take the last object. Variants of Nim have been played since ancient times. The game is said to have originated in China—it closely resembles the Chinese game of 捡石子 jiǎn-shízi, or "picking stones"—but the origin is uncertain; the earliest European references to Nim are from the beginning of the 16th century. Its current name was coined by Charles L. Bouton of Harvard University, who also developed the complete theory of the game in 1901, but the origins of the name were never fully explained. Nim is typically played as a misère game, in which the player to take the last object loses. Nim can also be played as a normal play game whereby the player taking the last object wins. This is called normal play because the last move is a winning move in most games, even though it is not the normal way that Nim is played. In either normal play or a misère game, when the number of heaps with at least two objects is exactly equal to one, the player who takes next can easily win. If this removes either all or all but one objects from the heap that has two or more, then no heaps will have more than one object, so the players are forced to alternate removing exactly one object until the game ends. If the player leaves an even number of non-zero heaps (as the player would do in normal play), the player takes last; if the player leaves an odd number of heaps (as the player would do in misère play), then the other player takes last. Normal play Nim (or more precisely the system of nimbers) is fundamental to the Sprague–Grundy theorem, which essentially says that in normal play every impartial game is equivalent to a Nim heap that yields the same outcome when played in parallel with other normal play impartial games (see disjunctive sum). While all normal play impartial games can be assigned a Nim value, that is not the case under the misère convention. Only tame games can be played using the same strategy as misère Nim. Nim is a special case of a poset game where the poset consists of disjoint chains (the heaps). The evolution graph of the game of Nim with three heaps is the same as three branches of the evolution graph of the Ulam-Warburton automaton. At the 1940 New York World's Fair Westinghouse displayed a machine, the Nimatron, that played Nim. From May 11, 1940, to October 27, 1940, only a few people were able to beat the machine in that six-week period; if they did, they were presented with a coin that said Nim Champ. It was also one of the first-ever electronic computerized games. Ferranti built a Nim playing computer which was displayed at the Festival of Britain in 1951. In 1952 Herbert Koppel, Eugene Grant and Howard Bailer, engineers from the W. L. Maxon Corporation, developed a machine weighing 23 kilograms (50 lb) which played Nim against a human opponent and regularly won. A Nim Playing Machine has been described made from TinkerToy. The game of Nim was the subject of Martin Gardner's February 1958 Mathematical Games column in Scientific American. A version of Nim is played—and has symbolic importance—in the French New Wave film Last Year at Marienbad (1961). (Wikipedia).
NIM is the modern name of an ancient game which features prominently in the classic movie "Last year at Marienbad". Follow the Mathologer and become an invincible NIM black belt by mastering the game's cute binary winning strategy. Link to our Mathematical Movie database mentioned in the
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NIM is a wonderful mathematics strategy game that has been around forever. In 4-by-4 NIM, begin with a 4 x 4 grid and cross off as many contiguous boxes as they want from any single row or column. The player who crosses of the last box WINS! Read more about 4 by 4 NIM here: http://theoth
From playlist Games and puzzles
NIM is a wonderful mathematics strategy game that has been around forever. At its most basic version, two players alternate turns taking objects from one or more piles. For each turn, a player removes at least one object. The winner of the game is the player who picks up the last object...
From playlist Games and puzzles
Arrange circles into the shape of a circle. Players take turns crossing off either one or two circles. If two circles are taken, they must be from adjacent spaces (they must have been next to each other). The player who crosses off the last circle is the winner. Read more about this ga
From playlist Games and puzzles
Similar to the basic version of NIM, two players alternate turns picking up tiles. The objective is still to pick up the last tile. What is different is the arrangement of the tiles at the beginning of the game. Tiles are arranged into the shape of a tower. Read more about Tower NIM: ht
From playlist Games and puzzles
Polymorphs can be a headache for people who make pharmaceuticals. Find out why? More chemistry at http://www.periodicvideos.com/
From playlist Chem Definition - Periodic Videos
What is the difference between convex and concave
👉 Learn about polygons and how to classify them. A polygon is a plane shape bounded by a finite chain of straight lines. A polygon can be concave or convex and it can also be regular or irregular. A concave polygon is a polygon in which at least one of its interior angles is greater than 1
From playlist Classify Polygons
In the world of chemistry, an "organic" compound is often described as anything with carbon in it, and "organic chemistry" is the study of carbon compounds, but there is actually no single definition of what "organic" means in chemistry, and scientists have been arguing about it for a long
From playlist Uploads
Professor Poliakoff on a word that sounds familiar. This is the first in our new Chem Definition series - short videos about the language and jargon of chemistry.
From playlist Chem Definition - Periodic Videos
Nim is a general-purpose programming language known for its python-like syntax and ability to compile to multiple languages like C, C++, and JavaScript. Learn the fundamentals of Nim in this quick tutorial. #programming #code #100SecondsOfCode 💬 Chat with Me on Discord https://discord.
From playlist 100 Seconds of Code
Ichess 8: Bouton's Solution of NIM
In this eighth video of the Impartial Chess series, we prove Bouton's Theorem and discuss it's relevance to the game of NIM.
From playlist Intro to Impartial Combinatorial Games and Their Theory
Can you solve the rogue AI riddle? - Dan Finkel
Practice more problem-solving at https://brilliant.org/TedEd/ Sign up to be emailed the solution to the bonus riddle: https://brilliant.org/TedEdPoisonChocolate/ A hostile artificial intelligence called NIM has taken over the world’s computers. You’re the only person skilled enough to shu
From playlist New TED-Ed Originals
How Nimses used Pewdiepie to promote its privacy dystopia
Nimses is a new social media app promoted even by Pewdiepie. Its main selling point is that it rewards users who download the app with nims, a virtual currency. But the price of your privacy and the false promises of Nimses don't make it such a lucrative deal. What is Nimses? Nimses wou
From playlist Decrypted Lies
Rust vs 7 Other Languages You Probably Haven't Tried
Take a quick tour of 7 languages that most people probably haven't tried. We write a simple program in Rust, then write the same program in each of those 7 languages in an effort to get a feel for them. Check out Sidekick, an incredible debugging tool: https://www.runsidekick.com/ — Stuf
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Lisa Rougetet - The Role of Mathematical Recreations in the 17th and 19th Centuries - CoM Apr 2021
The aim of this talk is to retrace the history of mathematical recreations since the first books entirely dedicated to them at the beginning of the 17th century and at the end of the 19th century, especially in Europe. I will explain what mathematical recreations were exactly when they fir
From playlist Celebration of Mind 2021
Fundamentals of Mathematics - Lecture 12: Strong Ind, Nim, and the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic
course page: http://www.uvm.edu/~tdupuy/logic/Math52-Fall2017.html handouts - DZB, Emory videography - Eric Melton, UVM
From playlist Fundamentals of Mathematics
What is the difference between convex and concave polygons
👉 Learn about polygons and how to classify them. A polygon is a plane shape bounded by a finite chain of straight lines. A polygon can be concave or convex and it can also be regular or irregular. A concave polygon is a polygon in which at least one of its interior angles is greater than 1
From playlist Classify Polygons