
Circles—the geometric shape that keeps giving! This issue of Math Horizons features several circle-related articles. In our cover story, Christopher Ennis proves that a random process of placing circles in a circular frame will never terminate. We also turn our gaze to our circular holiday, Pi Day. Nicholas Fiori and Luke Anderson engage in a spirited debate over whether Pi Day is a silly celebration that we should retire or whether it inspires future mathematics students. Cornelia Van Cott shows that we can celebrate the Pi Day of the Century every year, as long as we're willing to change our metric. Read Katherine Merow's conversation with University of Chicago mathematician Amie Wilkinson, George Hart's instructions to build a mathematical sculpture out of playing cards, Andrew Simoson's mathematical investigation of Utopia on its 500th birthday, and more in this issue of Math Horizons. —David Richeson, editor
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Supplements
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Articles
(Always) Room for One More
Christopher Ennis
Flow Free on a Torus
Brian Kronenthal and Wing Hong Tony Wong
All You Need to Be a Mathematician
Katharine Merow
Run, Hero, Run!
Mike Naylor
Radical Dash
Alexandra Branscombe
Pi Day, Pro and Con
Nicholas Fiori and Luke Anderson
Minimizing Utopia
Andrew Simoson
DO THE MATH!
Tunnel-Cube
George Hart
A Pi Day of the Century Every Year
Cornelia A. Van Cott (pdf)
THE BOOKSHELF
Matt Davis reviews The Magic of Math: Solving for x and Figuring Out Why, by Arthur Benjamin; Jeb Collins reviews Genius at Play: The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway, by Siobhan Roberts.
THE PLAYGROUND
The Math Horizons problem section, edited by Gary Gordon
The Law of the Broken Futon
Ben Orlin