The hardest problem on the hardest test

I like the 3blue1brown youtube series for explaining mathematical problem solving, like this example explaining a difficult problem from the Putnam: ▶ this video "And those of you who follow the channel know that rather than just jumping straight to the solution, which in this case will be surprisingly short, when possible I prefer to take the time to walk through how you might stumble upon the solution yourself. That is, make the video more about the problem-solving process than the particular problem used to exemplify it." I bailed out of math around calculus, and these videos helped me at least appreciate what I was missing.

in “How to avoid being hit by a laser in a room of mirrors [video]” · View on HN

This is an extension of an animation library used by math YouTuber 3blue1brown [0]. He has an excellent channel that I would recommend anything from. One of my favorite videos of his is where he shows the thought process behind solving a level 6 Putnam competition problem and makes it seem almost doable [1]. [0] [link] [1] ▶ this video

in “Manim: An animation engine for explanatory math videos” · View on HN

3Blue1Brown is really great for learning/refreshing math. He has great visualizations. I especially enjoyed this video (not exactly a math tutorial more of a cool explanation): ▶ this video

in “A Programmer’s Intuition for Matrix Multiplication” · View on HN

Indeed, I'd recommend the "interesting proof" vignettes by 3Blue1Brown: ▶ this video These are my favorite videos of his

in “Think in Math, Write in Code” · View on HN

So many things I could say about this, but I"ll let Alan Kay speak for me - [link] Alan talks about how ideas in Calculus could be manifested from an early age and a richness in understanding built up as they aged up: - at very young ages, kids really respond well through "doing" / the enactive channel. When asked to draw a circle, kids in Papert's group would first emulate what a LOGO turtle would do by rotating their body in a circle (making tiny increments in x and y). - as they got a bit older, the visual / iconic channel was more developed and they could understand the abstraction of a circle on pencil/paper and how the concepts carried over there - closer to early teens, symbols were much easier to grasp and relate to, etc. With this context in mind, there have been some cool efforts to mix the second and third channels I just mentioned to communicate advanced math concepts. Vi Hart and Grant Sanderson's youtube channels come to mind. Here are my favorite videos by Grant: - "What does it feel like to invent math": [link] - On the visual intuition behind a hard problem on the Putnam exam - "The hardest problem on the hardest test": ▶ this video - From vectors to matrices to vector spaces to higher-level ideas like the link between linear algebra and calculus: "Essence of linear algebra" series: [link] What I especially like about Grant's videos, is that he often walks through what a mathematician would do, the questions she would ask, etc.

in “Communicating Advanced Mathematics to Kids” · View on HN

Related — these videos give a sense of how someone might actually go about thinking through and solving these kinds of problems: - A 3Blue1Brown video on a particularly nice and unexpectedly difficult IMO problem (2011 IMO, Q2): [link] -- And another similar one (though technically Putnam, not IMO): ▶ this video - Timothy Gowers (Fields Medalist and IMO perfect scorer) solving this year’s IMO problems in “real time”: -- Q1: [link] -- Q4: [link]

in “OpenAI claims gold-medal performance at IMO 2025” · View on HN