Math Field Day California State University, Fresno April 16, 2005

First game

What you need

• A strip of paper, any length, marked off into squares, like this..

  

• A bunch of coins or poker chips.

• Set up the game by laying out the strip of paper and placing any number of coins anywhere on the paper, one coin per square, leaving as many squares as you like empty.

  

• Each of the players takes turns moving a coin. This is how coins may be moved:
  • Two coins may not share a square.
  • No coin may pass another coin.
  • Coins only move to the left
  • Within these restrictions, coins can move any number of spaces.
  • Here are a few moves that these players could make:

  

  

  

  

• When all the coins are lined up on the left as shown below, no more coins can be moved. The last player to move a coin is the winner. (Which is to say the first person who cannot move a coin loses.)