1983/01/01 by Richard K. Guy · 19 citations
Computer Science · Mathematics · #Art #Combinatorics #Computability, Logic, AI Algorithms #Computer science #Exposition (narrative) #Literature #Mathematics #Mathematics education #Prime (order theory) #Programming language #Turing
paper · doi:10.1080/0025570x.1983.11977011
published in Mathematics Magazine 56(1), 26-33 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 1983/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
Conway does it again! He's already given us Life and Sprouts, Phutball and Hackenbush, the Doomsday Rule and Sylver Coinage, and dozens of other things [1], bewildering on first acquaintance, but enticingly arranged and punctuated with pedagogy so that we can't help learning about them. It's an old adage that you don't really understand something until you teach it to someone else. Donald Knuth extends this to teaching it to a computer. John Horton Conway is never satisfied with his exposition until he can explain his latest interest to the person-in-the-street, even one without mathematical training. If you understand logic and computers all the way from Turing machines to the implementing of a program that you've written in a high-level language, then this article isn't for you. But before you go, you must at least be intrigued by Conway's machine, a row of fourteen rational numbers (FIGURE 1).