mathematics

Scott Kim

Scott Kim is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Scott Kim rather than just read about it. In short: Scott Edward Kim (born 1955 in Washington, D.C.) is an American puzzle designer, video game designer, artist, author, and recreational mathematician. He has published puzzles in various magazines, including Discover, Scientific American, and Games.

Key takeaways

Scott Kim belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Scott Kim to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Scott Kim from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Scott Edward Kim (born 1955 in Washington, D.C.) is an American puzzle designer, video game designer, artist, author, and recreational mathematician. He has published puzzles in various magazines, including Discover, Scientific American, and Games. He is a regular speaker on puzzle design, notably at the International Game Developers Conference, The Casual Games Conference and TED conferences. Along with John Langdon he is one of the co-discoverers of ambigrams. From the 1970s onward, his puzzles were frequently published in Martin Gardner's "Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American. He has been involved in organizing and participating in the Gathering 4 Gardner conferences from the first one in 1990. Kim has designed logos for Silicon Graphics, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, the Hackers Conference, the Computer Game Developers Conference, the Gathering 4 Gardner conference and the Dylan programming language.

Early life and education Born in 1955 in Washington, D.C., and of Korean descent, Kim grew up in Rolling Hills Estates, California and developed early interests in mathematics, education, and art. He attended Stanford University, receiving a BA in music in 1976, and a PhD in Computers and Graphic Design in 1987, with the dissertation "Viewpoint: Toward a Computer for Visual Thinkers" under Donald Knuth. Kim's ideas about art and computing are described in the book Programmers at Work, a collection of interviews published by Microsoft Press in 1986. He started writing an occasional "Boggler" column for Discover magazine in 1990, and became an exclusive columnist in 1999. He has created hundreds of puzzles for magazines such as Scientific American and Games, as well as thousands of puzzles for computer games. He held the Harold Keables chair at Iolani School in 2008.

Works Books 1981 Inversions, Byte Books, ISBN 1-55953-280-7, a book of 60 original ambigrams 1989 Letterforms & Illusion, W. H. Freeman & Co., created with Robin Samelson, accompanies the book, Inversions. 2006 Brainteasers, Mind Benders, Games, Word Searches, Puzzlers, Mazes & More Calendar 2007, Workman Publishing Company, ISBN 0-7611-4079-4 2012 How Puzzles Improve Your Brain Computer games Heaven and Earth, Buena Vista / Disney The Next Tetris, Hasbro Interactive, PlayStation Obsidian, SegaSoft, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS Charlie Blast's Territory Nintendo 64 Puzzles, toys and board games 1969 Quintapaths, published by Kadon (tiling puzzle) 1998 Railroad Rush Hour, ThinkFun (toy)

Personal life Kim lives in Burlingame, California with his wife Amy Jo, son Gabriel and daughter Lila Rose. Amy Jo Kim is the author of Community Building on the Web.

References

External links Personal website The art of puzzles TED Talk at the Entertainment Gathering Conference 2008 Scott Kim at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Scott Kim

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Scott Kim claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Scott Kim before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Scott Kim ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Scott Kim

In research: Scott Kim appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Scott Kim in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Scott Kim is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1955 births, American male writers, American video game designers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Scott Kim outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Scott Kim in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Scott Kim means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Scott Kim out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Scott Kim in simple terms?

Why does Scott Kim matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Scott Kim?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Scott Kim.