Cover text
The Seventieth Annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition
Administered by the Mathematical Association of America
A competitive examination in collegiate mathematics to be given
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2009 to contestants from colleges and
universities in the United States and Canada
Address correspondence to
Leonard F. Klosinski, Director
Putnam Mathematical Competition
Department of Mathematics
Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053-0374
The Seventieth Annual
William Lowell Putnam
Mathematical Competition
will be held on
Saturday, December 5, 2009
HISTORY
The competition began in 1938 and is designed to stimulate a healthful
rivalry in mathematical studies in the colleges and universities of
the United States and Canada. It exists because Mr. William Lowell
Putnam had a profound conviction in the value of organized team
competition in regular college studies. Mr. Putnam, a member of the
Harvard class of 1882, wrote an article for the December 1921 issue of
the Harvard Graduates' Magazine in which he described the merits of an
intellectual intercollegiate competition. To establish such a
competition, his widow, Elizabeth Lowell Putnam, in 1927 created a
trust fund known as the William Lowell Putnam Intercollegiate Memorial
Fund. The first competition supported by this fund was in the field of
English and a few years later a second experimental competition was
held, this time in mathematics between two institutions. It was not
until after Mrs. Putnam's death in 1935 that the examination assumed
its present form and was placed under the administration of the
Mathematical Association of America.
RULES
The competition is open only to regularly enrolled undergraduates, in
colleges and universities of the United States and Canada, who have
not yet received a college degree. No individual may participate in
the competition more than four times. An eligible entrant who is also
a high school student must be informed of this four time limit. There
is no provision for "unofficial" entrants.
A college or university with at least three registered entrants
obtains a team rank through the positions achieved by three designated
individual contestants.
No collaboration or outside assistance is permitted. Each contestant,
even if designated as a team member, must work independently on the
examination questions.
SCHEDULE
The examination will be held on Saturday, December 5, 2009. In
order to assure uniformity and fairness to all, the examination shall consist
of two periods of exactly three hours each with a two hour break between
the two sessions, under the official supervision of a faculty member of the
department of mathematics in the institution. The exact starting times are
a function of the time zone in which the institution is located.
Time Zone: Mountain = Morning Session 8:30 am - 11:30 pm, Afternoon
Session = 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Students who for religious reasons cannot take the examination at the
scheduled hours may take the examination after sundown on December 5,
upon request by the supervisor and approval of the Director. Such
students must remain under the supervision of a faculty member, rabbi,
or clergyman from the official starting time for that time zone on the
day of the examination.
REGISTRATION
Any college or university desiring to compete should complete the
registration material accompanying this announcement and return it so
as to reach the Director not later than October
13, 2009.
When there are three or more contestants from the same institution,
those chosen as the team should be numbered 1, 2, and 3. The others
should be numbered in sequence as alternate team members with the
understanding that contestant number 4 is to be a member of the team
if one of the first three does not take the examination, and so on.
DESCRIPTION
The examination will be constructed to test originality as well as
technical competence. It is expected that the contestant will be
familiar with the formal theories embodied in undergraduate
mathematics. It is assumed that such training, designed for
mathematics and physical science majors, will include somewhat more
sophisticated mathematical concepts than is the case in minimal
courses. Thus the differential equations course is presumed to include
some references to qualitative existence theorems and subtleties
beyond the routine solution devices. Questions will be included that
cut across the bounds of various disciplines, and self-contained
questions that do not fit into any of the usual categories may be
included. It will be assumed that the contestant has acquired a
familiarity with the body of mathematical lore commonly discussed in
mathematics clubs or in courses with such titles as "survey of the
foundations of mathematics." It is also expected that the
self-contained questions involving elementary concepts from group
theory, set theory, graph theory, lattice theory, number theory, and
cardinal arithmetic will not be entirely foreign to the contestant's
experience.
GRADING
Each problem is graded on a basis of 0 to 10 points. All the
necessary work to justify an answer and all the necessary steps
of a proof must be shown clearly to obtain full credit. Some
partial credit may be given, but only when a
contestant has shown significant and substantial progress toward a
solution.
PRIZES AND SCHOLARSHIPS
WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM PRIZES
Prizes will be awarded to the departments of mathematics of the
institutions with the five winning teams. In addition, there will be
prizes awarded to each of the members of these teams. The five highest
ranking individuals are designated Putnam Fellows by the Mathematical
Association of America. Prizes will be awarded to each of these
individuals and to each of the next twenty highest ranking
contestants.
The trustees of the Putnam Fund also will award at Harvard University
the annual William Lowell Putnam Prize Scholarship to one of the
Putnam Fellows. This scholarship is available either immediately or on
completion of the undergraduate course of the successful candidate and
carries a value of up to $12,000 plus tuition at Harvard.
Institutions throughout the United States and Canada are encouraged to
offer fellowships to high ranking contestants in the competition.
ELIZABETH LOWELL PUTNAM PRIZE
The Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize will be awarded periodically to a
woman whose performance on the Competition has been deemed
particularly meritorious. This prize would be in addition to any other
prize she might otherwise win. Women contestants, to be eligible for
this prize, must specify their gender.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The names and addresses of the top five hundred contestants and the
names of the top ten teams will be mailed to all participating
institutions. The high ranking individuals will be grouped into the
categories: Putnam Fellows, next highest ten, next highest ten,
honorable mention, others in the top hundred, the next hundred, and
the next three hundred. No other information on scores or rankings
will be included in general announcements.
A report giving the scores and rankings of individuals at a
participating institution and the team ranking (top 150 only) will be
mailed to the supervisor of the examination at the
institution. Contestants must obtain their ranking from the
supervisor.
The lists of the top ten teams and the top hundred individual
contestants, in the categories described above, will be published in
the American Mathematical Monthly, together with the problems and
solutions.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
More information on the Putnam Competition can be found in two
articles in the May 1965 issue of the American Mathematical
Monthly. Garrett Birkhoff described in one the early history and L. E.
Bush gave in the other the later history and a summary of results up
to that time. There are three Putnam problem books that contain
collections of problems with solutions as well as historical
information about the competition: (1) A. M. Gleason, R. E. Greenwood
and L. M. Kelly, The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition/
Problems and Solutions: 1938-1964, (2) Gerald L. Alexanderson,
Leonard F. Klosinski and Loren C. Larson, The William Lowell Putnam
Mathematical Competition/Problems and Solutions: 1965-1984, and (3)
Kiran S. Kedlaya, Bjorn Poonen and Ravi Vakil, The William Lowell
Putnam Mathematical Competition 1985-2000 Problems, Solutions and
Commentary.
The questions on the Putnam examination are regularly published in the
Monthly. The following issues of the Monthly contain questions, and
sometimes solutions, for earlier competitions:
May 1942,
Oct. 1946,
Aug.-Sept. 1947,
Dec. 1948,
Aug.-Sept. 1949,
Aug.-Sept. 1950,
Aug.-Sept. 1951,
Oct. 1952,
Oct. 1953,
Oct. 1954,
Oct. 1955,
Jan. 1957,
Nov. 1957,
Jan. 1961,
Aug.-Sept. 1961,
Oct. 1962,
Aug.-Sept. 1963,
June-July 1964,
Aug.-Sept. 1965,
Aug.-Sept. 1966,
Aug.-Sept. 1967,
Aug.-Sept. 1968,
Oct. 1969,
Aug.-Sept. 1970,
Aug. Sept. 1971,
Feb. 1973,
Nov. 1973,
Dec. 1974,
Nov. 1975,
Nov. 1976,
Jan. 1978,
Mar. 1979,
Nov. 1979,
Oct. 1980,
Oct. 1981,
Nov. 1982,
Oct. 1983,
Oct. 1984,
Oct. 1985,
Oct. 1986,
Oct. 1987,
Oct. 1988,
Oct. 1989,
April 1991,
Oct. 1991,
Oct. 1992,
Oct. 1993,
Oct. 1994,
Oct. 1995,
Oct. 1996,
Oct. 1997,
Oct. 1998,
Nov. 1999,
Oct. 2000,
Nov. 2001,
Nov. 2002,
Oct. 2003,
Oct. 2004,
Oct. 2005,
Oct. 2006,
Oct. 2007,
Oct. 2008
FIRST PLACE TEAMS
(in the last 10+ years)
competition / Date / Institution
50th 12/2/89 Harvard University
51st 12/1/90 Harvard University
52nd 12/7/91 Harvard University
53rd 12/5/92 Harvard University
54th 12/4/93 Duke University
55th 12/3/94 Harvard University
56th 12/2/95 Harvard University
57th 12/7/96 Duke University
58th 12/6/97 Harvard University
59th 12/5/98 Harvard University
60th 12/4/99 University of Waterloo
61st 12/2/00 Duke University
62nd 12/1/01 Harvard University
63rd 12/7/02 Harvard University
64th 12/6/03 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
65th 12/4/04 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
66th 12/3/05 Harvard University
67th 12/2/06 Princeton University
68th 12/1/07 Harvard University
69th 12/6/08 Harvard University
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