by Nicholas Cain
Have you ever played tic-tac-toe? If so, what is the move that Player 1 should make first? If you answered “Go in the middle!”, your’re WRONG. Oh wait, I forgot to tell you, you’re playing this game on a torus. Dr. Jeffery Weeks put on a heck of a show tonight, dazzling the audience of the Pacific-Northwest Section of the Mathematical Association of America with his work creating visualizations and games played on two and three-dimensional tori. Kids young and old were simultaneously educated and entertained, while being hurled in a spaceship (eerily similar to a Tholian Cruiser) through a dazzling 3D rendering of Poincaré Dodecahedral Space. Math educators teaching students of any age should certainly check out Dr. Weeks’ page, if not for new teaching tools then at least for a much needed distraction. Think of it like Portal meets flash games for nerds, who could say no?!