C U R T I S   T U C K E Y
HOW to COLOR a MAP

Tuesday, March 18, 5:30-8:30pm
The Lounge at Iwan Ries, 19 South Wabash

Cocktails at 5:30, presentation 6:00-6:30
followed by discussion and more cocktails.    
$40 includes drinks, two cigars, and sandwiches. 
 Reservations are required.

Imagine looking at a map of Africa’s Ivory Coast, where within a few hundred miles you have Benin and Togo, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and Equatorial Guinea... it becomes a blur to the mind and the eye. How can one keep these countries straight?

On October 23, 1852, Professor Augustus De Morgan wrote a letter to a colleague that included a problem posed by a former student of his: what is the least possible number of colors needed to fill in any map, real or invented, so that neighboring counties or countries are always colored differently?

Despite being attacked, piece by piece, by the foremost mathematicians of the world, the problem remained unsolved for 125 years. The final solution, was completed using supercomputers at the University of Illinois in 1976.

Believe it or not, this story of math and maps is a real page-turner, filled with colorful characters, dramatic twists and turns, stunning setbacks and disappointments, heart-breaking suicides and near suicides, and finally, success, here in Illinois.