2-4-1895

Thomas Kirkman died near Manchester, England. This self-educated mathematician delighted in versifying problems and devising mnemonics for troublesome formulas--in fact he wrote a whole book on this topic. He is best remembered for a problem he posed in 1850 in the Lady's and Gentleman's Diary: Fifteen schoolgirls took daily walks arranged in five rows of three each so that each might have a companion. How can they arrange it so that they can take seven walks without any girl walking with any other girl in a triplet more than once?

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Thomas Kirkman