May/June 2019

Features

30th Anniversary
Feature

30th Anniversary

By Shawna Ackerman
Happy 30th, A Google search of the year 1989 reveals (the first) George Bush was sworn in as president of the United States in January, China’s Tiananmen Square protests happened in April, Hurricane Hugo slammed into the United States in September, and the Berlin Wall fell in November. Concurrent with these auspicious historical events, that same year the Academy launched its bimonthly magazine, Contingencies.

Departments

Four Points
Puzzles

Four Points

By Stephen Meskin
This problem concerns the number of ways of putting four distinct points in a (Euclidean) plane. But first, let me put the problem in context.

Addressing Addiction
End Paper

Addressing Addiction

By Sam Gutterman
Wow—my iPhone just told me that I only spent 4 hours and 47 minutes per day on my phone last week. At least that was a decrease of 5 percent over the previous week!