Many areas of mathematics have their source in recreational problems. Number theory, probability, graph theory and topology spring immediately to mind. Recreational topics have had applications in such fields as prime factorisation in public-key cryptography, knots in molecular biology, Penrose tiles in crystallography and the M?bius strip as a conveyor belt. We learn from Richard Fletcher's tribute to Bill Tutte (see page 278) of his interest in puzzles and that he and three other undergraduates of Trinity College, Cambridge, solved the problem of 'squaring a square'. The first perfect square, where the component, non-overlapping, squares are of different sizes and exactly cover the given square with integer sides, and the accompanying theory,were published by Tutte in 1950. Tutte was later to say that: 'This research soon called for much graph theory.' So we discern in these recreational activities the genesis of his profound influence and contribution to the fields of graph theory and matroid theory.
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