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    HACKENBUSH: a window to a new world of math

    Owen Maitzen

    3 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2022–2025

    YouTube

    57:03 · 562K views · Aug 22, 2021

    Owen Maitzen's animated hour-long introduction to Hackenbush, a simple combinatorial game, and how its strategy leads to surreal numbers and the roots of the number system.

    HN recommends it as an accessible, well-visualized entry point to Hackenbush, surreal numbers and their link to Nim.

    Mathematics & Theoretical CSRecreational & visual mathProbability & game theoryPure mathematics
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    3 comments from Hacker News

    1. @lblumeFeb 2025· in “Transfinite NIM (the game, not the programming language)”

      Nim is, in fact, a proper subset of Hackenbush, a game extensively studied by Conway. I found the following video extremely useful and well-visualized: this video

      Strongly recommendsView on HN
    2. @nthingtohideDec 2024· in “Numbers Are Leaves”

      HACKENBUSH: a window to a new world of math this video Thanks for the blogpost, I think you will like this above SOME3 entry. Owen Maitzen committed suicide which is mentioned in the following video. The Endless Universe of "Bean and Nothingness" [LINK]

      RecommendsView on HN
    3. @rini17Sep 2022· in “Indefinite and Fictitious Numbers”

      All numbers are fictitious :) Though, I think "games" built on surreal numbers are akin to these. [LINK] An accessible intro: this video

      RecommendsView on HN