Simon had a wonderful time at MathsJam Antwerp again. One of the problems was something he was already familiar with – the puzzle about hanging a painting using two pegs so that it would definitely fall if one removes any of the two pegs. He explained the way to solve this problem in an abstract way (turning pegs into strings, using knot theory and compiling the algorithm). Later the same evening, he developed a new algorithm to solve the same problem for three pegs and successfully demonstrated the result on his own shoe laces. His solution was the most efficient/ elegant in the group and his enthusiasm was very catchy, the audience said.
In the video below, Simon at first fails to apply his solution correctly, but succeeds upon the second attempt:
Geeks out of the box 