One of the side characters in the recent documentary Wordplay is a desi crossword puzzle aficionado named Kiran Kedlaya, who came in second at the 2006 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (the Crossword Superbowl, if you will). Kedlaya is an MIT mathematics professor who specializes in polynomial equations. According to the interview on Cogito.org, he started competitive crossword solving in graduate school, and says the skill works the same part of the brain math does:
Is there a connection between math and crosswords? Dr. Kedlaya thinks that math, music and computer science – popular professions among “solvers” – tap into a similar part of the brain. Wordplay, says Dr. Kedlaya, suggests that the link is using language in unique way. In a crossword, figuring out the word from the clue is not sufficient; decoding how the letters cross is vital, too. (link)
This is corroborated in the film Wordplay, where it’s pointed out that a disproportionate number of the top crossword puzzle-solvers are people with computer science and mathematics backgrounds. It makes a certain kind of sense — though I might have expected verbal types to have a leg up in some ways.
The obvious issue this might raise for people is, to what extent is crossword puzzle solving a kind of adult version of a spelling bee? I tend to think the skills involved are somewhat different: while doing the NYT Sunday Crossword requires a large reservoir of arcane knowledge, it doesn’t require (or benefit from) rote memorization.
After the jump: a super-easy Sepia Mutiny themed Crossword I myself created, using a free service. 
As I said, this should be super-easy. If anyone wants to create better (more interesting, complex, or thematic) puzzles, I would love to see them. (Perhaps there might be more sophisticated websites that let you create crossword puzzles, using a larger number of words and clues?)
(For the bloggers in the house, try creating your own puzzle: do an image-grab, post it, and then link to it in the comments.)
slow news day eh amardeep
6 letter word for sid darth. macaca
yeah, must be a slow news day for the mutiny :)….. i remember watching this particular documentary in the theater, and seeing kiran competing ..i gasped…. he lived in the same house as me in college…how could i forget the hair? :)….. weird to see him onscreen…there is another great nerdy documentary out there about scrabble competitions called word wars for those interested
Macacq, I have to admit that the only news that’s really been getting my attention these days is the horrible situation in Iraq — on which there isn’t much of a desi angle, Bobby Ghosh and Rajiv Chandrasekaran notwithstanding. Compared to that, the rest of the world is pretty much in a Slow News Year right now.
Still, I thought this might be interesting to some people at least — at SM we’ve had several involved discussions about the dominance of Indian kids at the Scripps Spelling Bee. This is similar in some ways, though not totally. (Anyway, Kiran K. has a pretty impressive resume quite separate from his mastery of crosswords, so the old criticism that spelling bee champions are a bit like trained parrots doesn’t apply)
I hear you Amardeep. The headlines today, and the headlines all week long, made me sad.
Amardeep @ #4,
You’ve no idea what a heck of an understatement that adverb “pretty” turns the above sentence into!!! Oh, and one other thing: to say that Kedlaya “specializes in polynomial equations” is a bit like saying that Wolfgang Pauli specialized in tossing coins. C’mon guys, math is not that arcane that it cannot be reported accurately!
GB, if you have more details you want to add, feel free.
GB, dont hate, educate!
Amardeep, this:
“…who is interested in zeta functions associated with algebraic curves. The original zeta function of Riemann can be used to study the distribution of prime numbers. It is of interest not just to number theorists but also to computer scientists. The notion of “primeness” can be generalized to a setting where polynomials play the role of integers, and this yields a whole class of new zeta functions. These functions form a part of Kedlaya’s mathematical interests.”
is a somewhat longer (more accurate, perhaps ?) substitute for the “specializes in polynomial equations…” statement in your post.
I shall not venture to clarify my first statement @ #5. Kedlaya may be a regular reader and would, I suspect, feel slightly uncomfortable encountering unanticipated praise of his work at a site that’s not primarily about math.
CinnamonRani @ #8; I wasn’t hating. I was simply amused and should’ve thrown in a smiley or two! If my response seemed somewhat high-pitched, it’s because I’ve still to get used to the fact that modern-day reportage — whether by the MSM or on any general-interest blog — of any of the sciences apart from medicine/physiology has such an air of bemusement about it.
Oh brother. It’s not just about news. It’s about whatever floats through their minds and they want to talk about. If it was just some kind of new aggregating blog it would be lamer than a lame lame thing. If you don’t like it move along.
I got most of the answers except ‘Sipahi’ and ‘Sidarth’ and ‘Nasal Vocalist’!
I guess I have not been paying attention.
Nicely done, Amardeep.
A few minor points, typos and such : 1 Ac. should be “Monica Belluci was going to play her.”. The capital N’s in 11 Ac. and 1 Dn. are not significant. 4 Ac might need some disambiguation.
I thought I was only missing 6. and 12, but I am probably missing one more.
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Shankar, I saw the typo on “Monica,” but I was too lazy to redo the whole puzzle, grab the screen and then post it again.
I thought 4 across would be obvious. Think “Sepoy.”
6 across is easy if you are a bollywood fan.
Are, I just realized 12 across is a mistake — the word I had in mind actually doesn’t have a necessary Desi connection (just Trini).
I may have to do an updated/ fixed puzzle after all. Forgive me, this was my first try!
Has anyone solved the crossword yet? It’s too early in the morning for me to work that part of my brain. Cute idea Amardeep, to make the SM crossword puzzle…Almost as cute as the SM Soundtrack Compilation CD.
I agree with GB. Winning the Crossword tournament is one of his lesser distinguished achievements. He was a Putnam fellow for 3 years in a row. For the uninitiated, Putnam competition is the biggest Math Tournament among college students in North America. Many Putnam fellows have gone on to win the Fields Medal and many have won the Nobel Prize. Other achievements include gold medals in the International Math Olympiad. Echoing GB’s earlier sentiments, Kiran might be a reader of this site, and I won’t say any more.
GB said in #4
GB also said in #9
Seriously GB, is that the best you can do to explain what KK does? If that the case then comment #4 is probably not true.
Rev.Bayes seems to have made more of an effort to bring out the fact that KK’s peers think he is the shiznit. Much more educational to us unwashed masses at these general interest blogs.
Yes KK is all that but I do hope he tones down his webhype a little. Yes it is true that there are many many professors with no where near his level of achievement, who are regular braggarts. But sooner or later we see it. The bragging diminishes them just as humility adds to the aura.
Now look at the webpage of another Math god: http://math.nyu.edu/faculty/varadhan/. Srinivasa Varadhan is one of the foremost probabilists in the world. Compare and contrast.
check this demo out.. this product (in testing) is creating waves
http://www.demo.com/demonstrators/demo2007/91379.php
If you are expecting the answer, “No,” then I won’t disappoint you 🙂 I was hoping to post a better explanation by simply getting Kedlaya to do the explaining; i.e. throwing in a link to a nicely descriptive page entitled “Some things I am interested in” on Kedlaya’s website, but that link seems to have vanished. On a lighter note: it’s kinda futile to get a mathematician to explain why some math is the next best thing after Jesus Christ and sliced bread; most reasonable mathematicians are dispositionally incapable of doing so.
Or, at any rate, they will not be able to do so in very few words. I felt that a more detailed exposition (which might amount to a separate article) would not be appreciated, hence the rather telegraphic stub @ #9. Having said that, I don’t see why you are so grumpy. My comment @ #6 was about the inaccurate reporting of Kedlaya’s work; would you rather see a clearly misleading statement like, “Kedlaya is an MIT mathematics professor who specializes in polynomial equations…” stand uncorrected ? Of course, you might’ve been expecting a comment on why Kedlaya’s peers “think he is the shiznit” but, as I’ve explained, the purpose of my stub was merely to correct a factual point in Amardeep’s post.
Oops! Comment #20 is by GB, folks. I seem to have entered the (intended) 1st line of my comment into the name field. Sorry!
well, gb explained what it was that KK does versus saying that’s he has a bunch of medals (and therefore, the shiznit) … i appreciate the explanation & agree w/ gb that except for medical stuff, blurbs about other sciences are just so blah