Can you cut a square into an odd number of triangles of equal area?

Aaron Abrams, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Emory University

Abstract: Or how about this one: can you color each point of the plane with one of three colors, in a nontrivial way, such that no straight line contains points of all three colors? Right now you should be asking yourself: "Why did he say 'odd'?" and "What does nontrivial mean?" You should then answer the question. Anyway, during this talk, these questions (and more!) will be answered. The solutions involve a bit of topology, a bit of number theory, and, frankly, a bit of magic.