AoPS

From the Administrators of Art of Problem Solving.

Origins[]

In the summer of 1990, after his first year of college, Richard Rusczyk invited two friends from the Math Olympiad Summer Program, Sandor Lehoczky and Sam Vandervelde, to join him in building a new national math contest. Sam came up with naming the contest the "Mandelbrot Competition," with the intent of using the Mandelbrot Set as a logo. Richard called Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot from a payphone at a convenience store to ask his permission to use his name. Dr. Mandelbrot gracefully agreed.

Unfortunately, the first two years of the Mandelbrot Competition weren't as successful as Richard Rusczyk hoped. The scores on the tests were extremely low, perhaps because the tests were too hard, or perhaps because the students hadn't been exposed to as much math as we had. While walking across campus discussing the problem, Sandor suggested a solution: "We should write a book!"

Eighteen months later, one book became four: two texts and two solution manuals entitled the Art of Problem Solving. On the advice of a publisher at Princeton University Press, Richard Rusczyk published the texts himself. Fortunately, organizations Richard had been involved in with as students helped us get the word out, and the books quickly found an audience.

Nine years later, that audience was a critical starting point for the launch of www.artofproblemsolving.com.