Packet N: Tossup 20

In 2007, Alex Smith won a 25,000-dollar prize for showing that a system denoted (2, 3) has a “weak” form of this property. Alan Perlis coined a term referring to systems with this property that are nonetheless not very useful as “tarpits.” In 2004, Matthew Cook (10[1])demonstrated that Rule 110 (10[1])has this property, (10[1])thus showing (10[1])elementary cellular (10[1])automata (-5[1])can have it. (10[1]-5[1])In 2019, (10[3])Alex Churchill showed that the game Magic: the Gathering (10[5])has this (10[1])property. (10[12]-5[1])Tom Wildenhain once jokingly (-5[1])demonstrated that (10[1])Microsoft PowerPoint does in fact (10[1])have (10[1])this property. (10[1]-5[1])Given infinite memory, most (-5[1])programming languages, like Python and Java, have this property. A system that can compute any computable function has, for 10 points, what property of systems that are equivalent to a head that reads and writes (-5[1])symbols on an infinite tape? (10[3]0[4])■END■

ANSWER: Turing-completeness [or computational universality; accept weak-universality; accept answers specifying that it is a Turing machine or that it can simulate a Turing machine; reject “computable” or “computability”]
<GC, Other Science> | Packet N - Simon Fraser A, Carleton A, Georgia Tech A, Claremont A, Warwick A, Columbia B
= Average correct buzzpoint

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Buzzes

PlayerTeamOpponentBuzzpointValue
Jerry VinokurovJohn JayMaryland A4510
Asha BasuMcGill AToronto D4910
Skand ParvatikarArizona StateUCSD C5210
Jake MeltzerCWRU ACWRU B5410
Luke RobitailleMITHarvard A5610
Oliver WestCambridge CEdinburgh B57-5
Colin VeeversOttawaToronto C6010
Jake MarkusDartmouth BHarvard B60-5
Kaiwen XiaoUCLA AUCLA B6210
Fish TsaiUCSD AUCSD B6210
Dennis YangMichigan BMichigan C6210
Michael DuWaterloo ABrock7110
Hamish CampbellDurhamCambridge B7110
Zoë McGuireOxford BImperial A7110
Brandon WeissColumbia CNYU C7110
Aiden BangJohns Hopkins BColumbia A7110
Eveline OngOxford ALSE7310
Winston ZuoUC Santa BarbaraUC Irvine7410
Athan JuritschToronto GQueen's7410
Amir DolanskyToronto EToronto Metropolitan7410
Matthew WangUBC AWaterloo B7410
Sriram SusarlaUBC BMcMaster B7410
Joey SunToronto BWestern B7410
Rohan Navaneetha RajOhio State BOhio State C7410
Elliott GomesDartmouth ABowdoin B74-5
Artem BorisovBristolImperial C7410
Imran Abdul RahmanUCLCity St. George's7410
Eric MorshedJohns Hopkins ASwarthmore7410
Ian ParsonsMaryland CNYU A7410
Jacob Hardin-BernhardtNYU BRutgers B7410
Christian HumeniukMcMaster AWestern A78-5
Yashwanth BajjiMichigan APittsburgh8010
Ella TangMcGill BToronto F8510
Aiden DartleyRutgers AMaryland B8610
Dylan SteptoeGuelphWestern C88-5
Nathaniel MartinBrandeis BSouthern Connecticut State8810
Dillon GeorgeCatholicVassar92-5
Calvin BostlemanOhio State AMichigan State127-5
Nicholas KwanWestern AMcMaster A1330
Andrew HarmsMichigan StateOhio State A13310
Chris DechBrandeis ABowdoin A1330
Neiman MocombeBowdoin ABrandeis A1330
Max NealHarvard BDartmouth B13310
Ted HarrisonEdinburgh BCambridge C13310
Ezra SiegartelVassarCatholic1330

Summary

TournamentEditionMatchHeardConv. %Neg %Avg. Buzz
California (South)Main Site4100%0%62.50
CanadaMain Site1182%18%70.56
Great LakesMain Site5100%20%80.60
NortheastMain Site560%40%92.33
UKMain Site6100%17%82.67
Upper Mid-AtlanticMain Site888%13%70.71