The post links to the wikipedia pages for two of the problms, so it is pretty easy to get the background on them. At any rate, the point of the post was not tho

The post links to the wikipedia pages for two of the problms, so it is pretty easy to get the background on them. At any rate, the point of the post was not those particular problems, but how the instructor uses them to challenge the students. I think digressions into why those problems are mathematically or practically interesting would distract from the main theme of the post.