Break a Weighing Stone
From the weekly car talk puzzler: RAY: A farmer had a 40-pound stone which he could use to weigh 40 pounds of feed; he would sell feed in 40 pounds, or bales of hay, or whatever. He had a balance … Continue reading
Tag Archives: puzzler
Painting Puzzler – Car Talk
I never could remember how to solve these type of questions. RAY: Tommy, Dougie and I are sitting around the office one day at Car Talk Plaza. We were noticing how dingy the place looked. We’d been there 15 years, … Continue reading
Matchstick Puzzler: 16 – 90 Degree Angles
New puzzler from Cartalk: How do you make 16 ninety-degree angles out of 4 matchsticks? Visit the Cartalk site for the full text and a hint(?).
First Day Activity: Puzzlers
On the first day of class in AP Calculus and Pre-Calculus Honors I’ll give out the following list of puzzlers that they’ll have a limited amount of time to work on. The students will be working in groups on the … Continue reading
The Love Tree – A Math Puzzler (?)
From Car Talk. A teenage boy smitten with a teenage girl in his high school freshman class, made his feelings known. Overjoyed at finding them reciprocated, he took pen knife to a young hard wood in the vicinity and carved … Continue reading
Dr. Square
Much like the Collatz conjecture, the Dr. Square Puzzle (from the blog mathforlove) is an intriguing problem. With some playing around, we came up with what I think is an excellent (and solvable) puzzle. He dubbed it the Dr Square puzzle, because it involves … Continue reading
Puzzler : 20,000 Lights
From Car Talk. RAY: This puzzler is from my “ceiling light” series. Imagine, if you will, that you have a long, long corridor that stretches out as far as the eye can see. In that corridor, attached to the ceiling are … Continue reading
Cartalk Puzzler – Stone Temple Farmers
From Cartalk. Stone Temple Farmers RAY: A farmer had a 40-pound stone that he could use to weight 40 pounds of feed, hay, or whatever else he wanted to sell from his farm. He had a balance scale, and he … Continue reading
Little Gauss and the Dividing Time Puzzler
I gave this problem to the Precalc Honors class, right before their lunch (the block is split into two parts). A couple of them came back with the solution, but most had chosen to eat and socialize (how dare they!). An … Continue reading
Cartalk Puzzler – Dividing Time
From Cartalk. Dividing Time RAY: Draw a clock face on a piece of paper. Using Arabic numerals put the appropriate numbers at 12, 1, 2, 3 and so on. Now, somewhere on the clock face, draft two lines. In doing … Continue reading