Mathematical Games: Quickie Problems: Not Hard, But Look Out For Cur Es
Mathematical Games: Quickie Problems: Not Hard, But Look Out For Cur Es
Mathematical Games: Quickie Problems: Not Hard, But Look Out For Cur Es
but look out for the cur()es is on the corner cell diagonally opposite.
No other pieces are on the board. The
knight moves first. For how many moves
can you avoid being checked? (From
skeleton of a one-inch cube by using 12 David L. Silverman's marvelous new
one-inch wire segments for the cube's McGraw-Hill collection of game prob
by Martin Gardner 12 edges. These you intend to solder to lems, YOUT Move.)
gether at the cube's eight corners. 4. Nine heart cards from an ordinary
"Why not cut down the number of sol deck are arranged [see illu5tm!ion on
he following problems are all of dering points," a friend suggests, "by this page J to form a magic square so that
to catch the unwary. Some of them are what is the smallest number of corners must be different. Allowing duplicate
joke questions. The answers will be giv where soldering will be necessary to values, what is the largest constant sum
en next month. make the cube's skeleton rigid? (Philip for an order-3 magic square that can be
1. You want to construct a rigid wire G. Smith, Jr.) formed with nine cards taken from a
deck?
5. Make a statement about n that is
true for, and only true for, all values of
n less than one million. (Leo Moser.)
6. vVhy would a barber in Geneva
rather cut the hair of two Frenchmen
than of one German?
7. With a black pencil draw a closed,
self-intersecting curve of any shape you
please. With a red pencil draw a second
curve of the same kind on top of the first
one, never passing through a previous
ly created intersection. Circle all points
where one curve crosses the other [see
top illustmtion on opposite page J. Prove
that the number of such points is even.
8. Place a familiar mathematical sym
bol between 2 and 3 to express a number
greater than 2 and less than 3.
9. A six-story house (not counting the
basement) has stairs of the same length
from floor to floor. How many times as
high is a climb from the first to the sixth
floor as a climb from the first to the third
floor?
10. Each of the two equal sides of an
isosceles triangle is one unit long. With
out using calculus, fiad the length of the
third side that maximizes the triangle's
area. (Angela Dunn.)
11. What three positive integers have
a sum equal to their product?
12. A string, lying on the floor in the
pattern shown in the bottom illustration
on the opposite page, is too far away for
you to see how it crosses itself at points
A, Band C. What is the probability that
the string is knotted? (L. H. Longley
A magic square with nine hearts Cook.)
106
12300
107
2B V � 2B =?
24. In this country a date such as 25. Why are manhole covers circular familiar four-letter word? (Murray R.
July 4, 1971, is often written 7/4/71, but instead of square? Pearce.)
o •
108
I
in The Computer Journal (published by
the British Computer Society in Lon
AMATEUR
don), Vol. 14, No. 1, February, 1971,
pages 75-80. Using an ingenious dia
TELESCOPE
gram based on two perpendicular slices
through the center of the final packet,
MAI(ING
Lunnon was able to write a simple back
Edited by Albert G. Ingalls
track program for x-by-y maps, extend
the problem to higher dimensions and
discover several remarkable theorems. Book One
For example, the edges of one cross sec
497 pages, 300 illustrations
tion always diagram x linear maps of y
$5.00 postpaid. $5.35 foreign
cells each, and the edges of the other
cross section diagram y linear maps of x
cells each. His program found 1,368
Book Two
folds for the three-by-three map (152
folds for each cell on top). 650 pages, 361 illustrations
The two-by-three, two-by-four, two $6.00 postpaid. $6.35 foreign
by-five, two-by-six and three-by-four
maps have respectively 60, 320, 1,980,
10,512 and 15,552 folds. The order-4
Book Three
square has 300,608, the order-5 has 186,- 644 pages, 320 illustrations
086,600. In all cases the number of folds $7.00 postpaid. $7.35 foreign
is the same for each cell on top and the
cyclic law mentioned last month neces Send postcard
sarily holds for all rectangular maps. The for descriptive circular
order-2 cube, folded through the fourth
dimension, has 96 folds; the order-3 cube SCIENTIFIC
has 85,109,616. Many other results are AMERICAN
tabulated by Lunnon, but a nonrecursive
415 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017
formula for even planar maps remains (Relidtnts 01 New York CUll please add. 7% sales tax)
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109