Riddle

“The solution often turns out more beautiful than the puzzle.” – Richard Dawkins

Following the Monday theme for my 2014 Holiday Puzzles, today’s puzzles are another set of Missing Word Puzzles. I’ve received a lot of great feedback from everyone about the the Missing Work Puzzles #1 and #8.  Today’s are a bit more challenging.  I have provided some clues at the end to hopefully prompt or guide you in the right direction.

Just like the last two Monday’s, in each puzzle, a word or words are missing, replaced by their first letter.  In order to solve each puzzle, you need to find the missing words.  Here’s an example of how they work:

Puzzle:       12 I in a F

The solution is     “12 INCHES in a FOOT“

Below are ten puzzles to try

• 2 P in a P

• 3 H on a T

• 3 S (M, L and C)

• 3 N of DD (H, L and D)

• 3 A in every T

• 2 O in a DP

• 6 F on a C

• 10 M in a C

• 12 D in a G

• 5 V in the A

These are just fun puzzles to ponder.  They are not original puzzles, but I still like to share them.  Good Luck and pass the puzzles onto others who may enjoy them! 

Here are some clues, in no specific order – Dinosaur, Metric, Baseball, Disney, N’yuk, 3D, Vegatable, Shapes, Letters and Measurement.

“Eliminate all other factors, and the one that remains must be the truth.” – Sherlock Holmes

Inspector Galois was stumped. He had yet to solve his most recent case, the murder of the wealthy Oil Magnate Phil M. Mupp. There were five suspects in the murder, all of whom seemed to have an airtight alibi. The famous thoroughbred jockey, Horace Racer, was racing at Saratoga. The world famous physician, Karen Rejab, was at her health clinic in Africa. The popular DJ, Mike Refone, was hosting a 24 hour dance marathon in Los Angeles. The real estate mogul, Iva Lott, was closing on properties she recently purchased in Russia. The world famous explorer, Ben Therenbak, was mountain climbing in South America. All had numerous witnesses that eagerly corroborated their whereabouts.

While reviewing the evidence once again, there was a knock at the inspector’s office door. Without looking up, the inspector responded “Come in”. The door opened and entered Junior Inspector Abel. “It’s just the mail sir, only a single letter for you today.” said Abel as he handed the envelope to Galois. Galois took the letter and examined it curiously. It was addressed to Galois, Inspector of Police. Additionally, on the front of the envelope, at the bottom, was neatly printed “Correctly fill in each circle using only the numbers 1 through 5 – Good Luck”. The inspector curiously opened the envelope and removed a single sheet of paper. He unfolded the paper and examined it. Within seconds, he refolded it, looked at Junior Inspector Abel and said “The case is solved. I know the murderer”. The suspect was apprehended and within days the Inspector was proven to be correct. He did indeed know the murderer. What was on the sheet of paper? Look for yourself, it’s replicated below. Can you too solve the case and determine the murderer?

This is an original self-referential puzzle.  To solve the case, complete the puzzle by entering a number (1,2,3,4 or 5) in each circle that correctly matches the clue.  The number in the gray circle will be the murderer.  Remember the nature of self-referential puzzles, when one number is changed, it will likely effect other numbers.  Good Luck and please pass this puzzle and others onto others who may enjoy them!  Also, feel free to select the Facebook Like button below.

“If it’s zero degrees outside today and it’s supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be?” – Stephen Wright

Here’s an old standby for me, math riddles.  I wrote the book “Riddle Me-Math – A Collection of 100 Math Riddles” over ten years ago and I still use the riddles regularly.  I love riddles.  They’re easily stated and understood, but they’re often very challenging.  They also provide a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when solved (I mean really solved and not just given the solution).  All of my math riddles have some relation to math, such as numbers, shapes or relationships. 

Below are a few of my favorites.

 

I hope you enjoy these riddles.  The book Riddle-Me Math is available on Amazon.com.  Check it out if you find them interesting!  Good Luck and pass the puzzles onto others who may enjoy them!

“The mind is everything. What you think you become” Buddha

This is the first of my Holiday Puzzles for 2014. For years, I have been giving my own children puzzles, games or codes each December morning up to Christmas. It’s a tradition that they’ve enjoyed throughout the years and still look forward to. This year I’ve decided to post a puzzle for everyone on my puzzle Blog. The puzzles will typically be original and math related (nothing too crazy), but sometimes they will just be an interesting puzzle that I’d like to share. So here goes with the first puzzle for December.

Today’s puzzle is a missing word puzzle.  In each puzzle, a word or words are missing, replaced by their first letter.  In to order solve, you need to find the missing words.  Here’s an example:

Puzzle:       12 I in a F

The solution is     “12 INCHES in a FOOT“

Below are ten puzzles (one for each number from1 to 10)

• 1 W on a U

• 2 N in a D

• 3 F in a Y

• 4 Q in a D

• 5 P in a N

• 6 S in a H

• 7 D in a W

• 8 S on a SS

• 9 I in a BG

• 10 Y in a D

All of these puzzles are straight forward.  You will need some knowledge of measurement, shapes and sports (for one).  Good Luck and pass the puzzles onto others who may enjoy them!

“What people don’t realize is that professionals are sensational because of fundamentals” – Barry Larkin

Number sense if a fundamental skill.  I like to refer to it as “Number Familiarity“. How familiar are are you with numbers.  For example, take the number 64.  How familiar are you with the number 64?  

• – Do you know it’s a perfect square?    
  – Do you know it’s a power of 2?    
  – Do you know it’s a perfect cube?  
  – Do you know it’s the product of two perfect squares?
  

64 equals all of these – it’s 8²,   2⁶,   4³  and   (2²)(4²). 

I think that simply stated number puzzles are a great way to increase number sense.  It doesn’t matter if you’re seven or eighty-seven, concise number puzzles can be beneficial.  Here’s a few concise number puzzles to try:

1. Can you think of two numbers that when multiplied make 8 and when added make 6?
2. Can you think of two numbers that when multiplied make 32 and when added make 18?
3. Can you think of two numbers that when multiplied make 48 and when added make 14?

These puzzles should not be solved algebraically (e.g. via a system of equations).  Instead, these puzzles should stimulate thinking and making number connections.  They should also generate confidence.  There are very few things that generate confidence better than success.  Once these puzzles are mastered, change it up a bit.  Keep the puzzles generally the same, but ask for something different.  Instead of asking for the numbers, ask for the difference of the numbers, or ask for the smaller or larger number.  This adds another level of challenge to the problem.  Here are a few additional number puzzles to try:

1. What is the difference of two numbers that when multiplied make 18 and when added make 9?
2. What is the larger number of two numbers that when multiplied make 30 and when added make 13?
3. What is the smaller number of two numbers that when multiplied make 48 and when added make 19?

These puzzles are similar to the first set of puzzles, but differ as they are more challenging because the two numbers must be further manipulated to obtain the correct answer.  Continuing this theme of making the puzzles more challenging, here are a few more number puzzles to try:

1. Can you think of two numbers that when multiplied make 16 and adding one number to twice the other makes 8?
2. Can you think of two numbers that when multiplied make 24 and adding one number to twice the other makes 14?
3. Can you think of two numbers that when multiplied make 36 and adding one number to three times the other makes 21?

These puzzles will help build fundamental number sense.  They can be easily stated, understood and quickly solved.  They serve as great 1-minute problems and can assist in building confidence which will lead to even better problem solving skills.  Give them a try and share them if you like them.  Have fun and good luck!

“Live in the moment … but don’t be led by the moment, or the people who belong to it.” – J. Aleksandr Wootton

Happy New Year to All! I hope all is well with everyone.  I’ve started the new puzzling year off in a big way.  I’ve switched the MathMaverick Blog to WordPress from Facebook. It is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while. Finally, I’ve gotten off the sofa and done it! Hopefully this will make it more accessible and consistent (there were many problems with Facebook Notes in 2013 that were out of my control).

To start 2014 off, here are some math riddles for you to ponder. They are original riddles and from my riddle book, Riddle-Me Math, available on amazon. Have fun with the riddles. Please share them with others and Good luck

1.
I am a funny number
as you will plainly see
for if you add me to myself
my digits sum to me.

What number am I?

2.
Cats have 4,
You have 2,
And I have 3.
What can I be?

3.
Laying on a table,
Seven coins I see
Can you tell me what they are
If their sum is 53?

4.
Although it may seem funny,
Some say that time is money.
So if a dollar were a century,
Then this would be a year.

Good luck with the riddles and in the new year. Please share these riddles, reply with a comment or like us on facebook.