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Holiday Puzzle #1 – Missing Word Puzzles

December 2nd, 2014 by John Lehet
"The mind is everything.  What you think you become"  Buddha

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!

Math Riddles for the New Year!

January 1st, 2014 by ewcAdmin
questionMark

“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.

Puzzle #2 – The Primes Have It!

December 30th, 2013 by ewcAdmin

“There are three kinds of people: Those that make things happen, those that watch things happen and those that wonder what happened. ” – Agent Garbo (Juan Pujol Garcia)

 Prime numbers are everywhere and they are really easy to understand.  There are just two simple rules to follow:

  • a prime number is a positive integer greater than 1
  • a prime number is evenly divisible by only 1 and itself

That’s pretty straight forward.  Many people assume 1 is a prime number, but by definition, it’s not.  It’s important to realize and remember this when dealing with primes.  Also, 2 is the only even prime number, as all other even numbers are divisible by 1, 2 and itself.

Here’s a couple of prime number puzzles to start you off. 

puzzle 1: What is the smallest 2-digit prime number in which both digits are prime and their sum is prime? 

puzzle 2: What is the largest 2-digit number in which both digits are prime and their sum is prime?

Let’s look at an example number, say 73.  73 is a prime number and it’s digits, 7 and 3 are both  prime.  However, the sum of the digits 7+3 equals 10, which is not prime.  So, 73 will not work for either puzzle 1 or puzzle 2.

Once you solve the first two puzzles, you should have a good handle on prime numbers.  I recommend listing all of the prime numbers less than 100.  To make it a bit more challenging, let’s look at 3-digit numbers.

puzzle 3: List all 3-digit numbers that have prime numbers for all three digits. 

puzzle 4: Of the numbers listed in puzzle 3, list the numbers in which the digits sum to a prime number.

puzzle 5: Of the numbers listed in puzzle 4, which of the numbers are themsleves prime?

Let’s look at an example 3-digit number, say 235.  the digits, 2, 3 and 5, are all prime numbers.  However their sum, 2+3+5, equals 10, which is not a prime number (so it doesn’t work for puzzle 4).

Good luck with the puzzles and have fun.

Puzzle #1 – The Power of 2

December 30th, 2013 by ewcAdmin

” The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple” – S. Gudder

2 is an interesting number. First off, it’s the only even prime number. Secondly, all even numbers are divisible by 2. Then there are the powers of 2. That’s when you start with 2 and double it, getting 4. Then double that, getting 8. And again to 16, 32, 64, 128 … it goes on endlessly. These are the powers of 2.

More specifically, 1 has to be added to this set of numbers (it’s the 0th power of 2 or any number for that matter). In any case, the integers that are powers of 2 are the set of numbers {1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,…}.

What’s really powerful about this set of numbers is that any positive integer (you read that right – that’s any positive integer) can be made by adding a subset of these numbers. Let’s take a look at an example using the number 23.

  • 23 = 16 + 4 + 2 + 1

So there’s 23 as the sum of only powers of 2 (using each no more than once). That’s today’s challenge.

make the numbers 3 through 50 by adding up powers of 2 (using each power only once or not at all)

What’s also interesting is that your answers are unique, there’s only one way to sum the powers of 2 to arrive at each number. To get you started, here are a few

  • 3 = 2 + 1
  • 4 = 4
  • 5 = 4 + 1

Now it’s your turn to figure out the numbers 6 through 50. An interesting pattern will hopefully emerge. Let’s see if you can see it!

Good luck and pass this challenge on to others!