I have a neighbor who has a Ph.D. in Mathematics and is a visiting scholar in mathematics. She has won a gold medal at the International Math Olympics. She is a lover and popularizer of mathematics, and loves a good puzzle.
She has a math blog which contains many inventive puzzles, some statistical, some arithmetical, some word puzzles, etc. They are all very challenging and good. Many are sent in by other learned mathematicians. Click on the link, PUZZLES.
I will put the URL at the bottom of this post, and ask the Moderator to please post it if it complies with Coffee Room rules.
Here is a small sample of her puzzles:
Problem: Cigarette Butts
A certain hobo who is skilled at making cigarettes can turn any 4 cigarette butts into a single cigarette. Today, this hobo has found 24 cigarette butts on the street. Assuming he smokes every cigarette he can, how many cigarettes will he smoke today?
Problem: Two Fuses
You have two fuses that both last one hour, and you have no other ways of telling time. The fuses may be thicker at some points, so in half an hour, the amount of fuse that has burned may or may not be half the length of the whole fuse. How do you measure 45 minutes worth of time?
Problem: A Rabbit (submitted by Gabe)
On average, a rabbit produces 4 offspring every month. If I put a rabbit in a cage for 6 months, how many offspring will it produce?
and her math jokes:
Birthdays are beneficial for your health. A new breakthrough statistical study unequivocally proved that the more birthdays one has the longer one lives.
The only reliable statistics are those you faked yourself.
The number of statistics that either make no sense or use ridiculous timescales has dropped over 164% in the last 5.62474396842 years.
She also has many interesting math-related essays.
Dear Moderator, the URL is:
puzzle page: