math brain teaser

Brain teaser: Will you finish your thesis on time?

by

Imag­ine spend­ing the sum­mer pol­ish­ing your PhD the­sis in the library. Every day you take the sub­way, a train going up North to the university.

One day you real­ize that the trains going South can bring you to the beach. Noth­ing is wrong with some leisure. You cal­cu­late that if you spend half of the remain­ing sum­mer vaca­tion in the library that should be enough to fin­ish the the­sis. To spice up the sum­mer, [Read more…] about Brain teas­er: Will you fin­ish your the­sis on time?

Math Brain Teaser: How to Choose a Mans Shirt

by

You have been invit­ed to an impor­tant fundrais­ing gala at your old col­lege and decid­ed that this black-tie event demands a short col­lar super white Ital­ian shirt, like the one you bought years ago for your wed­ding. When you brave­ly tried the wed­ding shirt on (size 16), your wife not­ed that the col­lar suf­fo­cates you and you need about 1/4″ more space every­where in-between your neck and the col­lar all around your neck. What size shirt do you need to buy?  In case you don’t know the shirt size 16 means that a tape wrapped around your neck and two fin­gers posi­tioned flat upfront will mea­sure 16 inches.

[Read more…] about Math Brain Teas­er: How to Choose a Mans Shirt

Math Brain Teaser: Unfinished Thesis

by

You are spend­ing the sum­mer pol­ish­ing your the­sis in the uni­ver­si­ty library. Every day you take the esca­la­tor into the sub­way, turn right and catch a train going up North to the uni­ver­si­ty. One day you real­ize that the trains on your left going in the oppo­site direc­tion can bring you to the beach. It is sum­mer and noth­ing is wrong with some leisure. You care­ful­ly cal­cu­late that even if you spend half of the remain­ing sum­mer vaca­tion in the library it should be enough to fin­ish the the­sis. You decide to spice up your sum­mer by [Read more…] about Math Brain Teas­er: Unfin­ished Thesis

Math Brain Teaser for Kids and Adults: Archimedes Grave

by

(Edi­tor’s Note: every oth­er Fri­day, start­ing today, we’ll pub­lish a brain teas­er to exer­cise our brains a bit. Here you have one sub­mit­ted by new con­trib­u­tor Maria Lan­do. Enjoy!).
Archimedes made a plen­i­tude of sig­nif­i­cant sci­en­tif­ic dis­cov­er­ies through­out his life. He designed machines capa­ble of lift­ing attack­ing ships out of the water as well as mir­ror arrays capa­ble of focus­ing sun rays and set­ting ene­my ships on fire. He explained why and how bod­ies float in the water, help­ing the king ver­i­fy that his crown is indeed made out of pure gold. He was fas­ci­nat­ed with infin­i­ty and found the way of approx­i­mat­ing the num­ber Pi as well as count­ing the num­ber of grains of sand that will fit inside the uni­verse. He died telling a Roman sol­dier that he is too busy to meet a gen­er­al as he was con­tem­plat­ing yet anoth­er math­e­mat­i­cal dia­gram.  His tomb was dec­o­rat­ed with his favorite dis­cov­ery .… What do you think it is?

[Read more…] about Math Brain Teas­er for Kids and Adults: Archimedes Grave