My in-laws in Singapore called up, asking for a solution to this puzzle. A short while later they called again to say that they’d solved it, but only after a long period of trial and error, asking me if there was a more systematic way.
Continue reading Making Tough Puzzles Easy (Or Less Tough, Anyway)
When I cut an apple for my kids, I normally cut it into 6 pieces. I give the biggest piece to my younger son, since he insists on only eating one piece, but I want him to eat more apple.
Continue reading Apple Cutting Puzzle
Highway Jam is a game based loosely on the Traffic Jam Game found elsewhere on this site, and marketed by ThinkFun. Instead of solving individual 6×6 puzzle grids, Highway Jam puts your car at the end of a highway 300 squares long!
I have four different things I can spread on my toast. If I want to taste them all, I need four slices of toast.
As a kid, I watched Sesame Street. One segment was on sharing. Bert has a cookie, and Ernie comes and asks him “will you share your cookie with me, Bert?”
One of my favourite puzzles of all times is a bit tough for a typical lower-school kid. It goes like this :
Five men and a monkey are stranded on a desert island. They spend the day searching for food, and by evening, they have collected a big pile of coconuts. Too tired to do anything but sleep, they agree to share the coconuts out in the morning.
However, one of the men wakes up just before midnight. He doesn’t trust his companions, so he goes to the pile of coconuts to take his share. he divides the coconuts into five equal piles, with one left over. He takes his share and hides it, gives the spare coconut to the monkey, collects the rest back into a pile, and goes back to sleep. Continue reading Coconuts and Diamonds
We have some pumpkin plants growing in our yard. I counted them at one point, and there were 24 plants. This inspired a little puzzle –
If I have 24 pumpkin plants, and half of them grow a pumpkin, and half of those that grow a pumpkin grow another, and half of those that grow another grow yet another still – then how many pumpkins do I get in the end? Continue reading Pumpkin Puzzle