This is a nice problem from Five Hundred Mathematical Challenges.
“Problem 62. A plane flies from A to B and back again with a constant engine speed. Turn-around time may be neglected. Will the travel time be more with a wind of constant speed blowing in the direction from A to B than in still air? (Does your intuition agree?)”
See Air Travel for a solution.
This is a 2017 Center of Mathematics Problem of the Week.
“The average age of a 10 member committee is the same as it was 4 years ago, because an older aged member has been replaced by a younger aged member. How much younger is the young member than the older member they replaced?”
See the Young and Old Problem.
… I know I feel differently in the morning, after seeing the pictures and reading the stories of lives arbitrarily snuffed out and people who had little reduced to people who have nothing at all. But tonight I’m going to bed in a vicious mood, with a stomach so full of contempt for this poisoned republic and its brain-dead citizens that I can taste it in my mouth, like bile.
And the only thing I can think to ask God—if she does exists—is why, just for once, can’t you smite the wicked instead of the innocent?
Posted by billmon at 01:09 AM
(Billmon’s full post can now be found on the Internet Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20051001001007/http://billmon.org/)
This 24 September 2005 post was made during the height (or depths) of the Iraq War during the Bush-Cheney regime. Also recall the other Bush debacle, Hurricane Katrina, was just the month before, August 23–31, 2005. We thought we were in the depths of depravity and had no inkling that we were only at the higher rings of hell.
This is an interesting algebra problem from BL’s Weekly Math Games, which is behind a subscription wall.
(a3 – b3)/(a – b)3 = 73/3,
what is a – b?”
In fact, it is possible to solve for a and b individually as well.
See a Tricky Ratio Puzzle for the solution.
(Updates 11/6/2024, 11/9/2024) Other Solutions Continue reading
