Category Archives: Puzzles and Problems

The Hose Knows

This is a fairly straight-forward Brainteaser from the Quantum magazine.

“A man is filling two tanks with water using two hoses. The first hose delivers water at the rate of 2.9 liters per minute, the second at a rate of 8.7 liters per minute. When the smaller tank is half full, he switches hoses. He keeps filling the tanks, and they both fill up completely at the same moment. What is the volume of the larger tank if the volume of the smaller tank is 12.6 liters?”

Answer.

See The Hose Knows for solutions.

Bixley to Quixley Puzzle

I braved another attempt at a Sam Loyd puzzle.

“Here is a pretty problem which I figured out during a ride from Bixley to Quixley astride of a razor-back mule. I asked Don Pedro if my steed had another gait, and he said it had but that it was much slower, so I pursued my journey at the uniform speed as shown in the sketch.

To encourage Don Pedro, who was my chief propelling power, I said we would pass through Pixley, so as to get some liquid refreshments; and from that moment he could think of nothing but Pixley. After we had been traveling for forty minutes I asked how far we had gone, and he replied: “Just half as far as it is to Pixley.”  After creeping along for seven miles more I asked: “How far is it to Quixley?” and he replied as before: “Just half as far as it is to Pixley.”

We arrived at Quixley in another hour, which induces me to ask you to figure out the distance from Bixley to Quixley.”

I was disconcerted by what I thought was extraneous information and wondered if I had misunderstood his narrative again.

Answer.

See the Bixley to Quixley Puzzle for solutions.

Old Hook Puzzle

Here is another, more challenging, problem from the Sherlock Holmes puzzle book by Dr. Watson (aka Tim Dedopulos).

“An event that occurred during The Adventure of the Wandering Bishops inspired Holmes to devise a particularly tricky little mental exercise for my ongoing improvement. There were times when I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed his efforts, and times when I found them somewhat unwelcome. I’m afraid that this was one of the latter occasions. It had been a bad week.

‘Picture three farmers,’ Holmes told me. ‘Hooklanders. We’ll call them Ern, Ted, and Hob.’

‘If I must,’ I muttered.

‘It will help,’ Holmes replied. ‘Ern has a horse and cart, with an average speed of eight mph. Ted can walk just one mph, given his bad knee, and Hob is a little better at two mph, thanks to his back.’

‘A fine shower,’ I said. ‘Can’t I imagine them somewhat fitter?’

‘Together, these worthies want to go from Old Hook to Coreham, a journey of 40 miles. So Ern got Ted in his cart, drove him most of the way, and dropped him off to walk the rest. Then he went back to get Hob [who was still walking], and took him into Coreham, arriving exactly as Ted did. How long did the journey take?’

Can you find a solution?”

I added the statement in brackets.  I initially thought Hob waited in Old Hook until Ted fetched him.  But the solution indicated that was not the case.  So I realized Hob had started out at the same time as the others. The solution has some hairy arithmetic.  Even knowing the answer it is difficult to do the computations without a mistake.

Answer.

See the Old Hook Puzzle for solutions.

Catching the Thief

This typical problem from the prolific H. E. Dudeney may be a bit tricky at first.

“104.—CATCHING THE THIEF.

“Now, constable,” said the defendant’s counsel in cross-examination,” you say that the prisoner was exactly twenty-seven steps ahead of you when you started to run after him?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And you swear that he takes eight steps to your five?”

“That is so.”

“Then I ask you, constable, as an intelligent man, to explain how you ever caught him, if that is the case?”

“Well, you see, I have got a longer stride. In fact, two of my steps are equal in length to five of the prisoner’s. If you work it out, you will find that the number of steps I required would bring me exactly to the spot where I captured him.”

Here the foreman of the jury asked for a few minutes to figure out the number of steps the constable must have taken. Can you also say how many steps the officer needed to catch the thief?”

Answer.

See Catching the Thief for solutions.

Geometric Puzzle Magnificence

Here is yet another collection of beautiful geometric problems from Catriona Agg (née Shearer).  For some reason I found these a bit more challenging than the previous ones.   Some of them required more time to “see” the breakthrough.

See Geometric Puzzle Magnificence (revised)

(Update 11/13/2022)  Problem #3 Solution Corrected Continue reading →

Wine Into Water Problem

Here is a challenging problem from the 1874 The Analyst.

“A cask containing a gallons of wine stands on another containing a gallons of water; they are connected by a pipe through which, when open, the wine can escape into the lower cask at the rate of c gallons per minute, and through a pipe in the lower cask the mixture can escape at the same rate; also, water can be let in through a pipe on the top of the upper cask at a like rate. If all the pipes be opened at the same instant, how much wine will be in the lower cask at the end of t minutes, supposing the fluids to mingle perfectly?

—  Communicated by Artemas Martin, Mathematical Editor of Schoolday Magazine, Erie, Pennsylvania.”

I found the problem in Benjamin Wardhaugh’s book where he describes The Analyst:

“Beginning in 1874 and continuing as Annals of Mathematics from 1884 onward, The Analyst appeared monthly, published in Des Moines, Iowa, and was intended as “a suitable medium of communication between a large class of investigators and students in science, comprising the various grades from the students in our high schools and colleges to the college professor.” It carried a range of mathematical articles, both pure and applied, and a regular series of mathematical problems of  varying difficulty: on the whole they seem harder than those in The Ladies’ Diary and possibly easier than the Mathematical Challenges in the extract after the next. Those given here appeared in the very first issue.”

I tailored my solution after the “Diluted Wine Puzzle”, though this problem was more complicated.  Moreover, the final solution must pass from discreet steps to continuous ones.

There is a bonus problem in a later issue:

“19.  Referring to Question 4, (No. 1): At what time will the lower cask contain the greatest quantity of wine?

—Communicated by Prof. Geo. R. Perkins.”

Answer.

See the Wine Into Water Problem for solutions.

Equitable Slice Problem

This is another Brainteaser from the Quantum math magazine .

“How can a polygonal line BDEFG be drawn in a triangle ABC so that the five triangles obtained have the same area?”

I found this problem rather challenging, especially when I first tried to solve it analytically (using hyperbolas).  Eventually I arrived at a procedure that would accomplish the result. (revised)

See the Equitable Slice Problem  (revised)

(Update 9/22/2021)  I goofed.  I erroneously and foolishly thought Quantum had not solved the problem.  Upon a closer reading I see what they were getting at and revised the posting.

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