This problem from the 1987 Discover magazine’s Brain Bogglers by Michael Stueben apparently traces back to 1770, though the exact reference is not given.
“Here’s an arithmetic problem taken from a textbook published in Germany in 1770. Three people are gambling. In the first game, Player A loses to each of the others as much money as each of them had when the game started. In the next game, B loses to each of the others as much money as each had when that game began. In the third game, A and B each win from C as much money as each had at the start of that game. The players now find that each has the same sum, 24 guineas. How much money did each have when play began?”
See the 1770 Card Game Problem for solutions.
I found this problem from the Math Challenges section of the 2002 Pi in the Sky Canadian math magazine for high school students to be truly astonishing.
Here is yet another surprising result from Colin Hughes at Maths Challenge.
This is another train puzzle by H. E. Dudeney. This one has some hairy arithmetic.
It is always fascinating to look at problems from the past. This one, given by Thomas Whiting himself, is over 200 years old from Whiting’s 1798 Mathematical, Geometrical, and Philosophical Delights:
This problem from Colin Hughes at Maths Challenge is a most surprising result that takes a bit of tinkering to solve.
This is another intriguing problem from Presh Talwalkar.
This interesting problem comes from Colin Hughes at the Maths Challenge website.
A glutton for punishment I considered another Sam Loyd puzzle:
This is from the UKMT Senior Challenge of 2004.
