Author Archives: Jim Stevenson

MAGA Math

An article by Lee Moran in Huffpost is rather remarkable.  Apparently someone failed grade-school math.  I wonder how he got through medical school, especially the pharmacology course.

“NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Wednesday asked Mehmet Oz — the former talk show host and heart surgeon who now runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — about President Donald Trump’s repeated claim, mockingly dubbed “MAGA Math,” that he’ll get pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices by more than 100%. Continue reading →

Donkey Riding

This is a simple 1917 puzzle from Henry Dudeney.

“During a visit to the seaside Tommy and Evangeline insisted on having a donkey race over the mile course on the sands. Mr. Dobson and some of his friends whom he had met on the beach acted as judges, but, as the donkeys were familiar acquaintances and declined to part company the whole way, a dead heat was unavoidable. However, the judges, being stationed at different points on the course, which was marked off in quarter-miles, noted the following results:—The first three-quarters were run in six and three-quarter minutes, the first half-mile took the same time as the second half, and the third quarter was run in exactly the same time as the last quarter. From these results Mr. Dobson amused himself in discovering just how long it took those two donkeys to run the whole mile. Can you give the answer?

Answer.

See Donkey Riding for solutions.

Lunchtime at the Fish Pond

This is a problem from the 629 AD work of Bhaskara I, a contemporary of Brahmagupta.

“A fish is resting at the northeast corner of a rectangular pool. A heron standing at the northwest corner spies the fish. When the fish sees the heron looking at him he quickly swims towards the south (in a southwesterly direction rather than due south). When he reaches the south side of the pool, he has the unwelcome surprise of meeting the heron who has calmly walked due south along the side and turned at the southwest corner of the pool and proceeded due east, to arrive simultaneously with the fish on the south side. Given that the pool measures 12 units by 6 units, and that the heron walks as quickly as the fish swims, find the distance the fish swam.”

Answer.

See Lunchtime at the Fish Pond for a solution.

Stacked Rhombuses Puzzle

This is a puzzle from Talwalkar’s set of “Impossible Puzzles with Surprising Solutions.”

“Call this puzzle the leaning tower of rhombi.

There are 5 isosceles triangles, aligned along their bases, with base lengths of 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 cm. The 10 quadrilaterals above are in rows of 4, 3, 2, and 1. Each quadrilateral is a rhombus, and the top of the tower is a square. What is the area of the square?”

Answer.

See Stacked Rhombuses Puzzle for solutions.

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