Next Question/Puzzle!

[Debater Slayer]

For the next question/puzzle, which of these mathematical topics would you prefer?

I'm trying to strike a balance between accessibility to most people who may want to take a stab at the questions and enough difficulty to keep the questions interesting.

 

[icehorse]

way back when, I took 3 semesters of calculus. i couldn't do a lick of it these days

 

[ChristineM]

Calculus because i got sick to death of years of polar coordinates before we wrote software to do it for me

And algebra

Spoiler: because

And you didn't include geometry in the questionnaire.

Spoiler: I can do that with my eyes closed

 

[Debater Slayer]

Alright, it's algebra today:

Algebra Question for Fun (as Requested!)

 

[icehorse]

GEOMETRY!!! YES!

So under what category would you place puzzles like Monte Hall, or prisoners' dilemmas? That would be a great category as well! (Simpler versions like a fox, a chicken, some chicken feed and a small boat, are fun too.)

 

[Debater Slayer]

GEOMETRY!!! YES!

So under what category would you place puzzles like Monte Hall, or prisoners' dilemmas? That would be a great category as well! (Simpler versions like a fox, a chicken, some chicken feed and a small boat, are fun too.)

I wouldn't place the Monty Hall problem in the category of geometry; it seems to me almost entirely a probability problem.

The reason I didn't list geometry in the poll is that it usually requires prior knowledge of specific formulas and rules, which means almost everyone who hasn't formally studied it won't be able to give it a shot through intuition alone.

I might go for it if I find a fun problem, though. A lot of geometry problems also involve calculus, so I could post one of those to expand the covered categories!

 

[Alien826]

I like puzzles where the answer is extremely simple, but hidden in a mess of unnecessary data. An example is the old one about the man going to St Ives, who meets a man with seven wives, and so on. One is tempted to multiply all the sevens to get the answer, but in fact only one person is going to St Ives, the others are going in the opposite direction. I'd suggest one if I could think of one.

Actually, it has a flaw because simply meeting the man doesn't necessarily mean they were going in opposite directions.

Here's a different one that doesn't fall into that category.

Johnny and Sue are brother and sister and go for a walk with their dog Spot. Johnny walks at 4mph and Sue, being younger, can only walk at 3mph. Johnny doesn't wait for Sue and they get further and further apart. Spot gets distressed and runs continuously back and forth between the two at 10mph. Two hours after they leave home, Sue arrives home again and Spot stops running. How far did Spot run?

 

[Heyo]

The reason I didn't list geometry in the poll is that it usually requires prior knowledge of specific formulas and rules, which means almost everyone who hasn't formally studied it won't be able to give it a shot through intuition alone.

You need a lot of prior knowledge of specific formulas and rules to solve arithmetic, probabilistic and calculus puzzles. I'd say it requires even more than geometric puzzles.