“Problem for Poultry Farmers”

Eureka, the honored journal in recreational mathematics published at Cambridge University, has placed its archives online under a Creative Commons license. Here’s a problem from May 1940 (no solution is given):

The chicken was twice as old when when the day before yesterday was to-morrow to-day was as far from Sunday as to-day will be when the day after to-morrow is yesterday as it was when when to-morrow will be to-day when the day before yesterday is to-morrow yesterday will be as far from Thursday as yesterday was when to-morrow was to-day when the day after to-morrow was yesterday. On what day was the chicken hatched out?

01/11/2021 UPDATE: The solution is here. (Thanks, Bruce.)

January 10, 2021January 11, 2021 | Puzzles

“Self-Explanatory”

This impressive puzzle appeared recently in the Magpie, a magazine for advanced UK-style cryptic puzzles. See the file for instructions.

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The composer explains the puzzle’s creation here. (Thanks, Gareth.)

January 9, 2021 | Puzzles

Correspondence

A problem from the Sixth International Mathematical Olympiad, 1964: Seventeen people correspond by mail, each with all the rest. They discuss only three topics, and each pair of correspondents addresses only one of these. Prove that there are at least three people who write to each other about the same topic.

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Choose one person and call her A. She corresponds with 16 other people, and since there are only three topics, she must correspond with at least six people about some one of these topics. Call that Topic 1. Now if any of her correspondents on that topic writes to another about the same subject, then we’ve found three people who are corresponding about the same topic. So assume that A’s six correspondents write to one another only about Topics 2 and 3. But now consider one of these six people; call her B. She is corresponding with the other five and addressing only two topics with them. That means that she must be addressing some particular topic with at least three of the five. Call that Topic 2. Now consider those three people. If one of the three writes to another about Topic 2, then we’ve found three people writing to each other about the same topic. And if none of the three writes to another about Topic 2, then all three of them must write to one another about Topic 3, and that proves the assertion.

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December 30, 2020December 30, 2020 | Puzzles

Black and White

gleaner retractor

A curious chess problem from the Jamaica Gleaner. White has just moved. If he retracts this move, he can play another that forces Black to checkmate White immediately. What move does he retract?

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He must just have captured a black queen on h8 with a pawn on g7, promoting that pawn to a white queen. If he now retracts that move, he can play Rh1+, which forces Black to capture the rook with the restored queen, giving mate. From Arthur Ford Mackenzie, Chess: Its Poetry and Its Prose, 1887.

December 29, 2020December 28, 2020 | Puzzles

Podcast Episode 325: Lateral Thinking Puzzles

Here are eight new lateral thinking puzzles — play along with us as we try to untangle some perplexing situations using yes-or-no questions.

See full show notes …

December 28, 2020January 4, 2021 | Podcast · Puzzles

Two Christmas Quizzes

King William’s College, on the Isle of Man, has posted the 2020 edition of “The World’s Most Difficult Quiz,” with its customary epigraph, Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est (“The greatest part of knowledge is knowing where to find something”). Answers will be posted on January 20; as usual, MetaFilter is maintaining a Google spreadsheet of communal guesses.

And the Royal Statistical Society has posted its own 2020 Christmas quiz, which it describes as “brain-melting.” “You’ll need a combination of general knowledge, logic, and lateral thinking skills to successfully crack these puzzles — but as always, no specialist mathematical knowledge is required.” Solutions are due by the end of January; the top prize is £150 in Wiley book vouchers.

December 25, 2020December 24, 2020 | Puzzles

A Last Goodbye

William Friedman, the father of modern American cryptology, was fond of a cipher devised by Francis Bacon — a scheme so flexible that it could hide a message in a drawing, a piece of sheet music, almost any imaginable setting (“anything can be made to signify anything”).

In 1918 he used it to hide a message in the graduation photograph of the codebreakers’ class that he’d taught with his wife Elizebeth (click to enlarge). Some students are looking at the camera, others to the side — they’re encoding the message KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, a quotation of Bacon’s that was a favorite of Friedman’s.

Friedman kept the photo on his desk for the rest of his career, and when he died in 1969 Elizabeth had the phrase engraved on his tombstone, in a design of her own devising:

friedman inscription

In 2017, cryptographer Elonka Dunin noticed that the inscription is composed of both serif and sans-serif letters. It turns out that even this is a cipher — Elizabeth had used it to conceal the letters WFF, William’s initials. Dunin calls it “a fitting tribute, in the life of a couple who had been so dedicated to the field of codes and ciphers.”

There’s more on the Friedmans’ legacy in this NSA publication.

December 12, 2020 | Puzzles

Black and White

mackenzie chess puzzle

An “eccentricity” by Arthur Ford Mackenzie. White to mate in half a move.

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“A move may be divided into two different operations, viz.; taking up the piece to be moved, and placing it on the desired square. In this position white has made 1/2 of a move by lifting a Bishop which stood on King’s Knight’s square. He therefore checkmates in 1/2 a move by placing the Bishop on Q Kt 6! which covers the check to the White King and cuts off the power of interposition on the part of the Black Bishop on R2.” From Chess: Its Poetry and Its Prose, 1887.

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December 10, 2020December 9, 2020 | Puzzles

Quickie

CHAIN is to INGOT as MILLS is to … ?

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SORRY. Advance each letter six places through the alphabet. (Thanks, Nick.)

December 8, 2020December 7, 2020 | Puzzles

The Substitute

Between July 2015 and October 2018, the National Security Agency offered a monthly puzzle written by a staff member. Here’s the puzzle for October 2015, created by applied research mathematician Ben E.:

Kurt, a math professor, has to leave for a conference. At the airport, he realizes he forgot to find a substitute for the class he was teaching today! Before shutting his computer off for the flight, he sends an email: “Can one of you cover my class today? I’ll bake a pie for whomever can do it.” He sends the email to Julia, Michael, and Mary Ellen, his three closest friends in the math department, and boards the plane.

As Kurt is well-known for his delicious pies, Julia, Michael, and Mary Ellen are each eager to substitute for him. Julia, as department chair, knows which class Kurt had to teach, but she doesn’t know the time or building. Michael plays racquetball with Kurt so he knows what time Kurt teaches, but not the class or building. Mary Ellen helped Kurt secure a special projector for his class, so she knows what building Kurt’s class is in, but not the actual class or the time.

Julia, Michael, and Mary Ellen get together to figure out which class it is, and they all agree that the first person to figure out which class it is gets to teach it (and get Kurt’s pie). Unfortunately the college’s servers are down, so Julia brings a master list of all math classes taught that day. After crossing off each of their own classes, they are left with the following possibilities:

Calc 1 at 9 in North Hall
Calc 2 at noon in West Hall
Calc 1 at 3 in West Hall
Calc 1 at 10 in East Hall
Calc 2 at 10 in North Hall
Calc 1 at 10 in South Hall
Calc 1 at 10 in North Hall
Calc 2 at 11 in East Hall
Calc 3 at noon in West Hall
Calc 2 at noon in South Hall

After looking the list over, Julia says, “Does anyone know which class it is?” Michael and Mary Ellen immediately respond, “Well, you don’t.” Julia asks, “Do you?” Michael and Mary Ellen both shake their heads. Julia then smiles and says, “I do now. I hope he bakes me a chocolate peanut butter pie.”

Which class does Kurt need a substitute for?

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1) Since Julia only knows the class name, the only way she could immediately know is if it was Calc 3. Since Michael and Mary Ellen both know that Julia doesn’t know, that means they know the class isn’t Calc 3. Since Michael only knows the time, that means the class can’t be at noon. Because Mary Ellen only knows the building, that means the building can’t be West Hall. That leaves only the following possibilities: Calc 1 at 9 in North Hall Calc 1 at 10 in East Hall Calc 2 at 10 in North Hall Calc 1 at 10 in South Hall Calc 1 at 10 in North Hall Calc 2 at 11 in East Hall 2) Since Michael doesn’t know which class it is, that means the time can’t be 9 or 11. Since Mary Ellen doesn’t know either, the class can’t be in South Hall. That leaves only three possibilities: Calc 1 at 10 in East Hall Calc 2 at 10 in North Hall Calc 1 at 10 in North Hall 3) At this point, Julia now says she knows the answer. Since there are two Calc 1 classes, it must be that Julia knows the class is Calc 2. Thus, the class is Calc 2 at 10 in North Hall.

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December 6, 2020 | Puzzles