Category: Math Puzzles
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How Many Duplicate FIFA World Cup Stickers Should You Expect?
I don’t watch the World Cup, or sports in general. I never get excited about it, and I certainly do not feel any affinity towards any teams. I think instead of living vicariously through others doing what they like, we should just do what we really want. Anyway, my good friend Sawan’s little sister recently…
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Hawking’s Black Hole Prediction Faces a Mathematical Challenge
To understand the universe, scientists often seek the strange wanderers at its edges. “You always want to know about the extreme cases — the special cases that lie at the edge,” said Carsten Gundlach, a mathematical physicist at the University of Southampton. Among the universe’s oldest legends made real are black holes—mysterious realms where matter…
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Try This Sum Of Sums Problem!
The challenge for you is to solve for x. Here’s a hint: think of triangular numbers! Once again, this is a good moment to pause the article and give the problem a go yourself. When you’re ready, keep reading for the solution. And if you come up with your own approach, feel free to share…
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Do You Think YOU Can Solve This In 10 Seconds?
The prompt I used to generate this image on ChatGPT is “generate a Zelda breath of the wild inspired blog cover image for this maths puzzle”. Clearly if you are still manually creating math puzzle images, it’s akin to using a spoon to dig a hole when you have a shovel. You are taking out…
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What Fraction Of The Decagon Is Shaded?
What fraction of this regular decagon is shaded? Give this problem a try before jumping in for the solution! Solution: Brute Force The first solution is done with trigonometric functions. We first let each side length of the decagon equal 1. We then add two straight lines as shown below. The size of the angles can…
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So How Far Has The Ant Walked?
This is a question on the application of complex numbers. The standard solution requires us to formulate a function to represent the action of moving forward one unit and turning to the right by 2π/9, and compute the sum using the sum of geometric series formula. But there’s a more elegant way to do this, which lets us…
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Apparently There’s A Math Problem In America
If I were to tell you that your go-to meal at the local steakhouse has a price reduction of 600%, what would you do? Well of course, you’d drop everything that you are doing and order as many fatty ribeye steaks served the finest fries and salads as you possibly can. Why? Because not only…
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Calculus Challenge: A Slanted Revolution
In this entry, we will solve the above problem using a rotational matrix. Give this problem a try before jumping into the solution! Solution By rotating the curve C and the line y = x by π/4 radians anticlockwise about the origin, the rotated volume will be given by the rotated curve about the y axis between the points at which…
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Math Genius Mary Adler’s Calculus Problem
The real Math Girl Mary Adler is a fictional character from the movie ‘Gifted’. In the Gifted universe, she is a seven year-old math prodigy. I must say I was also considered a ‘Gifted’ child by many. Gifted not because I was good at mathematics, but because I wielded the exceptional prowess of ‘舉一反三’, which…