“The value of a problem is not so much coming up with the answer as in the ideas and attempted ideas it forces on the would-be solver.”
—I. N. Herstein
Whenever I give a problem or puzzle in an Alexandria Jones story, I’ll try to post the answer soon afterward.
But don’t peek!
In the old days of my snail mail newsletters, the answers always came in the next issue, so students had two months to let the puzzle ruminate without temptation.
After all, if you only read the answer I give, you miss out on the fun of solving the puzzle. Follow the Math Adventurer’s Rule:
- Figure it out for yourself!
Give the problem a good workout on your own. See what you can notice about the puzzle. Wonder about how it connects to the larger world of mathematics.
Play with the ideas and find out where they may lead.
Then check the answer just to prove you got it right, and maybe to see whether we did it the same way. There’s always more than one way to approach any math problem, and each method offers its own insights.
