Puzzles – Page 13 – Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math

Puzzles for the New Year

Posted on January 3, 2008May 13, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

As we all head back to school, here are some interesting calendar puzzles:

2008 is a leap year. Why do leap years happen? If we didn’t add a leap day every so often, would January eventually come in the summer?
Today is Thursday. What day of the week will it be exactly one year from today?
January 1, 2008, came on a Tuesday. When will be the next year that begins on Tuesday?
My birthday (in March) lands on a Monday this year. When is the next year my birthday will come on a Monday? How about YOUR birthday — when is the next time it will happen on the same day of the week as this year?
Can you find a pattern in the way dates move from one day of the week to another, year after year?

Continue reading Puzzles for the New Year

Magic Square Puzzles

Posted on December 25, 2007May 13, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

Alex handed her brother Leonhard a box wrapped in the rocket tessellation paper, with air holes carefully punched in two sides.

“Merry Christmas, Leon!” she said.

He ripped open the gift. Alex winced. Boys have no artistic appreciation, she thought.

“Oh, cool! Thanks,” Leon said.

“His name is Lo-shu,” said Alex. “But be careful. I used non-toxic tempera paint. The design will was off.”

Leon turned the turtle and studied the back of its shell. “Oh, that’s just like in the legend! I’ll copy it down before I let him near any water.”

What do the shapes on Lo-shu’s back mean?

Why are some dots white and some black?

Continue reading Magic Square Puzzles

Leon’s Christmas Gift

Posted on December 24, 2007May 13, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

Lo-shu turtle

Here is the simplest puzzle from the November/December 1998 issue of Alexandria Jones stories. The answer (and more puzzles) will follow.

Christmas gift for Leon (pdf, 68KB)

Edited to Add

More puzzles are now here:

Magic square puzzles

Answers are also posted:

Christmas puzzle answers

To Be Continued…

Read all the posts from the November/December 1998 issue of my Mathematical Adventures of Alexandria Jones newsletter.

Alexandria Jones and the Christmas Present Quandary

The Golden Christmas Tree

Posted on December 21, 2007February 8, 2024 by Denise Gaskins

Last time, Alexandria Jones and her family were on their way to Uncle William’s tree farm to find the perfect Christmas tree, and Dr. Jones taught us about the Golden Section:

$The \; Golden \; Section \; ratio$

|———————A———————|————B————|

$A \; is \; to \; B \; as \; \left(A + B \right) \; is \; to \; A, \; or . . .$

$\frac{A}{B} = \frac{A + B}{A} = \: ?$

I gave you three algebra puzzles to solve. Did you try them?

What is the exact value of the Golden Section ratio?

If a 7-foot tree will fit in the Jones family’s living room, allowing for the tree stand and for a star on top, how wide will the tree be?

Approximately how much surface area will Alex and Leon have to fill with lights and ornaments?

Math Adventurer’s Rule: Figure It Out for yourself

Whenever I give a problem in an Alexandria Jones story, I will try to post the answer soon afterward. But don’t peek! If I tell you the answer, you miss out on the fun of solving the puzzle. So if you have not worked these problems yet, go back to the original post. Figure them out for yourself — and then check the answers just to prove that you got them right.

Continue reading The Golden Christmas Tree

A-Hunting They Will Go

Posted on December 8, 2007February 8, 2024 by Denise Gaskins

Alexandria Jones and her family piled into the car for a drive in the country. This year, they were determined to find an absolutely perfect Christmas tree at Uncle William Jones’s tree farm.

“I want the tallest tree in Uncle Will’s field,” Alex said.

“Hold it,” said her mother. “I refuse to cut a hole in the roof.”

“But, Mom!” Leon whined. “The Peterkin Papers…”

“Too bad. Our ceiling will stay a comfortable 8 feet high.”

Continue reading A-Hunting They Will Go

The Christmas Present Quandary

Posted on November 28, 2007February 8, 2024 by Denise Gaskins

Alexandria Jones hated using store-bought wrapping paper at Christmas. She tried to wrap each present as a hand-crafted work of art.

Last year, she did mini-scenes with plastic figures building cotton snowmen or skating on aluminum-foil ponds — and, for her brother Leonhard’s gift, her favorite creation: toy dinosaurs having a snowball fight. But those 3-D scenes got knocked about under the Christmas tree.

This year, she decided, she would wrap the packages flat. But then, how could she make them special?

Continue reading The Christmas Present Quandary

More Fun with Hexa-Trex

Posted on October 22, 2007May 13, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

My elementary Math Club students had fun practicing their math facts and “out of the box” thinking with Hexa-Trex puzzles. The object of Hexa-Trex is to find a path through all the number and operation tiles to make a true equation. The “Easy” puzzles are just the right level for my 4th-5th grade students, although they get stumped whenever the equations require Order of Operations. One girl enjoyed the puzzles enough to take our extra pages home for her dad.

Hexa-Trex puzzles were featured in the October issue of Games magazine, and now you can enjoy Hexa-Trex away from the computer with Bogusia Gierus‘s new book, The First Book of Hexa-Trex Puzzles. If you are thinking ahead to Christmas (can it be that time already?!), and if you have a puzzle lover in the family, this little book would make a fun stocking-stuffer.

Egyptian Math: The Answers

Posted on August 31, 2007February 8, 2024 by Denise Gaskins

Remember the Math Adventurer’s Rule: Figure it out for yourself! Whenever I give a problem in an Alexandria Jones story, I will try to post the answer soon afterward. But don’t peek! If I tell you the answer, you miss out on the fun of solving the puzzle. So if you haven’t worked these problems yet, go back to the original posts. Figure them out for yourself—and then check the answers just to prove that you got them right.

Continue reading Egyptian Math: The Answers

Egyptian Geometry and Other Challenges

Posted on August 24, 2007May 13, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

Would you like to study “the knowledge of all existing things and all obscure secrets”? That is how Scribe Ahmose (also translated Ahmes) described his mathematical papyrus. Ahmose’s masterpiece is now called the Rhind Papyrus, after Alexander Henry Rhind, a Scotsman who was one of the first archaeologists to make meticulous records of his excavations (rather than simply hunting for treasures). Rhind purchased the papyrus from an antiquities dealer in Luxor, Egypt, in 1858.

Ahmose’s writing included a huge table of fractions as well as story problems, geometry, algebra, and accounting. Can you solve any of Scribe Ahmose’s problems?

Continue reading Egyptian Geometry and Other Challenges

Another Egyptian Math Puzzle

Posted on August 17, 2007May 13, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

I have one last puzzle for those of you who are following my Alexandria Jones series on hieroglyphic math and the Egyptian scribe’s method of multiplication by doubling. Here is the “teaser” problem from the cover of the Sept./Oct.1998 issue of my newsletter: