mscroggs.co.uk
mscroggs.co.uk

subscribe

Sunday Afternoon Maths X

 Posted on 2014-04-27 

Lights

Source: Maths Jam
You have been taken captive and are blindfolded. There is a table in front of you with four lights on it. Some are on, some are off: you don't know how many and which ones. You need to get either all the lights on or all the lights off to be released. To do this, you can ask your captor to toggle the light switches of some of the lights. You captor will then rotate the table (so you don't know where the lights you toggled now are). Find a sequence of moves which will always lead to your release.

Show answer & extension

Princess problem

Source: Maths Jam
A princess lives in a row of 17 rooms. Each day she moves to a room adjacent to the one she wakes up in (eg. If she sleeps in room 5 today, then she will sleep in room 4 or 6 tomorrow). If you are able to find the princess by only opening one door each night then you will become her prince. Can you find her in a finite number of moves?

Show answer & extension

Three digit numbers

Brigette wrote down a list of all 3-digit numbers. For each of the numbers on her list she found the product of the digits. She then added up all of these products. Which of the following is equal to her total?
A \(45\)
B \(45^2\)
C \(45^3\)
D \(2^{45}\)
E \(3^{45}\)

Show answer & extension

Tags: numbers
If you enjoyed these puzzles, check out Advent calendar 2023,
puzzles about factors, or a random puzzle.

Archive

Show me a random puzzle
 Most recent collections 

Advent calendar 2023

Advent calendar 2022

Advent calendar 2021

Advent calendar 2020


List of all puzzles

Tags

tournaments spheres mean numbers cryptic clues calculus polynomials chess sum to infinity cards range decahedra advent probability prime numbers wordplay scales square roots volume sport geometry algebra consecutive integers factorials pentagons square numbers sets cryptic crossnumbers coordinates proportion chalkdust crossnumber fractions sequences area median symmetry chocolate 2d shapes binary hexagons axes arrows squares multiples parabolas albgebra combinatorics star numbers digital clocks dates bases probabilty remainders floors doubling means trigonometry expansions menace routes tangents consecutive numbers shape geometric means sums speed quadratics complex numbers coins even numbers integers digital products averages surds crossnumber cube numbers money factors partitions planes folding tube maps indices number dice 3d shapes palindromes quadrilaterals cubics ellipses shapes percentages ave circles irreducible numbers taxicab geometry clocks balancing colouring perfect numbers gerrymandering regular shapes geometric mean integration logic dominos triangle numbers addition tiling the only crossnumber triangles differentiation multiplication graphs lines digits pascal's triangle division elections christmas grids rugby people maths time functions determinants unit fractions rectangles crosswords matrices perimeter polygons books dodecagons odd numbers products angles games crossnumbers

Archive

Show me a random puzzle
▼ show ▼
© Matthew Scroggs 2012–2024