Puzzle 2: The homemade notebook
To solve this puzzle, you need to find a clue in (virtual) Edinburgh: At the top of Arthur's Seat, there is a sign giving its height in a number of different units. \(B\) is the height of Arthur's Seat in links as stated by the sign.
You make a homemade notebook with \(B\) pages: You take a stack of \(B/4\) pieces of paper and fold the entire stack in half so that each piece of paper makes four pages in the notebook. You number the pages: you write the number 1 on the front cover, 2 on the inside front cover, and so on until you write \(B\) on the back cover.
While you are looking for your stapler, a strong wind blows the pieces of paper all over the floor. You pick up one of the pieces of paper and add up the two numbers you wrote on one side of it.
What is the largest total you could have obtained?
The answer to this puzzle is a four-digit number that scores 3 points.
Read the instructions for a reminder of what these points mean.
| << Go back to puzzle 1 | Continue to puzzle 3 >> |
This puzzle hunt was written by the team behind Chalkdust, a magazine for the mathematically curious. Find out more by reading the copy of Chalkdust in your conference pack. Talk to us after solving the puzzles about how to get an article you've written printed in our next issue.