Author Archives: thomas

Introducing a new sequence challenge

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OK, so today I’m unveiling a new maths puzzle that, all being well, will run every day until someone discovers the solution. There is even a (very modest) ‘mystery prize’, which I will send to the winner (provided that they do not live somewhere so remote that the postage charges would be ridiculous).

The puzzle is a simple sequence, to which one term will be added each day. Your challenge is simply to determine the mathematical rule behind the sequence.

Click here to see the sequence

I am not really sure how difficult this will be (quite challenging, I think), so we could be here for a long, long time… or equally, it could all be over in a couple of days. Or maybe there will be no guesses at all and we will have to quietly forget all about it. Whichever, it’s all good.

Queues of Cubes

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Here is a nice problem tweeted by the Republic of Mathematics:

Free of the constraints of Twitter’s 140 character limit, let’s explain this problem in a little more detail. Continue reading →

Little Written Blog #1: Poor Preparation

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little written logo TREATEDThis writing blog is a bit of an experiment. If it works – by which
I mean, if I feel moderately inspired to keep going with it – I will
try to write pieces on a semi-regular basis. Let’s see how it goes.

For the last month or so, I have been working on a short story and, to be honest, I have found it quite a struggle. Continue reading →

Puzzle #7: Gridlock

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1024px-Giant_crab_outside_hotel_entrance_(4335385982)

A quick puzzle to keep things ticking over until the imminent return of the Mad Hatter. Suitable for A-level students and top-end GCSE, or even KS3. Has been known to stump maths teachers too:

#7: Gridlock
A deceptively simple puzzle. Fill in the grid.
Published: 29/07/2015
Difficulty: *
Maths knowledge required: Very basic – calculating means.

The solution will be available next week.

IMAGE: IDS.photos – Creative Commons

The giant crab that I have chosen to illustrate this post is not relevant to the puzzle, but bonus points go to anyone who knows why I have picked it and can provide an appropriate response… Continue reading →

No, the answer wasn’t obvious…

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Squares Puzzle Stephen Morris has provided a very detailed response to this question, which I have copied to the end of the original post.

It turns out that my intuition was correct (the tiling is possible if and only if r is a rational number lying in the half open interval (0,1]), but the proof is not obvious. The maths involved seems to be rather lovely though, so Stephen’s comments are well worth a look.