A nice little function/word puzzle here. Had me infuriated for some time.
You can find a list of all 110 words that were submitted on Twitter, along with their A and B values at M Shah’s blog, here (you need to scroll down to Activity #3). Be careful of spoilers though, because the solution is given just after the list of words.
They say no one ever escaped from the New Reykjavik Penitentiary, probably because no one ever did, but as one of NeRP’s newest inmates, you’re hoping you’ll be an exception to the rule…
This puzzle game looks like a text adventure, but is actually something rather different. Make sure to set your frustration threshold to high before you give it a go.
At the end, you will get a score out of 1000. Obviously, nothing short of full full marks constitutes a victory.
This puzzle does not require any mathematical knowledge at all, though you will need Python 3, along with a couple of basic packages (numpy and random).
If you are new to Python, I recommend installing the Anaconda distribution (https://www.anaconda.com/download/), then you can open and run the file in Spyder.
Here’s a bonus puzzle inspired by a recent Christmas purchase.
I bought this jolly fellow in Covent Garden:
We named him Philbert, for some reason.
As you can see, Philbert has two cubes in his stomach (dice, basically), each of which has a digit on each face. By rearranging the dice, you can count the days until Christmas.
Puzzle 1 (EASY)
Some extra clues are now available for our Christmas maths puzzle:
The solution will be posted on Wednesday…
The solutions to the imp and pixie puzzles are below.
So, the Elfnigma (Puzzle, Solution) that was set as Day 9 of the Mathematical Advent Calendar suggests some further chess board related puzzles featuring other varieties of faerie folk. Obviously, the elves of the puzzle were based on queens from a chessboard, but while queens can take any piece in the same row, column or diagonal, elves could only see tiles in these directions that were either adjacent (diagonally, horizontally or vertically) or of the same colour.
The question asked was (essentially) how many elves could be placed on a chess board, such that none could see any other (just as the Eight Queens Problem asks how eight queens can be placed on a chess board such that none threatens any other). This leads naturally to other questions involving magical creatures that are based on other chess pieces. Continue reading
Throughout the month, to accompany the release of our book on the Mathematics of Christmas, Hannah Fry & I were tweeting out Christmathsy bits and pieces, one a day, advent calendar style.
A final post, to provide the solution to Friday’s puzzle.
Throughout the month, to accompany the release of our book on the Mathematics of Christmas, Hannah Fry & I were tweeting out Christmathsy bits and pieces, one a day, advent calendar style.
Thanks for following the Indisputable Santa Mathematical Advent Calendar. Just a few loose ends to wrap up, with a solution to our Christmas Eve puzzle today, with the solution to Friday’s puzzle (Santa’s Dressing Room Disasters) to come tomorrow…
