Unanswered Maths Puzzle

Unanswered maths Puzzle : First
Edition
Yogendra Singh
Copyright ©2022 scienceplusplus.com
Contributors -
scienceplusplus.com
Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book or corresponding materials
(such as text, images)
may be reproduced or distributed by any means without prior written

permission of the copyright owner.
Dedicated Note
“ I thank to my friends and family who in- spired me to write such a
book like this. While writing this book, I have done a lot of trial and
experiments , so that no small mistake can be made. Still, if there is any
mistake in this book, I would like to apologize and I will correct that
mistake in the next version”
Yogendra Singh (software engineer) About The

Author & Editors
Yogendra Singh (software Engineer)
Yogendra Singh is an author & editor of this book. He is an advance

Math and Physics Expert at Science⁺⁺. He is a Founder of Science⁺⁺. He
is also Software Engineer as iOS developer . He have been helping
students for the last two years , internationally.
He is passionate about teaching, writing and sharing his knowledge

with others.
Introduction
Puzzle has been an important element within the study of mathematics
since past. Traditionally, we have also learned formal logic by studying
mathematical fact.
This book is generally related to Puzzle problems, which is based on

mathematics.
A lot of good and di fficult problems have been included in this book.
To solve these problems, you must have knowledge of mathematics.
INDEX
1. Puzzle #1 - Word numbers
2. Puzzle #2 - Strange number series
3. Puzzle #3 - False Morse
4. Puzzle #4 - River of colors
5. Puzzle #5 - Traffic accident
6. Puzzle #6 - Black and white
7. Puzzle #7 - A lot of beer
8. Puzzle #8 - Letter shift
9. Puzzle #9 - A common area
10. Puzzle #10 - Blats
11. Puzzle #11 - Odd one out
12. Puzzle #12 - Word numbers, part 2
13. Puzzle #13 - Strange sequence
14. Puzzle #14 - Making things add up
15. Puzzle #15 - Broken words
16. Puzzle #16 - The ant's challenge
17. Puzzle #17 - Long words
18. Puzzle #18 - All the numbers
19. Puzzle #19 - Common letters
20. Puzzle #20 - Lego wall
21. Puzzle #21 - Mixed-up phrase
22. Puzzle #22 - Playing with playing cards
23. Puzzle #23 - Thirds of words
24. Puzzle #24 - Counting letters
25. Puzzle #25 - Wyrd wyse
26. Puzzle #26 - The dragonflower of Nirandra
27. Puzzle #27 - Connections
28. Puzzle #28 - Curvy triangle
29. Puzzle #29 - Cross-squares
30. Puzzle #30 - Common digits
31. Puzzle #31 - Thirds of words
32. Puzzle #32 - Endgame
34. Puzzle #34 - Century calendar
35. Puzzle #35 - “L"
36. Puzzle #36 - Not quite sudoku
37. Puzzle #37 - Super cross-squares
38. Puzzle #38 - My birthday present
39. Puzzle #39 - Die averages
40. Puzzle #40 - “E"
41. Puzzle #41 - Getting to the pub
43. Puzzle #43 - Animal magic
44. Puzzle #44 - Newspaper delivery
45. Puzzle #45 - Sum of digits
46. Puzzle #46 - Cross-bricks
47. Puzzle #47 - All the numbers
48. Puzzle #48 - Letter count
50. Puzzle #50 - Christmas cat-astrophe
51. Puzzle #51 - More than the Twelve Days of Christmas
52. Puzzle #52 - Christmas songs
53. Puzzle #53 - Happy 2019!
54. Puzzle #54 - On and off
56. Puzzle #56 - Brick wall
57. Puzzle #57 - Repeated digits
58. Puzzle #58 - A bunch of fives
59.
60. Puzzle #60 - Remainders
61. Puzzle #61 - Swimming pool statistics
62. Puzzle #62 - Making things add up
64. Puzzle #64 - Mastermind
66. Puzzle #66 - All the digits
68. Puzzle #68 - Multiplicative containment
69. Puzzle #69 - Base-ically correct
70. Puzzle #70 - Corner to corner
71. Puzzle #71 - BPMVJ INW XLOA …
73. Puzzle #73 - Fishing competition
74. Puzzle #74 - Bad calendar design
75. Puzzle #75 - Keeping it odd
76. Puzzle #76 - Digit-sum divisibility
77. Puzzle #77 - Liar, liar ...
78. Puzzle #78 - Cross-interlock
81. Puzzle #81 - Pythagoras' ladder
82. Puzzle #82 - Mississippi mix-up
83. Puzzle #83 - Triangles
84. Puzzle #84 - Ordered prime numbers
86. Puzzle #86 - Back to base-ics
87. .Puzzle #87 - Interesting property
88. Puzzle #88 - Inverted time
89. Puzzle #89 - Encircled circles
90. Puzzle #90 - My birthday party
91. Puzzle #91 - Prime indivisibility
93. Puzzle #93 - My broken calculator
95. Puzzle #95 - A powerful sum
96. Puzzle #96 - Consonants and vowels
97. Puzzle #97 - Prime sum
98. Puzzle #98 - Circle tower
100. Puzzle #100 - Single-digit prime factors
101. Puzzle #101 - Star quality
102. Puzzle #102 - Election results
103. Puzzle #103 - Christmas word search
104. Puzzle #104 - Christmas letters
105. Puzzle #105 - Long division
106. Puzzle #106 - Overflow
107. Puzzle #107 - At sixes and sevens
108. Puzzle #108 - Common-digit squares
109. Puzzle #109 - Palindromes
111. Puzzle #111 - Valentinian mathematics
112. Puzzle #112 - Pyramids
113. Puzzle #113 - Digital dates
114. Puzzle #114 - Rectangle of colors
115. Puzzle #115 - On a roll
117. Puzzle #117 - Frankie's journey home
118. Puzzle #118 - Infinite resistance network
119. Puzzle #119 - Word sum
120. Puzzle #120 - Number square
121. Puzzle #121 - Maximum product
122. Puzzle #122 - Divided factorial
123. Puzzle #123 - Packed circles
125. Puzzle #125 - One digit at a time
126. Puzzle #126 - What's my PIN?
127. Puzzle #127 - Nearly identical heptagons
128. Puzzle #128 - Perfect pinball
129. Puzzle #129 - Word sums
130. Puzzle #130 - What's the difference?
131. Puzzle #131 - Date products
132. Puzzle #132 - Outside broadcast schedule
135. Puzzle #135 - Base-reversible numbers
136. Puzzle #136 - My broken calculator
137. Puzzle #137 - Square sequence
138. Puzzle #138 - Pythagorean sculpture
139. Puzzle #139 - Weird sums
140. Puzzle #140 - A weighty problem
141. Puzzle #141 - The square root of THIRTYSIX
142. Puzzle #142 - My birthday meal
144. Puzzle #144 - Display segmentation
145. Puzzle #145 - Calculators at the ready!
146. Puzzle #146 - Old money
147. Puzzle #147 - Sum of cubes
148. Puzzle #148 - Simple roots
149. Puzzle #149 - Microlights
150. Puzzle #150 - Triangle of colors
151. Puzzle #151 - Carafe contents
153. Puzzle #153 - Square numbers from square numbers
154. Puzzle #154 - Segment count
155. Puzzle #155 - Making nothing
156. Puzzle #156 - Christmas booze and Christmas cheer
157. Puzzle #157 - Odd word out
158. Puzzle #158 - Shared area
159. Puzzle #159 - Common digits
160. Puzzle #160 - Primerian currency
162. Puzzle #162 - Letter swap
163. Puzzle #163 - Heptagonal flowers
164. Puzzle #164 - Digit cancellation
165. Puzzle #165 - Codebreaker
166. Puzzle #166 - Multiplicative digital roots
167. Puzzle #167 - Calculators at the ready!
168. Puzzle #168 - Number products, word products
169. Puzzle #169 - Thirteen, squared
170. Puzzle #170 - Twenty-twenty
171. Puzzle #171 - A powerful sequence
172. Puzzle #172 - 1, 7, and 2
173. Puzzle #173 - Up-and-down numbers
174. Puzzle #174 - Word search
175. Puzzle #175 - Seven segment mix-up
177. Puzzle #177 - Odd dates
178. Puzzle #178 - Powerful words
179. Puzzle #179 - Five-eleven
180. Puzzle #180 - Circle, quartered
181. Puzzle #181 - End-of-lockdown meal
182. Puzzle #182 - set of four different digits
183. Puzzle #183 - Basically zero
184. Puzzle #184 - Triangle, circle, square
185. Puzzle #185 - Overflow
186. Puzzle #186 - Counting letters
187. Puzzle #187 - Arc, circle, square
189. Puzzle #189 - All the digits
190. Puzzle #190 - Printer problem
191. Puzzle #191 - Letter sums
192. Puzzle #192 - Arc, circle, square 2
193. Puzzle #193 - Simple addition
194. Puzzle #194 - Another birthday
195. Puzzle #195 - Just the once
196. Puzzle #196 - Basic addition
198. Puzzle #198 - Animal magic
199. Puzzle #199 - The value of zero
200. Puzzle #200 - Infinite fractal tree
201. Puzzle #201 - Time flies, slowly
202. Puzzle #202 - Filling a tank
203. Puzzle #203 - Four into five?
204. Puzzle #204 - Laser reflection
205. Puzzle #205 - Two fours
206. Puzzle #206 - Connected holes
208. Puzzle #208 - Chaos and order
209. Puzzle #209 - Special dates
210. Puzzle #210 - Sums, products, and sums of products
211. Puzzle #211 - Common letters
212. Puzzle #212 - Cross numbers
213. Puzzle #213 - Fenced in
215. Puzzle #215 - Valentine word search
216. Puzzle #216 - Special times
217. Puzzle #217 - Five times the fun
218. Puzzle #218 - Base-ically correct
219. Puzzle #219 - Intersecting circles
220. Puzzle #220 - Pentagonal sequence
Let’s Start …
Puzzle #1 - Word numbers:
If all the numbers from zero to one billion were written out in English
words, which letters of the alphabet would never be used?
Puzzle #2 - Strange number series: 6, 4, 7, 20, 15, 13, ?

The 7th number in this series is also the final number. What is it?
Puzzle #3 - False Morse:

.--...---..--...-...
I received the above string of 20 morse dots and dashes yesterday.
Unfortunately, the spaces which should be used to separate the decoded
letters are missing. All I know is that the message is a 6-letter English
word with some connection to this post. Can you separate the dots and
dashes into the correct groups, and find the word?
Puzzle #4 - River of colors:
AAAABBCCDDEEEEEEEEGGII
IIILLLMMNNNNNOOOOOOPPP
QRRRRRRSSTTTUUUUUUVVWY
Use all of the above 66 letters to create the names of 12 colors. Select
the ones with an equal number of consonants and vowels, and extract
the 4th letter from each. You should be able to rearrange these letters to
form the name of a well-known river. What is the river?
Puzzle #5 - Tra ffic accident

My town of Gridsville is a very easy place to navigate. All roads run
either east-west with names E1, E2, E3, and so on, or north-south with
names N1, N2, N3, etc.. I live at the intersection of E4 and N4, and my
friend lives at the intersection of E8 and N8. I've grown tired of
puzzlers asking how many ways I can get to my friend's house by the
shortest route. I'll tell you that the answer is 70 - four intersections north
and four east in any order. However, today, I noticed that there'd been
an accident at the intersection of E6 and N6, and no traffic is allowed to
enter from any direction. How many ways are there to get to my friend's
house by the shortest route now?
Puzzle #6 - Black and white
By changing one letter at a time, it's possible to turn BLACK into
WHITE, with all the intermediate steps being valid English words
which aren't proper nouns. What's the shortest sequence of words you
can find which will achieve this?
Puzzle #7 - A lot of beer
BEER + BEER + BEER + BEER + BEER + BEER + BEER = DRUNK

Replace each letter with a digit from 0 to 9 to make this sum add up. No
two letters can have the same digit, and no two digits can share the
same letter. Neither B nor D can be zero.
Puzzle #8 - Letter shift
CANJD BLDKK XPWYX QSNVI BHEXA MQXUT IRMHP

This is a well-known phrase in which each letter has been shifted up the
alphabet by one of two amounts. Letters in odd positions have been
shifted by a different amount to letters in even positions. The shift is
circular, so the letter immediately above "Z" is "A". The blocks of five
letters shown here are for readability, and don't indicate word
boundaries. What is the phrase?
Puzzle #9 - A common area
I have a surface area of 1247.4 square centimeters, and I can be found

in almost every home. What am I?
Puzzle #10 - Blats
The town of Moneyville has a coinage system based on blats. Coins of

value 5 blats and above are bulky, so few people carry them - however,
coins of value 1, 2, 3 and 4 blats are smaller and lighter, and people
usually pay for their goods using only these four coin types. Last time I
was in Moneyville, I wanted to buy a toy costing 10 blats. I can tell you
that I was carrying plenty of coins of values 1, 2, 3, and 4 blats, but
nothing larger. How many ways could I create a total of exactly 10 blats
to pay the shopkeeper?
Puzzle #11 - Odd one out
CARAVAN, EXQUISITE, GERANIUM, HOLOGRAM,

LAMINATED, MUSTARD, PHOENIX, SYMPHONY, VERDIGRIS
Which of these nine words is the odd one out, and why?
Puzzle #12 - Word numbers, part 2
If all the positive integers up to one trillion are written out in English
words, the six letters C, J, K, P, Q and Z won't be used. Find the
smallest positive integer which, when written out in English words, uses
all the other twenty letters at least once.
Puzzle #13 - Strange sequence
A, G, G, G, G, W, V, E, G, E, G, ...
What is the twelfth and final entry in this sequence?
Puzzle #14 - Making things add up
Group the digits 1 to 6 in such a way as to form three numbers less than
1000, where the largest equals the other two multiplied together.
Puzzle #15 - Broken words
HIS, NEW, OAT, ORE, PER, PET, RAM, REF, SPA, THE, TIC, TOG
Connect these twelve 3-letter words to form four 9-letter words.
Puzzle #16 - The ant's challenge
Langton the ant falls asleep during a meeting, and awakes to find that
his colleagues have dragged him to the centre of 5 by 5 grid ... though
they've thoughtfully left him with a drop of nectar for food. Being a
simple creature, Langton follows simple rules to get off the grid and
rejoin his colony. If the square in the grid where he finds himself
contains nectar, he collects it and turns left; conversely, if the square
has no nectar in it, he deposits some for later and turns right. He then
crosses into an adjacent cell (not diagonally) in the direction in which
he's pointing. How many such moves does Langton need to make to get
off the grid?
Puzzle #17 - Long words
What is the longest English word you can make using a maximum of
four different letters, subject to the condition that the letters must
occupy consecutive positions in the alphabet? You can use each letter
any number of times, or not at all. For example, using L, M, N and O, a
valid answer would be LOOM.
Puzzle #18 - All the numbers
How many numbers can be made using the digits 0 to 9 a maximum of

once each? Numbers which begin with 0 (e.g. 0123) aren't allowed, but
0 itself is.
Puzzle #19 - Common letters
ELECT, LUTES, ROAMS, TENTS, THREW, TONER

One of these six words can be placed alongside each of the others to
form anagrams of five common 10-letter words. What are the 10-letter
words?
Puzzle #20 - Lego wall
I have a large box of Lego bricks of length 1, 2, 3, and 4 units. I want to

use them build a wall 11 units long, and I've worked out that there are
773 ways of doing this. Unfortunately, my dog has chewed all the 1-
unit bricks, and they no longer fit together. How many ways are there
for me to construct my wall using the remaining bricks of length 2, 3
and 4 units?
Puzzle #21 - Mixed-up phrase
AACDDEE, EEEFIL, MMMNNNNNOO, ORRR RR SSST UUYY.

This well-known phrase from a Shakespeare play has had its letters
rearranged into alphabetical order, although the positions of the spaces
and the punctuation have been preserved. What is the phrase?
Puzzle #22 - Playing with playing cards
I've selected the ace to the seven of hearts from two identical decks of
playing cards, and have discovered that I can arrange the fourteen cards
in a row such that there's one card between the aces, two cards between
the twos, three cards between the threes, four cards between the fours,
and so on. In fact, there are many ways of doing this; while I only want
you to find one of them, I'll give a special mention to anyone who can
list them all! (Note that swapping two identical cards with each other
does not yield two separate solutions.)
Puzzle #23 - Thirds of words
ABRI, ADSH, AISE, ALLA, ANKE, ARDM, ARGE, AUCR

These are the middle 4 letters of eight common 12-letter words. What
are the words?
Puzzle #24 - Counting letters
THERE ARE FIVE CONSONANTS AND THREE VOWELS IN

THIS SENTENCE
This statement is clearly not correct! However, there are two numbers
which when written out in English words can replace "FIVE and
"THREE" which will make the statement true. What are those numbers?
Puzzle #25 - Wyrd wyse
Complete this crossword using the words provided. Then, starting at the
top left corner and moving diagonally, write down the 6 letters in the
green squares - this is your answer to the puzzle.
Puzzle #26 - The dragonflower of Nirandra
The planet Nirandra is famous for the beauty of its three-colored

dragonflower. A new dragonflower seed is ejected from the adult plant
at the first rays of the pale green sun on day zero. The seed grows, and
at sunrise on the 8th day, it splits to reveal a large red flower. At sunrise
on 12th day, the flower ejects a new seed and rapidly turns yellow. At
sunrise on 17th day, the flower ejects another seed, and rapidly turns
blue. At sunrise on 26th day, the flower ejects a third and final seed,
then the whole plant shrivels and dies within minutes. It's known that a
single new seed was caught on the wind, and landed on a piece of virgin
ground on a given day. How many red, yellow, and blue flowers will be
on display at that location at noon 100 days later?
Puzzle #27 - Connections

What links Marc Gaudin, Theodore Maiman, Yukihiro Matsumoto, and
Katie Cassidy?
Puzzle #28 - Curvy triangle
This well-known image shows how the three primary colors - red,
green, and blue - combine to form all the other colors we see. The
image is projected using three light sources onto a screen such that each
of the circles has a radius of one meter, and the centers of the circles
form an equilateral triangle with sides one meter. Now look at the white
triangular-shaped segment where all three colors overlap, and tell me (i)
what is its area, and (ii) what is the sum of its internal angles?
Puzzle #29 - Cross-squares
Complete this crossword using the words provided. Then rearrange the
letters in the green squares to form a new word - it will be related to one
of the original twenty words.
Puzzle #30 - Common digits

I have two odd 3-digit numbers, neither of which ends in a 1. Between
them, they contain six different digits. When I multiply the two
numbers together, the result is a 6-digit number numbers together, the
result is a 6-digit number digit numbers. What is this 6-digit number?
Puzzle #31 - Thirds of words
ENCE, ENWR, ERPR, ERRA, ESIA, ESSF, ETKE, EVEM

These are the middle 4 letters of eight common 12-letter words. What
are the words?
Puzzle #32 - Endgame
I'm playing a simple game with some friends. We each take it in turns
to throw two dice, and add the sum of the values shown to our score.
The first player to reach exactly 100 is the winner. The rules say that if
a player throws any double, they're allowed a bonus throw; in fact, their
turn will continue for as long as they keep throwing doubles. At this
point in a game, I need 15 points to win. I could do this, for example,
with double-3, double-1, then 3 and 4 on the last throw. How many
ways are there to attain this score on a single turn?
Puzzle #34 - Century calendar
I've constructed a 101-year calendar which runs from January 1st 2000
until December 31st 2100. The day and month are written as numbers
with leading zeroes omitted, and the year is always expressed in 4-digit
form. So typical dates will appear as 2-8-2012, 29-2-2064, or 22-11-
2097. What is the total number of digits in the calendar?
Puzzle #35 - "L"
How many numbers from one to one million inclusive when written out
in English words contain the letter "L"?
Puzzle #36 - Not quite sudoku
This puzzle is based on the well-known sudoku format, but with two
major differences. The first is that it uses a smaller 4x4 grid. The
second is that no initial "seed" digits are provided, so the placement of
digits is governed only by the standard sudoku rules - namely that each
row, column, and inner 2x2 square must contain the digits 1 to 4 once
each. As you'd expect, there are many possible solutions to this puzzle,
one of which is shown in the figure. If I count reflections and rotations
as unique solutions, how many ways are there to fill the grid subject to
the above rules? If I now add the further (non-sudoku) condition that
both diagonals must also contain the digits 1 to 4 once each, how many
solutions remain?
Puzzle #37 - Super cross-squares
of the original thirty-two words.
Puzzle #38 - My birthday present
As you may know, I had a "signi ficant" birthday last Tuesday, and
amongst other more-generous gifts, I received a miserly £1 coin from
my uncle. You wouldn't believe it, but my uncle's a millionaire! So I
made him a proposition: would he give me another £1 for every
different way I could make that amount from combinations of the
smaller coins 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, and 50p? Fortunately, my uncle isn't
very clever in mathematical matters, and he readily agreed. Assuming
that I kept the original £1 coin, and that my uncle kept his promise,
what was the total amount that he gave me for my birthday?
Puzzle #39 - Die averages
It's well-known that the average value shown by an unweighted cubic

die is 3.5, taken over many casts. In an experiment, I allow such a die to
be cast a second time whenever a value of 4 or more is shown, and the
value added to the total for the complete throw. It's clear that this will
substantially increase the average value taken over many throws. If I
now extend this further, and allow the die to be cast repeatedly so long
as a 4, 5, or 6 keeps showing, the value accumulated in a complete
throw can become arbitrarily large. What's the average value produced
under this rule, taken over many throws?
Puzzle #40 - "E"
How many numbers from one to two million inclusive when written out
in English words do not contain the letter “E"?
Puzzle #41 - Getting to the pub
This is a map of part of the town of Puzzleville. The red square marks
the location of Brainbox Bill's house, and the green square marks the
location of his favourite pub, the Puzzler's Arms. Bill can only travel
along the roads marked in black, and while he can go through as many
intersections as he wants, he must always travel in an easterly, north-
easterly, or south-easterly direction. How many ways are there for Bill
to reach the pub?
Puzzle #43 - Animal magic
On a recent walk near my home, I noticed a new pet shop. I was sure
that it hadn't been there the day before, so I went in to have a look
around. The shopkeeper told me that he'd been a chemistry teacher for
many years, but had become disillusioned with the profession, and had
decided to move into selling animals. I didn't particularly approve, and I
told him so. Nevertheless, while we were talking, I strolled through the
shop to see what was on offer. There was a sunfish for £194, a skunk
for £153, a puffin for £185, a kiwi for £199, an ibis for £127, a finch for
£76, and a cuscus for £228. There was also a bonobo, but it didn't have
a price tag. I inquired how much he wanted for the bonobo. "All my
prices are calculated following a system", he replied with a twinkle in
his eye. "I challenge you to discover the system, and tell me what price
I'm asking for the bonobo." I went home and thought about the
problem. The next day, I went back to the shop, and correctly stated the
asking price for the bonobo. How much was it?
Puzzle #44 - Newspaper delivery
Cryptic Close is a cul-de-sac consisting of a single row of 19 houses. I

have to deliver a newspaper to every house, but I don't have to visit
them in any particular order; I can, for instance, deliver to the odd-
numbered houses on the way up, and the even-numbered houses on the
way back down. However, I am at heart a lazy individual, and I always
walk the minimum possible distance to get the job done. How many
different ways are there for me to complete my paper run?
Puzzle #45 - Sum of digits
As it's the 11th day of the 11th month, here's a puzzle based on the
number 1111. Starting from an initial value of 1, I repeatedly multiply
by 1111, and add up the digits in the number I obtain. Trivially, after
the first multiplication, my result is 1111, which has a digit sum of 4.
The second multiplication produces 1234321 with a digit sum of 16,
and the third yields 1371330631 with a digit sum of 28. How many
multiplications do I have to do to achieve a digit sum of 1111?
Puzzle #46 - Cross-bricks
You need to insert the bricks into the frame provided to create a valid
crossword. Unfortunately, the bricks which should fit in the positions
marked with an asterisk are missing, and you'll need to reconstruct
them. What are the resulting eight words? (I acknowledge Elliott Line
for the idea behind this puzzle.)
Puzzle #47 - All the numbers

How many numbers can be made using the digits 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 a
maximum of twice each?
Puzzle #48 - Letter count
All the numbers from one to one hundred thousand inclusive are written
out in English words, and the number of occurrences of each letter is
counted. Eight letters don't appear at all, but of the others, three occur
exactly the same number of times. What are these three letters?
Puzzle #50 - Christmas cat-astrophe
I decided to make my own Christmas cards this year. I found colored

paints in small tubs in a local hobby shop, and purchased 8 of red, 8 of
green, and 5 of black. I got home, and set to work. Unfortunately, my
cat Satan jumped onto the table halfway through my first design,
sending tubs of paint flying everywhere. While I was cleaning up the
mess and mulling over how to get the now-multi-colored Satan into the
bathtub, I started wondering how many different colours could be made
from the pots of paint I'd bought by mixing together various amounts of
each of the three basic colors. On the assumption that I had to use a
whole number of pots of each color from zero to the full complement
I'd purchased, the problem initially seemed easy - 9 possible quantities
of red (from 0 to
, times 9 of green, times 6 of black, making 486 combinations. OK -

zero of each color doesn't count, so it's 485. But then I realized that if I
used 6 pots of red, 4 of green, and 2 of black, for instance, this would
yield the same color as 3 of red, 2 of green, and 1 of black, albeit in a
larger quantity. So how many unique colors could I make from my
original purchase?
Puzzle #51 - More than the Twelve Days of Christmas
This time last year, the courier services all rejected the 12 carefully-
wrapped pear trees each containing a live partridge which I'd planned to
send to my true love over the Christmas period
- especially as I wanted the first one to be dispatched on Christmas day.
They weren't too happy either about transporting 42 live swans in 6
artificial ponds filled with water, and the insurance company's premium
for the potential loss of 8 shipments of 5 gold rings was preposterous.
So I chose instead to send my true love some chocolates. Accordingly,
on the first day of Christmas, I sent a Belgian truffle. On the second
day, I sent 2 champagne liqueurs and a Belgian truffle. On the third day,
I sent 3 Turkish delights, 2 champagne liqueurs, and a Belgian truffle.
On the fourth day, it was 4 hazelnut clusters, 3 Turkish delights, 2
champagne liqueurs, and a Belgian truffle. On the fifth day ... well, you
know how the pattern of gifts progresses through the song. At the end
of the twelfth day, however, although I'd already sent a large number of
chocolates, I still had many new flavours to hand, so I decided to extend
my gift spree in the same manner up to and including St. Valentine's
day. What was the total number of chocolates I sent to my true love?
Puzzle #52 - Christmas songs
The names of 12 Christmas songs have been presented below with the
spaces removed and the letters jumbled up. But these are not simple
anagrams - each one contains two extra letters which don't belong there.
Solve the anagrams, identify the 24 extra letters, then rearrange them to
form the name of a 13th Christmas song. What is that 13th song? It
might help you to know that, when unscrambled, the song titles will
appear in alphabetical order!
AAACFHIIILLMNOORRRSSSTTTUWY
AACDEEHHIKLLST
AAEEFFIKLNOORRTUWYYY
AAACCEEEEEFHHIILLLMMORRRRSSSTTTUVYY
ADEEEEEFFHHIILMMMNOOORRSSSTTTTTUWY
EEEIIILLLNNNOOOSSSSTTTTTTWWWY
AAACCDEEEGHHIIKMNNOORRRRSSTTTUW
DDDDEEEEEEHHILMNNOOOPRRRRSTU
AAACCEGIILMNNNOOOSSSTTTUWW
DEEGHHIIILRS
ACEHHHIIMRRSSTTW
AAADDEEGIIIKLLNNNNNORRRSTWWW
Puzzle #53 - Happy 2019!
As this is the first puzzle of 2019, here's one based on that number to
welcome in the new year. Starting from an initial value of 1, I
repeatedly multiply by 2019, and observe the last four digits of the
result in each case. The first multiplication yields 2019, the second
6361, the third 2859, and so on. At one point, I note that the value
shown by the last four digits is the same as the number of
multiplications I've carried out. What are the first four digits of the
result at that time?
Puzzle #54 - On and off
There's a high probability that your house contains a pair of lights

which switch off once an hour for ten minutes at a time; however, at
least one of them is lit at all times. Where are they?
them. What are the resulting eight words?
Puzzle #56 - Brick wall
I have an unlimited number of Lego bricks of any size I require, from

which I want to build a wall of length 6 units and height 3 units.
However, I need to observe good building practice, which prohibits
having two bricks join horizontally in the same place on two adjacent
layers, as shown in the diagram. How many ways are there to build my
wall? For a bigger challenge, how many ways are there to build a wall
twice the length and twice the height using the same good building
practice?
Puzzle #57 - Repeated digits
I've written down all the positive numbers starting from zero, and
alongside each of them, a count value. The operation of the count is
simple - if there are two or more identical digits in the associated
number, the count is
increased ... but if there aren't, the count is decreased. The first number
in my list - namely 0 - therefore starts the count at -1. I note that the
count value decreases at first, as single-digit numbers clearly have no
repeated digits. However, it gradually recovers, and eventually becomes
positive. Alongside what number will the count equal zero? For a
bigger challenge, I change the rule so that the count only increases
when there are three or more identical digits in my number, and
decreases otherwise. At what number will the count equal zero now?
Puzzle #58 - A bunch of fives
of the original forty-six words.
Puzzle #60 - Remainders
I'm thinking of an 8-digit number. It has a remainder of 299 when

divided by 413, a remainder of 352 when divided by 587, and a
remainder of 381 when divided by 823. What is my number?
Puzzle #61 - Swimming pool statistics
I've recently come back from a holiday at a beautiful resort on the

Caribbean island of Grenada. As a mathematician, I was particularly
intrigued by the shape of the pool (not to mention its attachment to a
swim-up bar ...), and I thought it would be interesting to try to work out
its vital statistics. The image shows a simplified to-scale schematic; the
figures "inside" the pool denote the angles at the corners, while the
figures "outside" denote lengths in meters. If I tell you that the pool's
maximum dimensions are 15 by 10 meters, you have enough
information to calculate its area. That's the easy part! If I also tell you
that the depth of the pool is 1.2 meters at the left-hand end, and
increases linearly with distance to 2.9 meters at the right-hand end, you
can now calculate its volume. What are the area and volume of the
pool?
Puzzle #62 - Making things add up
Group the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9 in such a way as to form three

numbers less than 1000, where the largest equals the other two
multiplied together.
Puzzle #64 - Mastermind
I have a selection of plastic blocks in eight different colors. My friend

has selected six of them, each of which is a different colors; I have to
determine what they are, and what order they're in. He grades each of
my guesses ac
cording to how many of my blocks match his - if I get the correct colors
in the correct position, he gives me a black pin; if I get the correct
colors but in the wrong position, he gives me a white pin. These pins
are placed alongside each guess. After analyzing the information gained
from my first five guesses as shown in the image, I can now say what
my friend's selection was. So what colors did he choose, and in what
order? I've numbered the blocks from 1 to 8 according to their colors:
give your answer as a series of numbers from left to right.
E, O, E, R, E, X, N, T, ...
Complete this sequence up to and including the first occurrence of Y.
How many times has N appeared?
Puzzle #66 - All the digits
I've written down three numbers which together add up to 114. The
squares of these three numbers between them contain all ten digits (0 to
9 inclusive) exactly once each. What are my three numbers?
Puzzle #68 - Multiplicative containment
N = ABCD x ABC x AB x A
In this equation, ABCD is a 4-digit number, where A, B, C, and D each
represents a different digit from 1 to 9 inclusive. The result N can
contain as many digits as necessary, but it must consist only of those
digits which make up ABCD. There are three numbers ABCD which
satisfy this criterion - find the one where the sum of A, B, C, and D is
even.
Puzzle #69 - Base-ically correct
6359 x 7475 = 10467232

Assuming this multiplication is correct, what number base has been
used?
Puzzle #70 - Corner to corner
I have 9 squares arranged in a 3x3 grid, and I want to get from a square
in one corner to the square in the diagonally-opposite corner. I can only
move from one square to an adjacent one across a straight border (i.e.
diagonal moves aren't allowed); also, while I can visit as few or as
many squares as I wish in order to achieve my goal, I can't visit any
given square more than once. I've discovered that there 12 ways to cross
my grid, as shown in the images. So far, so good! Now, assuming that
the same set of rules applies, how many ways are there to move
between diagonally-opposite corners of a larger 4x4 grid of squares?
Puzzle #71 - BPMVJ INW XLOA ...

BPMVJ INW XLOA, VMP PKGZ AR ONW IGROCM WQ NNAJ
WEEZLS.
Puzzle #73 - Fishing competition
In the annual Puzzlers' Cove fishing competition, monetary prizes are

awarded according to which species of aquatic life are caught. An eel
wins £7, a hake £10, a cod £12, a haddock £14, a piranha £17, and a
clownfish £20. Curiously, the rewards for a shark and a whelk are the
same at £18, and while no-one has ever bothered to take on a shark for
such a paltry sum, many competitors traditionally scoop large amounts
of easy money by dredging up buckets full of whelks. This year,
however, one competitor caught a manatee. This had never happened
before, so the judges convened a meeting and quickly agreed on a
suitable reward for the creature. What did they determine that the
manatee should earn for its captor?
Puzzle #74 - Bad calendar design
Many wall calendars are designed with each month having five rows of
seven numbers; this usually allow a full month of dates to be shown in
order, with a few spare spaces at the beginning and end. However, there
are instances where the first day of the month falls late in the week,
such that a sixth row is required in order to accommodate the
"overflow" dates at the end of the month. June 2019 is one such month.
However, rather than add an extra row, calendar designers choose to
place these overflow dates in the spare spaces at the beginning of the
month, as shown in the picture. While I understand the need to reduce
materials and cut costs, I hate this arrangement - it causes me a lot of
confusion! Assuming that my calendars all start their week on a
Sunday, how many months this century ( January 2000 to December
2099 inclusive) would need a sixth row to accommodate the full
complement of dates?
Puzzle #75 - Keeping it odd
It's well-known that the average value shown by an unweighted cubic

die is 3.5, taken over many casts. In an experiment, I allow such a die to
be cast a second time whenever an even number is shown, and the value
added to the total for the complete throw. It's clear that this will
substantially increase the average value taken over many throws. If I
now extend this further, and allow the die to be cast repeatedly so long
as an even number keeps showing (in other words, until the total for the
complete throw becomes odd), the value accumulated in a complete
throw can become arbitrarily large. What's the average value produced
under this rule, taken over many throws?
Puzzle #76 - Digit-sum divisibility
I've been investigating numbers which can be exactly divided by the

sum of their digits, particularly those which yield another number with
the same property. For example, the number 54 is exactly divisible by
the sum of its digits to yield 6, and in turn, 6 is exactly divisible by the
sum of its digits to yield 1. In fact, I'm specifically interested in
sequences such as this which end in 1. This can be achieved in any
number of steps - 54 takes two (54 => 6 => 1), 486 takes three (486 =>
27 => 3 => 1), and 2,916 takes four (2,916 => 162 => 18 => 2 => 1).
As you might expect, numbers with this property become increasing
rare as they get larger. For example, there's only one such number
between 6 million and 7 million. Your task is to find it.
Puzzle #77 - Liar, liar ...
My briefcase has a 3-rotor locking mechanism which allows me to

secure its contents with any code from "000" to "999" inclusive.
Unfortunately, my mischievous brother has reprogrammed the lock
with a 3-digit code of his own, about which he's made the following
statements:
1. It has a remainder of 2 when divided by 7 2. It has a remainder
greater than 9 when divided by 19
3. It's a prime number
4. It's no more than 7 away from a perfect square
5. It's no more than 15 away from a perfect cube 6. The difference
between its first and last digits is less than 5
7. Its digits are all different, and are in descending order
8. The sum of its digits is greater than 15 However, he's also told me
that only six of these statements are actually true. What's the code to
unlock my briefcase?
Puzzle #78 - Cross-interlock

determine what they are, and what order
they're in. He grades each of my guesses according to how many of my

blocks match his - if I get the correct colors in the correct position, he
gives me a black pin; if I get the correct colors but in the wrong
position, he gives me a white pin. These pins are placed alongside each
guess. After analyzing the information gained from my first five
guesses as shown in the image, I can now say what my friend's selection
was. So what colors did he choose, and in what order? I've numbered
the blocks from 1 to 8 according to their colors: give your answer as a
series of numbers from left to right.

3, 6, 15, 16, 20, 18, 35, 40, 36, ...
What is the 50th term in this sequence?
Puzzle #81 - Pythagoras' ladder
Pythagoras always took a shortcut home from the market with his
barrow through a passageway which was 1.4 meters wide. One day,
someone had left an open stepladder in the way, which took up the
whole width of the passage. One side of the ladder was 2.6 meters long,
the other was 2.3 meters long, so it formed a lopsided upside-down "V".
Pythagoras' barrow was 80cm wide and rectangular in shape, and
fortunately it just fitted underneath the ladder without it having to be
collapsed or moved. To the nearest millimeter, how high was his
barrow?
Puzzle #82 - Mississippi mix-up
It's easily shown that there are almost 35,000 distinct ways to arrange
the letters in the word MISSISSIPPI, but how many of these do not
contain any adjacent repeated letters - i.e. "II", "SS" or "PP"?
Puzzle #83 - Triangles

How many triangles are there in this drawing?
Puzzle #84 - Ordered prime numbers
I've listed all the prime numbers up to 1000 in numerical order, and
alongside each, I've written its equivalent in English words with no
spaces. If I now sort the list into alphabetical order, two entries remain
in their original positions. Which ones?
Puzzle #86 - Back to base-ics
The number 7 is written in base-3 as "21". Coincidentally, 7 also

exactly divides into the base-10 number 21. The number 15 behaves
similarly - 15 is written in base-3 as "120", and 15 also exactly divides
into the base-10 number 120. How many numbers less than ten million
have this property? Give your answer in base-3.
Puzzle #87 - Interesting property
I've written down a number of an arbitrary length which contains each

digit (0 to 9) either once or not at all. I've also calculated its square
- this doesn't contain any digit which is present in my original number,
but does contain at least one of every digit which is missing from it. My
number isn't secret - it's 15,094, and its square is 227,828,836. In fact,
there are just twenty numbers which have this property; your task is to
find the smallest. For added kudos, find the largest.
Puzzle #88 - Inverted time
The clock in my study has a 6-digit (hours, minutes, seconds) display.

It's set to a standard 24-hour format where the tens of hours is blank
from midnight (0:00:00) to just before 10am (9:59:59). I've noticed that,
if the clock is turned upside, there are certain instances during the day
when it still shows the correct time - one of these is 20:00:02. However,
there are other instances when it shows a valid but incorrect time, such
as 20:05:02 which becomes 20:50:02 when the clock is upside down.
How many times each day does the upside-down clock show the correct
time, and how many times does it show a valid but incorrect time? Note
that "1" does not correctly invert to itself.
Puzzle #89 - Encircled circles

Find the size of the red area to the nearest square-unit.
Puzzle #90 - My birthday party
It was my birthday last week, and I had some guests round for dinner.
There was me and my female partner, and five other male-female
couples, seated at a table with six chairs on either side. I decided to put
three conditions on the seating arrangements. Firstly, no man could sit
next to, or opposite, another man; secondly, no woman could sit next to,
or opposite, another woman; thirdly, no-one could sit next to, or
opposite, their partner. How many possible seating arrangements were
there?
Puzzle #91 - Prime indivisibility
I have a six-digit number which I can write as ABCDEF. Some digits

might be repeated, so each letter doesn't necessarily represent a unique
digit. I can tell you two things about my number. Firstly, A, B, C, D, E,
F, AB, CD, EF, ABC, and DEF are all prime numbers. Secondly,
ABCDEF is not exactly divisible by A, B, C, D, E, F, AB, CD, EF,
ABC, or DEF. What is my number?
Puzzle #93 - My broken calculator
My calculator is broken - of the seven segments which make up each

digit, only the right-hand two vertical bars are working. Consequently,
the only digit which is displayed correctly at any position is 1. The
other day, I multiplied two 4-digit numbers together using the
calculator, and I captured the resulting display in the image. What were
the two numbers?

my guesses according to how many of my blocks match his - if
I get the correct colors in the correct position, he gives me a black pin;
if I get the correct colors but in the wrong position, he gives me a white
pin. These pins are placed alongside each guess. After analyzing the
information gained from my first five guesses as shown in the image, I
can now say what my friend's selection was. So what colors did he
choose, and in what order? I've numbered the blocks from 1 to 8
according to their colors: give your answer as a series of numbers from
left to right.
Puzzle #95 - A powerful sum
I've written down twelve integers. The first is the smallest first-power to
contain every digit from 0 to 9 at least once, the second is the second-
smallest square to contain every digit from 0 to 9 at least once, the third
is the third-smallest cube to contain every digit from 0 to 9 at least
once, the fourth is the fourth-smallest fourth-power to contain every
digit from 0 to 9 at least once, and so on. What is the sum of my twelve
integers?
Puzzle #96 - Consonants and vowels
I've written out the numbers from 1 upwards in English words, and after
each one, I've calculated the ratio of the total number of consonants to
the total number of vowels used up to that point. After what number
will the ratio be largest?
Puzzle #97 - Prime sum
As this is puzzle 97, I've based it on that number. There are 21 double-
digit prime numbers, 11 being the smallest and 97 the largest. Using
just addition, how many ways can these 21 numbers be combined to
generate a total of exactly 97? Each prime number may be included in
the sum any number of times, or not at all.
Puzzle #98 - Circle tower
Given that the two large areas in this figure are regular pentagons, find
the total area to the nearest square-unit contained in the infinite series of
red circles.
Puzzle #100 - Single-digit prime factors
This is my 100th puzzle, and in celebration, I've based it on that

number. There are only four single-digit primes - 2, 3, 5, and 7. The
number 150 = 2 x 3 x 5 x 5 can be factorized using only combinations
of these four numbers; however, 156 = 2 x 2 x 3 x 13 cannot. Given that
a googol is a number equal to 1 followed by 100 zeroes, how many
numbers less than or equal to a googol can be factorized using just the
four single-digit primes? Each prime may be used any number of times,
or not at all. Maximum respect if you can solve this puzzle using just a
spreadsheet - it is possible!
Puzzle #101 - Star quality
My drama group is pleased to have been invited to perform a traditional

nativity play written by local author Jim Puzzlewick. Knowing that I'm
the mathematical type, they've asked me to make a 5-pointed "Star of
Bethlehem" out of plywood, which they'll cover with aluminium foil.
The design they require - a regular pentagram - is shown on the left. I
decided that the way to construct this would be to draw a large circle,
mark off points at 72-degree angles around the circumference, and join
up alternate points with straight lines. However, to my shame, I
accidentally measured the angles at 62 degrees as shown in the design
on the right, and only noticed the error after I'd started cutting it out. If
the correctly-shaped star would have weighed 4,833 grams, what is the
weight of the mis-shapen one?
Puzzle #102 - Election results
While the UK has been gripped by election fever this week, Conundrum
College has been voting on a smaller scale for the new chair of their
students' union. Andy received 141 votes, Bert received 146 votes, Carl
received 107 votes, and Doug received 125 votes. If the total number of
votes cast was 599, who was the fifth candidate?
Puzzle #103 - Christmas word search
Without using a word finder or Scrabble program, how many English

words can you make out of the letters in CHRISTMAS?
Puzzle #104 - Christmas letters
Insert the 72 letters given into the empty squares in the grid to form
nine Christmas-related words, then rearrange the letters in the green
squares to spell out a tenth Christmas-related word. What is this tenth
word?
Puzzle #105 - Long division
The well-known Fibonacci series runs 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 ... The first two

terms are both 1, and each successive term is the sum of the two
previous terms. The 143,907,186,542,039,753rd term in the series
contains more than thirty thousand million million digits. What is the
remainder when it's divided by 47?
Puzzle #106 - Overflow
I have a cylindrical tumbler with an inside diameter of 8 centimeters. It

holds exactly 675 cubic centimeters, and I've filled it to the brim with
water. Into the water I gently drop 10 solid glass spheres each with a
radius of 2 centimeters, which assume there minimum packing
configuration under the force of gravity. To the nearest 0.1 cubic
centimeter, what is the volume of water displaced?
Puzzle #107 - At sixes and sevens
of the original twenty-four words.
Puzzle #108 - Common-digit squares
There's a set of eleven 4-digit numbers whose squares contain the same
eight digits in different orders. Find the smallest and largest of these
eleven numbers. Leading zeroes aren't permitted on the numbers or
their squares.
Puzzle #109 - Palindromes
As today's date is palindromic, here's a puzzle based on it. How many

pairs of palindromic numbers differ by exactly 20200202?

Find the area of the red circle to the nearest square-unit.
Puzzle #111 - Valentinian mathematics
One day around this time of year when I was at school, the maths
teacher walked into class and wrote the following formula on the board,
saying that he was sure it would mean something to some of us.
y=x
2
3 ± (25 − x2)
I've plotted the formula for all real values. Your first job is to find the
enclosed area. When
you've done that, rotate the shape around the central vertical axis, and
calculate the volume of the resulting three-dimensional structure.
Puzzle #112 - Pyramids
I've built three pyramids using a total of 147,327 ballbearings. Each

pyramid begins with either a square or a triangular array of
ballbearings, and subsequent layers are formed by placing a ballbearing
in each of the "dips" in the layer below. The top layer of each pyramid
contains just a single ballbearing, with no further construction being
possible. What types of pyramid have I built, and how many layers do
they each have?
Puzzle #113 - Digital dates
As yesterday was a rare leap-day, here's a puzzle about dates. It's

obvious that no date when written out in the format "dd-mm-yyyy" can
ever contain more than 8 different digits - the most recent occurrence of
this was 25-06-1987, and the next will be 17-06-2345. On the other
hand, only one date has ever contained - and ever will contain - a single
repeated digit, namely 11-11-1111. For the purpose of this puzzle,
however, I'm limiting the date range to just the 21st century, within
which there are no dates with fewer than 2, or more than 7, different
digits. So which is larger, and by how much - the number of dates
within this period with exactly 3 different digits, or the number of dates
with exactly 7 different digits?
Puzzle #114 - Rectangle of colors
In this grid is a 3 x 2 rectangle which contains one square of each color

red, yellow, green, blue, black and white. What are the coordinates of
this rectangle?
Puzzle #115 - On a roll
Sam is one of those sel fish bastards who's going around buying up as
many toilet rolls as he can lay his hands on. So imagine his joy when he
finds a place where the shelves are fully stocked
- indeed, overflowing - with the stuff. However, in response to the
bizarre surge in demand for toilet rolls by hordes of other selfish
bastards on the rampage for every last sheet, the store has jacked up
their prices, and Sam is devastated to learn that he's unable to ransack
the entire stock. But on the positive side, he notes that he has a choice
between three different brands - luxury, standard, and basic. If he buys
the basic product, he can afford 28 more rolls than if he buys the luxury
brand, and gets 49 more sheets per roll into the bargain. However,
because of the lower quality, the basic brand requires an average of 4
more sheets per use than the luxury brand. Sam calculates that buying
the basic product instead of the luxury one will allow him to use the
bathroom an extra 257 times, which seems like an excellent deal.
However, if he buys the standard product instead of the luxury one, he
can afford 18 more rolls, with each roll having 26 more sheets -
although being cheaper, it requires an average of 2 more sheets per use.
Sam eventually opts for the standard product after calculating that it
will allow him to use the bathroom 2,484 times
- just 23 fewer than if he'd bought the basic product. How many
standard-quality toilet rolls does he buy, how many sheets per roll does
it contain, and what is the average number of sheets per use?
Puzzle #117 - Frankie's journey home
Frankie the flying fox has a feeding ground in Puzzler's Wood

consisting of 9 trees growing in a square 3-by-3 grid, as shown in the
image. Frankie lives at one corner of this grid, and has discovered that
the juiciest fruits grow on the tree at the diagonally-opposite corner.
One day after feeding on this favourite tree, Frankie's chilling out and
thinking about his journey home. He can jump from any tree to any
other provided that (a) he can see it directly (i.e. there are no other trees
in the way), and (b) it must take him closer to home. How many
possible routes home does he have? For added kudos, work out how
many routes Frankie could take to get home if his feeding ground was a
4-by-4 grid - the same rules apply.
Puzzle #118 - Infinite resistance network
Combining electrical resistances follows two simple rules. Firstly, to

combine two resistors in series, you add their resistances together, thus
R=R1+R2. Secondly, to combine two resistors in parallel, you divide
the product of the resistances by their sum,
thus
R = (R1.R2) (R1 + R2).

The unit of resistance is the ohm. So assuming that the network shown
continues to infinity, what is the resistance between terminals A and B?
Puzzle #119 - Word sum
THREE + FOUR = SEVEN

same letter. If 3 is a factor of THREE but not of SEVEN, and 7 is a
factor of SEVEN but not of THREE, what numbers are represented by
THREE, FOUR, and SEVEN?
Puzzle #120 - Number square
Insert the remaining numbers into the grid so that the rows and columns
sum to the totals indicated in red. Then read the sixteen numbers off
row by row starting at the top left corner.
Puzzle #121 - Maximum product
The letters A to I each represents a di fferent digit from 1 to 9. If ABC,

DEF, and GHI are three 3-digit numbers, what is the maximum value of
ABC x DEF x GHI?
Puzzle #122 - Divided factorial
One million factorial is the product of all the integers from one up to
and including one million
- it's an enormous number which contains 5,565,709 digits. I've found
two more integers - one is a perfect square, the other a perfect cube. The
product of these two integers divides exactly into one million factorial,
yielding the smallest possible result. What are the first four digits, and
the last four digits, of this result?
Puzzle #123 - Packed circles

In this image, how much of the quadrant is occupied by the colored
circles?
Puzzle #125 - One digit at a time
As this is puzzle 125, I've based it on that number. Using the four
arithmetic operators plus, minus, multiply, and divide, I've constructed
an arithmetic expression which evaluates to exactly 125 using just the
digit 1, as follows:
(1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1)x(1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1)+1+1+
1+1+1
This uses the digit 1 twenty-seven times, but I know it can be done with
fewer; your job is to construct an expression which uses it the minimum
possible number of times. When you're satisfied that you've done this,
construct eight more expressions based on the other digits 2 to 9, in
each case using the target digit the minimum possible number of times.
You may use brackets as necessary. Combining multiple occurrences of
a digit into a single number greater than 10 is not allowed - that would
make it too easy!
Puzzle #126 - What's my PIN?
My bank PIN is a 4-digit number between "0000" to "9999" inclusive.

Sadly for you, there's no money in the account ... but you will find a
verbal acknowledgement if you can work out the PIN from the
following statements: 1. It's a prime number
2. Its remainder when divided by 19 is not a multiple of 6
3. It's no more than 15 away from a perfect cube 4. The above
statements are either all true or all false
5. It's no more than 7 away from a perfect square
6. It's within 103 of a Fibonacci number 7. The sum of the first and last
digits is greater than half the product of the middle two 8. More than
half of the above statements are true
9. Its digits are all different, and are in descending order
10. The sum of its digits is greater than 21 11. More than half of the
above statements are false
12. The number is a palindrome
If I also tell you that at least three-quarters of the above statements are
true, what's my PIN?
Puzzle #127 - Nearly identical heptagons
As this is the 7th day of the month, here's a puzzle based on seven-sided
polygons. I've inscribed two regular heptagons in identical circle
quadrants. The red heptagon is oriented symmetrically about a 45-
degree line through the origin of the quadrant. The blue heptagon sits
on the x-axis. Both are the maximum possible size within the bounds of
their respective
quadrants. Which heptagon has the larger area, and by how many parts
per million?
Puzzle #128 - Perfect pinball
The image shows a modi fied pinball table, in which five links have
been placed between specific pairs of pins. Assuming that the table is
"perfect" in that the distribution of balls arriving at the slots across the
bottom precisely matches the statistical predictions, what is the change
in the probability that a ball will reach slot 7 as a result of adding the
links?
Puzzle #129 - Word sums
The eight di fferent letters in ONE, THREE, TEN, and ELEVEN each
represent a digit from 0 to 9. No two letters can have the same digit, and
no two digits can share the same letter. If (THREE + ONE) and (TEN -
ONE) are both perfect squares, what is the minimum value of
ELEVEN?
Puzzle #130 - What's the difference?
As this is day 28 of month 06, here's a puzzle based on the number

2,806. N is a large positive integer. I've calculated the 2,806th power of
N, and of each of the next 2,806 consecutive integers, and written the
resulting numbers in order in a single row on a (very large) sheet of
paper. I've then calculated the (positive) differences between pairs of
adjacent terms in this sequence, and written the resulting 2,806 numbers
on the line below. I've repeated this second process on the row of
differences, then again, and again, generating an ever-decreasing
number of terms, until a single number remains on the 2,806th row of
differences. What is the EXACT value of this final number?
Puzzle #131 - Date products
I've written out each of the dates in this century as a series of three
numbers - the day, the month, and the four-digit year - which I've
multiplied together. I've then counted the number of times that each
result occurs. Some occur just once - 77,444, for instance, is only
created on 19th February 2038. Other results occur more often -
444,744 appears three times, for instance, all of them on dates in 2059.
What's the maximum number of times that any given result occurs?
Puzzle #132 - Outside broadcast schedule
As you know, I live in East Anglia in the UK. The following is an

itinerary I submitted for an outside broadcast documentary, highlighting
various towns and cities in the region.
14:40 - Haverhill
14:49 - Stowmarket
15:02 - Lowestoft
- King's Lynn
- Norwich
16:38 - Newmarket
17:28 - Saxmundham
18:42 -
19:53 -
Unfortunately, some of the information has got lost, as you can see.
However, a little local knowledge should allow you to reconstruct the
full list. So tell me - at what times should King's Lynn and Norwich be
visited, and what two locations should end the day?
I've drawn three circles A, B, and C, each of which touches the other
two. The ratio of their radii is 6:7:9 respectively. I've also drawn the
largest possible circle in the space between these three circles, as well
as the smallest possible circle which encloses them. The complete
construction is shown in the figure. If the large outer circle has an area
of one million square units, what is the size of the small innermost
circle to the nearest square unit?
Puzzle #135 - Base-reversible numbers
The decimal number 212 appears as 552 in base 6, and as 255 in base 9.
Note that the digits are reversed. Consequently, I call the decimal
number 212 a "base-reversible number", and 552 base-6 and 255 base-9
are its "base-reversed pair". Another such number is 7,491, which has a
base-reversed pair of 30,561 base-7 and 16,503 base-8. Ignoring the
trivial single-digit numbers which transform to themselves in other
bases, I've found 29 base-reversible numbers below one billion, the
smallest of which is 7 and the largest 314,767,045. Surprisingly, one of
these has two independent base-reversed pairs. Which one?
Puzzle #136 - My broken calculator
My calculator is broken - of the seven segments which make up each

digit, only the three horizontal bars are working. Consequently, no digit
is displayed correctly. The other day, I multiplied two 4-digit numbers
together using the calculator, and captured the process in the image
exactly as the calculator displayed it. What were my two numbers?
Puzzle #137 - Square sequence
I've drawn a square of side 1 unit, inside which I've constructed a

second square rotated by 22.5 degrees with the largest possible area.
I've repeated this process a further three times, so that the final square in
the sequence has been rotated by 90 degrees with respect to the original.
The resulting image is shown on the left. I calculate that the area of the
innermost square is approximately 0.1177 square units.
I now repeat the whole exercise rotating each successive square by just
9 degrees - in this case, I have to draw ten rotated squares, as shown in
the image on the right. I calculate that the innermost square in this
sequence has an area of approximately 0.06769 square units. I can now
imagine the limiting scenario where the angle of each successive
rotation becomes vanishingly small, and the number of squares I have
to draw tends to infinity; what would the EXACT area of the innermost
square be in this case?
Puzzle #138 - Pythagorean sculpture
The image shows the design of a glass sculpture I had made for a
mathematically-minded friend. It consists of nine right-angled triangles
stained alternately in the three primary colors. The sides of all the
triangles are in the ratio The sides of all the triangles are in the ratio
side" of the smaller one next to it. The largest red triangle measures
exactly 30 by 40 centimeters. I now need to obtain a box to put the
sculpture in to ensure safe delivery to my friend. Find the smallest
rectangular area which encloses the sculpture, giving your answer to the
nearest square millimeter. You're allowed to rotate the sculpture by any
angle, of course, but it must remain flat.
Puzzle #139 - Weird sums
OOE + OE = OO
OO + OI = EIEI
EOU + EO = OI
EEEI + OU = EIO
EO + EEEI = OEUE
EOE + OI + OUEE = ?
Puzzle #140 - A weighty problem
Years ago, my uncle gave me a set of 25 metric weights in a

commemorative box. Each piece is a multiple of 10 grams, and has a
unique weight in the set. The lightest is 10 grams, and the heaviest is
250 grams. I got them out the other day, and discovered that the 10
gram piece was unfortunately missing. Nevertheless, I spent some time
playing with the remaining pieces to see if I could divide a specific set
of them into two piles of equal weight. I discovered that there are 6
ways of achieving this using all of the lightest 8 pieces, thus:
20+30+40+50+80 = 60+70+90
20+30+40+60+70 = 50+80+90
20+30+80+90 = 40+50+60+70
20+40+70+90 = 30+50+60+80
20+50+60+90 = 30+40+70+80
20+50+70+80 = 30+40+60+90
I also found that there are 10 ways of dividing the set of 9 lightest
pieces in a similar manner, although I was unable to exactly balance the
two piles when using the lightest 10 or 11 pieces. Now, in case you're
wondering, I'm not going to ask you to work out how many ways the
entire box of 24 pieces can be divided up into two equal-weight piles ...
though you can get extra kudos for doing so! Just tell me how many
ways of achieving this goal with the lightest 12 pieces, from 20 up to
130 grams.
Puzzle #141 - The square root of THIRTYSIX
The seven di fferent letters in THIRTYSIX each represent a digit from

0 to 9. No two letters can have the same digit, and no two digits can
share the same letter. If THIRTYSIX is a perfect square, what five
letters are represented by its square root?
Puzzle #142 - My birthday meal
I've just had a birthday, and I organized a meal for 11 friends - Andrew,
Bethany, Colin, Deborah, Ernest, Felicity, Harriet, Ian, Jane, Keith, and
Lucy - and of course myself. I chose a single large round table, and
initially decided that no two people of the same sex should sit next to
each other. However, I subsequently added a further condition that no-
one should sit next to a person whose name begins with an adjacent
letter to theirs ... so for example, I couldn't have Felicity or Harriet on
either side of me. How many valid seating patterns would have been
allowed by the first condition, and how many were eventually allowed
after including the second? Note that rotating a valid pattern around the
table by any number of places doesn't constitute a new pattern.
Puzzle #144 - Display segmentation
If I enter the numbers from 1 to 9 sequentially into my calculator, a

total of 43 segments are activated - 2 segments are required to display
"1", 5 are required for each of "2" and "3", 4 are required for "4", and so
on. If I enter all the numbers from 1 to 99 in the same manner, a total of
914 segments will be activated. If my calculator has 12 digits, how
many segments will be activated in total to display every possible
positive integer?
Puzzle #145 - Calculators at the ready!
Of course I'm joking - evaluate this expression WITHOUT using a
calculator.
Puzzle #146 - Old money
The other day, I came across an old box containing a large number of 1-
penny, 3-penny, and 6-penny English coins. These ceased to be legal
tender in the UK long ago, and are of no monetary value, so I decided
to see how many ways I could create specific sums from just these three
coin types. I discovered that there are only two amounts which can be
made in a number of ways which exactly equals the amount itself.
Trivially, 1 penny is one of the solutions as it can obviously only be
made using one 1-penny piece. What's the only other monetary amount
which can be made from these three coins types in a number of ways
which equals the amount itself?
Puzzle #147 - Sum of cubes
The story goes that when the British mathematician G. H. Hardy visited
the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan in hospital, Hardy
remarked that he'd ridden in a taxi with the number 1729, and
apologized that the number was rather dull. Ramanujan disagreed. "It is
a very interesting number," he replied. "It is the smallest number
expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways." Ramanujan
was correct -
1729 = 12^3 + 1^3 = 10^3 + 9^3, and 1729 is now known as the Hardy-
Ramanujan number. So what's the smallest number which can be
expressed as the sum of two cubes in THREE different ways?
Puzzle #148 - Simple roots
256, 576, and 324 are three 3-digit squares - I'll call them X, Y and Z.
The simple concatenation of these numbers is 256,576,324, which also
happens to be a perfect square - in this case of 16,018. I'll call this last
number Q. Given that X, Y and Z are not necessarily unique, there are
17 sets of values for [X, Y, Z] which result in Q being an integer.
Remarkably, for 16 of them, Q can also be written as the square root of
X, followed by a zero, followed by the square root of Z - you can verify
this for the numbers in this example. Your task is to find the only value
of Q for which this is NOT the case. Also, tell me what's notable about
the other 16 sets.
Puzzle #149 - Microlights

Three microlights take o ff at the same time from three locations, and
fly at the same height in a given direction at a fixed speed. The first
takes off from Alphaville, and flies east-northeast at 120km/h. The
second takes off from Betaville, 49km east of Alphaville, and flies
northwest at 126km/h. The third takes off from Gammaville, 38km
north of Alphaville, and flies east-south-east at 139km/h. Will all three
microlights ever be within 20km of each other? If so, for how long?
Puzzle #150 - Triangle of colors
The image shows 625 triangles - 325 oriented point-upwards, and 300
point-downwards. With the exception of the 72 triangles along the outer
rim, every triangle shares each of its three sides with one other triangle.
I'll call this local group a "quartet". The colors of each triangle in the
image has been chosen so that no
quartet contains a triangle in each of the four colors red, green, blue,
and white ... with one exception. Find the triangle at the centre of this
unique four-color quartet.
Puzzle #151 - Carafe contents

The image shows the cross-section through a carafe. The curved edges
at the outside of the base section are circular in form with a radius of 3
centimeters - the centers of these (virtual) circles are separated by 6.6
centimeters.
The neck of the carafe takes the form of a circular cone whose sides
slope at 20 degrees to the vertical, and which take off without
discontinuity from the base section. I've filled the carafe with exactly 1
liter of liquid. What is the height of the liquid column?
Puzzle #153 - Square numbers from square numbers
Given any number, I can separate it into a string of digits, write down
the square of each, concatenate these values into a single larger number,
and take the square root. For brevity, I'll define a function S which does
this. So, for instance, S(1438)=342 - you can easily verify this. For the
purposes of this puzzle, I'll limit the input number to include just the
digits from 1 to 9 a maximum of once each. It turns out that there are
only 26 valid input numbers (including the 9 trivial single-digit ones)
for which S is an integer - the above 1438 is one example. Remarkably,
amongst these are four pairs [A, B] which share the same digits; [269,
629] is one, where S(269)=209 and S(629)=191. More remarkable still
is that one of these four pairs has the property that S(A) and S(B) also
share the same digits. What are A and B?
Puzzle #154 - Segment count
When displayed on a calculator, which is smallest: the 500th number to

light exactly 15 segments, the 600th number to light exactly 16
segments, the 700th number to light exactly 17 segments, the 800th
number to light exactly 18 segments, or the 900th number to light
exactly 19 segments?
Puzzle #155 - Making nothing
I can write the digits from 1 to 9 once each in any order, and insert a
plus or minus sign between any pair of adjacent digits as often - or not -
as I wish. If I insert no sign between two digits, they concatenate - so 3
and 4 will become the single number 34. Almost 2.4 billion unique
arithmetic expressions can be generated by this method, of which more
than 5 million sum to zero; one of these is 4-75+138+2-69. Your task is
carry out the same exercise with the smaller digit-set consisting of 3, 4,
6, 7, and 9. How many unique expressions can you create, and how
many of them sum to zero?
Puzzle #156 - Christmas booze and Christmas cheer
By changing one letter at a time, it's possible to turn BOOZE into

CHEER, with all the intermediate steps being valid English words
which aren't proper nouns. What's the shortest sequence of words you
can find which will achieve this?
Puzzle #157 - Odd word out
Using the letter-values on Scrabble tiles, these eight words are all worth
exactly 20 points. Talking of Scrabble, which word is the odd one out
from this list, and why?
COMPLEX; HAZARDS; HIGHWAY; JUSTIFY; MAXIMUM;
SQUEAKS; WIZARDS; ZOOLOGY.
Puzzle #158 - Shared area
The image shows a regular octagon and a quadrant of a circle. The

perimeter of the octagon is the same length as the perimeter of the
quadrant. What fraction of the area of the octagon is inside the
quadrant? Give your answer to 6 decimal places.
Puzzle #159 - Common digits
I have three 3-digit numbers. Between them, they contain nine different
digits. When I multiply the three numbers together, the result is a 9-
digit number which uses the same nine digits as the original 3-digit
numbers. If the middle of the three numbers is the average of the other
two, what are my three numbers?
Puzzle #160 - Primerian currency
In the State of Primeria, the basic unit of currency is the prim, and coins
are minted only in prime-number values of prims. It's believed that this
level of flexibility is sufficient to do away with the need for overpaying
and receiving change. So for example, the only way that a Primerian
can pay for a 6-prim toy is with three 2-prim coins or two 3-prim coins
- a 5-prim coin 2-prim coins or two 3-prim coins - a 5-prim coin 2-prim
coins or two 3-prim coins - a 5-prim coin prim coin wouldn't be
accepted as they're in excess of the toy's purchase price. This is less of a
problem for the high-value consumer goods which Primerians enjoy, as
creating a given sum of money becomes easier as the price increases;
while some have noted wearily that the entire currency system is simply
a government ploy to keep prices high, the standard of living is good,
and the citizens are generally happy. There's one oddity in Primeria
worthy of mention, however, which is a consequence of the extreme
superstitious nature of its citizens - there's no 13-prim coin, and nothing
is ever sold for that price. So what's the minimum sum of money which
can be made in at least 50 different ways? For added kudos, what's the
minimum sum of money which can be made in at least 500 different
ways?
of the original twenty-four words.
Puzzle #162 - Letter swap
If I write the letters A, B, and C on separate pieces of paper and set

them out in that order, there are numerous ways I can swap pairs to
rearrange them into any arbitrary order I wish. However, if I restrict the
rules so I have to make the maximum possible number of swaps subject
to no individual letter being moved more than once, then some
arrangements - ACB, CBA, and BAC - are possible while others -
BCA, CAB, and ABC itself - are not. If I extend my set of letters up to
H (eight letters), how many arrangements are possible under the
restrictive rules? For added kudos, how many arrangements are possible
if I use all 26 letters of the alphabet?
Puzzle #163 - Heptagonal flowers
The image shows two flowers I designed for a card to give to my loved
one on Valentine's Day. They both consist of regular heptagons, inside
which arcs have been drawn centered on each vertex. The arcs in the
flower on the left have a radius equal to the heptagon's side length,
whereas those in the flower on the right have a radius equal to the linear
distance between alternate vertices. How many times larger is the blue
centre in the flower on the right than on the left?
Puzzle #164 - Digit cancellation
I've written down two numbers expressed as an improper fraction. Both

contain the digits 1 to 9 a maximum of once each, neither contains a
zero, and they have at least one digit in common. My numbers are
162,798 and 3,786. If I evaluate the fraction, I get exactly 43. I can now
"cancel out" all the digits which appear in both numbers leaving 129
and 3 respectively, and if I evaluate this new fraction, I again get
exactly 43. This is a dubious arithmetic practice of course, and the fact
that it works is nothing more than coincidence. However, there's one
other pair of numbers I could have used which also evaluates to 43 both
before and after "cancelling" the common digits. What are these other
numbers?
Puzzle #165 - Codebreaker
36378387 03222353 34372006 38320383

89922303 ...
Crack this substitution cipher, and give me the next block of 8 digits.
Puzzle #166 - Multiplicative digital roots
The multiplicative digital root of a number is obtained by an iterative

process of multiplying together its individual digits, with each pass
using the result from the previous pass as its "input". The process
continues until a single-digit number is reached. So to obtain the
multiplicative digital root of 2937 for example, the digits would be
multiplied to give 378; as this has more than one digit, the process is
repeated to give 168, then 48, then 32, and finally 6. For the set of
numbers from one to ten thousand inclusive, what are the most and least
common multiplicative digital roots, and which two multiplicative
digital roots appear exactly the same number of times?
Puzzle #167 - Calculators at the ready!

Evaluate this expression to 15 decimal places.
Puzzle #168 - Number products, word products
The number 160 is the product of 2 and 80. By coincidence, in English

notation, the number of letters in ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY (18)
is the product of the number of letters in TWO (3) and the number of
letters in EIGHTY (6). Find all the numbers up to 1000 with this
property.
Puzzle #169 - Thirteen, squared
As this is puzzle 169, and 169 is thirteen squared, here's a puzzle based
on thirteen and a square. Yes, I know it's tenuous connection! A 13-
sided polygon is called a tridecagon - or if you prefer Greek derivations
to Latin ones, a triskaidecagon. Anyway, I've drawn a regular 13-sided
polygon inside a square with an orientation such that the blue diagonal
line is an axis of symmetry. In this orientation, the fraction of the square
inside the polygon is a maximum. Calculate this fraction to an accuracy
of 6 decimal places.
Puzzle #170 - Twenty-twenty
Twenty 7-letter words, twenty 5-letter words. Complete the crossword,

then rearrange the letters in the green squares to form a new word
- it will be related to one of the original forty words.
Puzzle #171 - A powerful sequence
I'm thinking of numbers which are simultaneously a perfect square, a

perfect cube, a perfect 4th power, a perfect 5th power ... all the way up
to a perfect 25th power. If I set all such numbers in a sequence of
increasing magnitude, and define the first term of the sequence as 0,
how many digits has the 1,000,000th term?
Puzzle #172 - 1, 7, and 2

As this is puzzle 172, I've based it on the digits 1,
7, and 2.
222,221 x 772,777 = 171,727,277,717
This sum is correct, and uses only the digits 1, 7, and 2. Your task is to
find two 24-digit numbers and their 48-digit product which between
them also only use the digits 1, 7, and 2.
Puzzle #173 - Up-and-down numbers
The 15-digit number 113,444,998,654,221 has the following properties:

1. It begins and ends with 1;
2. It contains a single set of one or more consecutive 9s;
3. Successive digits to the left of the first 9 either stay the same or
increase in magnitude; 4. Successive digits to the right of the final 9
either stay the same or decrease in magnitude. I've called numbers with
all these properties "up-and-down" numbers. The smallest up-anddown
number is 191; it's also the only one containing three digits. How many
15-digit up-anddown numbers are there? For added kudos, how many
1,015-digit up-and-down numbers are there?
Puzzle #174 - Word search
What are these common English words? 1. Length 10, contains the
letters G, J, K, W, and Y;
2. Length 11, contains two of each of four different consonants, and two
Es;
3. Length 12, contains three of each of three consecutive letters;
4. Length 13, contains five identical vowels, each separated by a pair of
consonants; 5. Length 14, contains six vowels, all of which are the same
letter;
6. Length 15, contains each vowel once only, in reverse alphabetical
order.
Puzzle #175 - Seven segment mix-up
I took my long-su ffering calculator to pieces last week, but I made a

mistake in reconnecting the display. Fortunately, the way that the
displays are wired up in these devices means that the connection errors
are the same for every digit, so it was only necessary to establish the
correct connections for the segments on one digit, and the whole display
would automatically become legible. But before I did this, I took the
opportunity to note the symbols resulting from a particular
multiplication operation, as shown in the figure. What were the two
multiplicands I used? For added kudos, describe the errors in the way
I'd connected the segments.

has selected six of them, each of which is a different color; I have to
my guesses according to how many of my blocks match his - if I get the
correct color in the correct position, he gives me a black pin; if I get the
correct color but in the wrong position, he gives me a white pin. These
pins are placed alongside each guess. After analyzing the information
gained from my first five guesses as shown in the image, I can now say
what my friend's selection was. So what colors did he choose, and in
what order? I've numbered the blocks from 1 to 8 according to their
color: give your answer as a series of numbers from left to right.
Puzzle #177 - Odd dates
I write time in a 24-hour format using two-digit representations for the

hour, minute, second, day, and month, and a 4-digit representation for
the year. So for example, one particular moment this morning would be
written as 09:18:53 23-05-2021. For how many seconds during the 20th
century would this format contain only odd digits? You can take the
insertion of a leap second as being represented by the time format
23:59:60.
Puzzle #178 - Powerful words
I've been investigating numbers which are an integer power of the

number of letters they contain when written out in English notation. For
example, EIGHTY ONE has 9 letters, and 81 is the square of 9.
Similarly, SIXTY EIGHT THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND
TWENTY ONE has 41 letters, and 68,921 is the cube of 41. There are 7
such numbers below one million, consisting of 3 squares and 4 cubes;
I've given you two of these already - see if you can find the others. For
added kudos, find all such numbers from one million to one trillion
inclusive.
Puzzle #179 - Five-eleven
A crossword using only 5- and 11-letter words. Complete it using the

words provided, then rearrange the letters in the green squares to form a
new word - it will be related to one of the original thirty-two words.
Puzzle #180 - Circle, quartered
The figure shown has 120-degree rotational symmetry. Each of the

three large circles slightly overlaps the other two, and the smaller circle
is drawn through the three innermost intersection points such that its
area is divided into four equal parts. If the small circle has a radius of 1
unit, what is the radius of the large circles?
Puzzle #181 - End-of-lockdown meal
Fifteen months ago, my girlfriend and I booked a meal at our favourite

restaurant with four other mixed-sex couples. Unfortunately, lockdown
got in the way, and we had to postpone it. But now that restrictions
allow it, we've accepted the restaurant's offer of a round table outside in
their garden - so to get everyone talking again, we've decided that each
man should sit between two women neither of whom is his partner.
Unfortunately, since we made the original booking, two of the five
couples have split up; however, they've agreed to come along provided
that they don't have to sit staring at their ex-partner's ugly face across
the table's diameter. Is it possible to accommodate all these seating
conditions, and if so, how many possible arrangements does it leave?
Note that rotating a valid arrangement around the table by any number
of places doesn't constitute a new arrangement.
Puzzle #182 - set of four different digits
For any set of four di fferent digits from 1 to 9, it's possible to construct
24 unique 4-digit numbers. Some of these numbers will be prime. For
example, the digits 2, 3, 8, and 9 can create 5 primes - 2389, 8293,
8329, 8923, and 9283. What's the maximum number of primes which
any set of four different digits can generate? For added kudos, find the
maximum number of primes which any set of five different digits can
generate.
Puzzle #183 - Basically zero
The base-10 number 60 can be written as 111100, 2020, 330, 220, and
140 in bases 2 to 6 respectively. It's the smallest number to have a digit
product equal to zero in all these bases. What's the smallest base-10
number to have a digit product equal to zero in all bases up to and
including base 16? For added kudos, what's the smallest base-10
number to have a digit product equal to zero in all bases up to and
including base 26?
Puzzle #184 - Triangle, circle, square
The figure shows a circle drawn in the centre of a square. A line is

drawn from one corner of the square to an opposite side such that it
grazes the circle. If the side of the square has a length equal to twice the
diameter of the circle, what fraction of the square is coloured? Give
your answer in the form (a+bπ-√c)/d where a, b, c, and d are set-wise
co-prime integers.
Puzzle #185 - Overflow
I have a cylindrical tumbler with an inside diameter of 8 centimeters. It

holds exactly 750 cubic centimeters, and I've filled it to the brim with
water. Into the water I gently drop 3 identical glass spheres with a
diameter such that they sit snugly in a horizontal triangle at the bottom
of the glass. I then drop successive groups of 3 spheres into the glass
and arrange them into similar layers, each rotated 60 degrees with
respect to the one beneath such that they exhibit the maximum packing
density. If the top layer of spheres is allowed to protrude above the rim
of the tumbler, what volume of water is displaced?
Puzzle #186 - Counting letters
THIS PHRASE HAS SEVEN LETTERS OF WHICH ONLY TWO

ARE VOWELS
This statement is clearly not correct! However, there are two numbers
which when written out in English words can replace "SEVEN and
"TWO" which will make the statement true. What are those numbers?
Puzzle #187 - Arc, circle, square
This puzzle is a modi fication of #184. The figure shows a circle drawn
in the centre of a square. An arc of a larger circle is drawn from one
corner of the square to the opposite corner such that it grazes the small
circle. If the side of the square has a length equal to twice the diameter
of the small circle, what fraction of the square is coloured?
Puzzle #189 - All the digits
As this is puzzle 189, I've based it on that number. There are 87 integers
which, when squared, contain all the digits from 0 to 9 exactly once
each. Two of these integers differ by exactly 189 - what are they?
Puzzle #190 - Printer problem
My printer is playing up. I wanted it to print a regular pentagon sitting

on one of its edges, as shown in grey in the image. Instead, the printer
rotated the figure clockwise by 12.3 degrees, then stretched it in the
vertical direction by 19.4 percent, with the distorted result shown in red.
If the sum of the red pentagon's internal angles at A and B is 226.5628
degrees, what is the ratio of the areas of the red and grey pentagons?
Puzzle #191 - Letter sums
If A=1, B=2, C=3, and so on, then the letter sum of ONE is 34, of TEN
is 39, and of ONE HUNDRED is 108. Find every number which, when
written out in English notation, has a letter sum equal to the number
itself.
Puzzle #192 - Arc, circle, square 2
This puzzle is a modi fication of #184 and #187. The figure shows a
circle drawn in the centre of a square. An arc of a larger circle is drawn
from one corner of the square to an opposite side such that it grazes the
small circle. If the side of the square has a length equal to twice the
diameter of the small circle, and exactly 25% of the area of the square is
coloured, what is the ratio of the radius of the arc to the side of the
square?
Puzzle #193 - Simple addition
THREE + FOUR = SEVEN

same letter. If 3 times THREE and 4 times FOUR are both multiples of
12, what is SEVEN?
Puzzle #194 - Another birthday
It was my birthday yesterday - this was number 63 ... which got me

thinking. 63 has exactly two different single-digit prime factors, namely
3 and 7. If you're allowed to multiply together any number of exactly
two different single-digit primes, how many numbers up to and
including a googol can you make?
Puzzle #195 - Just the once
As this is puzzle 195, I've based it on that number. Without using a

computer, tell me how many positive integers less than ten million
contain the digit sequence "195" exactly once.
Puzzle #196 - Basic addition
A recent puzzle in a maths forum challenged readers to find three odd

numbers which sum to 30. Surprisingly, the answer was 1, 3, and 11 -
and the puzzle's setter had made a video in which he showed his
workings. Of course, his method was flawed (as many were quick to
point out) - three odd numbers will always sum to another odd number.
At least that's the case in base 10. So how many ways can you make
any four of the set of numbers [1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 19, 21] sum to
33 when all the quantities (including 33) are expressed in any fixed
positive integer base? You can use any number as often as you need
within a single sum; however, only numbers consisting of digits less
than the operating base are recognized - so for example, in base 6, the
numbers 7, 9, 17, and 19 can't be used.

Puzzle #198 - Animal magic
I've written the letters of the alphabet in a clockwise circle, so that Z is

between Y and A. clockwise circle, so that Z is between Y and A. letter
words which have the same clockwise "distance" between the first two
letters as between the last two. For example, ACE moves 2 letters each
time, PET moves 15, BUN moves 19, and FED moves 25. As it
happens, there are only about 20 commonly-used 3-letter words with
this property - but remarkably, 4 of them are the names of animals.
What are they?
Puzzle #199 - The value of zero
NINE - FIVE - FOUR = ZERO

same letter. Leading zeroes aren't permitted. What is the value of
ZERO?
Puzzle #200 - Infinite fractal tree
The image shows a fractal tree. It's constructed using a simple rule -
each junction moving outwards creates two new segments at rightangles
to each other, which are respectively 0.56 (red) and 0.42 (blue) times
the length of the originating segment. The branching continues to
infinity. If the trunk is 1 unit long, what is the sum of the length of all
the tree's segments including the trunk? Give your answer to 8 decimal
places.
Puzzle #201 - Time flies, slowly
I have an old electric wall clock. The movement is driven by a

synchronous motor, so is smooth rather than "jumpy" like its modern
digital counterparts. The minute hand has a length of 140 millimeters
from the centre of the spindle to its tip, while the hour hand has a length
of 100 millimeters. The distance between the hands along the spindle is
7 millimeters. What is the maximum speed of the tip of the minute hand
relative to the tip of the hour hand? Give your answer to the nearest
tenth of a micrometer per second.
Puzzle #202 - Filling a tank

Three valves can open to let water into a tank. Valve A will fill the tank
in 4 hours, valve B will fill it in 5 hours, and valve C will fill it in 6
hours. In an experiment, the sequence of valves to be opened is chosen
at random, with each valve staying open for one hour, or until the tank
is full. What's the probability that the tank will take longer than 5 hours
to fill?
Puzzle #203 - Four into five?
The image shows a red square inside a regular pentagon. If one side of
the square is parallel to one side of the pentagon, what fraction of the
pentagon's area is coloured? Give your answer to 5 decimal places. For
added kudos, give an expression for the EXACT answer.
Puzzle #204 - Laser reflection
A mirrored cylinder with a circumference of 2.4 meters is placed at the

centre of a tube with an internal circumference of 6 meters. There are
two small holes in the tube, separated by a distance of 1 meters around
its circumference. A laser beam shines into one hole at an angle θ from
the tube's diameter, gets reflected from the surface of the inner cylinder,
and emerges from the second hole. Find the value of sine(θ) in the form
√((a+√b)/c), where a, b, and c are co-prime integers.
Puzzle #205 - Two fours
FOUR + FOUR = EIGHT

same letter. If FOUR contains 8 and is exactly divisible by 8, and
EIGHT contains 4 and is exactly divisible by 4, what is the value of
THIRTEEN?
Puzzle #206 - Connected holes
I've drilled two holes of equal radius through a regular tetrahedron so

that every face has a hole at its centroid joined to one other face. The
diameter of the holes is such that they just touch at the centroid of the
tetrahedron. What fraction of the volume of the tetrahedron has been
drilled out? Give your answer in the form π/√a.
of the original fifty-six words.
Puzzle #208 - Chaos and order
Christmas can often be a trying time, so you must turn CHAOS into
ORDER! The rules in this instance are slightly different from what you
might expect. You must change one letter at each step, then rearrange
the new letters to form a valid English word which isn't a proper noun.
To make it a little more tricky, you must also ensure that no letter in the
rearranged word remains in its previous position. So for example,
CHAOS => SHOAL changes the single letter "C" into "L", but it's
illegal because the "H" is in the same place in both words. What's the
shortest sequence of words you can find which will solve the puzzle?
Puzzle #209 - Special dates
As this is the first puzzle of the new year, I've based it on dates. I can
write a date in the form "dd/mm/yyyy" such that it will always consist
of 8 digits; for example, today's date will be 02/01/2022. There are
exactly 2700 dates in this millennium where the 8 digits are all different
- the first is 17/06/2345 and the last is 15/06/2987. The maximum
number of such dates in any given year is 15 - find all the years in this
millennium with this property.
Puzzle #210 - Sums, products, and sums of products
In a moment of boredom last week, I started investigating sets of single-

digit numbers whose sum equals the sum of the digits in their product.
For example, the sum of the 5-member set {2,3,4,4,8} is 21; its product
is 768, and the sum of the digits in 768 is also 21. There are many sets
of numbers with this property, but only 18 for which the product of the
set is an odd number (including the five trivial sets which each consist
of just a single odd digit). The largest of these is the 28-member set:
{1,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,5, 5,5,5}
for which the sum and product are 90 and 58,839,486,766,875
respectively. Fortunately, I'm only going to ask you to find the odd-
product set with 18 members - and I'll help you by telling you that the
sum of the set is 72.
Puzzle #211 - Common letters
AFTER, DINED, ENACT, SCORE, TRASH, UPSET One of these six

words can be placed alongside each of the others to form anagrams of
five common 10-letter words. What are the 10-letter words?
Puzzle #212 - Cross numbers
Complete the cross number puzzle from the following clues. None of
the answers begins with a zero. Send me your answer by IM, and I'll
credit you here. [Difficulty: 3/6]
Across
1. A two-digit prime number raised to a power 5. A prime number
6. The digits are in an arithmetic progression 7. A number less than 16
written in binary Down
1. A single-digit prime number raised to a power
2. The product of six single-digit prime numbers
3. A factorial
4. A multiple of 397
Puzzle #213 - Fenced in
I have a circular field with a diameter of 40 meters, around the

circumference of which are 15 equally-spaced posts. If I run some wire
around the outside of the field taking in all the posts, I can enclose the
maximum area of 1220.21 square meters. However, if I run the wire
around just three adjacent posts, I obtain the minimum area of 14.07
square meters. If rotations and reflections on a given enclosed
configuration are counted as unique, then 32,647 possible areas can be
made. How many of these are equal to 1,000 square meters, plus or
minus 1%?
I have a selection of plastic blocks in eight different colours. My friend

has selected six of them, each of which is a different colour; I have to
my guesses according to how many of my blocks match his - if I get the
correct colour in the correct position, he gives me a black pin; if I get
the correct colour but in the wrong position, he gives me a white pin.
These pins are placed alongside each guess. After analysing the
information gained from my first five guesses as shown in the image, I
can now say what my friend's selection was. So what colours did he
choose, and in what order? I've numbered the blocks from 1 to 8
according to their colour: give your answer as a series of numbers from
left to right.
Puzzle #215 - Valentine word search
Without using a word finder or Scrabble program, how many English

words can you make out of the letters in VALENTINE? You don't need
to send me a list - just count them up, and post your total in the
comments below.
Puzzle #216 - Special times
When written in the form "yyyy-mm-dd" as 2022-02-20, today's date

contains just two different digits. Furthermore, there are 64 instances
during the day when the time written in the standard 24-hour format
contains the same two digits - for instance, 02:22:20 (22 minutes and 20
seconds after 2am). At each of these moments, the combined 14-digit
date-time structure will contain exactly two different digits. Given any
two such digits, how many times does this phenomenon occur in the
current millennium? You may assume the millennium starts in 2000 or
2001, as you consider appropriate.
Puzzle #217 - Five times the fun
As this is puzzle 217, I've based it on that number. There are 217
positive 3-digit integers which have 5-digit squares. From this group,
find a set of ten different numbers whose squares collectively contain
the digits 0 to 9 exactly five times each.
Puzzle #218 - Base-ically correct
8819 x 9078 = 16611555

Assuming this multiplication is correct, what number base has been
used?
Puzzle #219 - Intersecting circles
The image shows four circles each with unit radius, the centres of
which sit on the vertices of a unit square. The square itself has been
omitted for clarity. Several enclosed areas are created, four of which are
inside exactly three of the circles - these are coloured blue. Find the
total coloured area, giving your answer in the form (π+√a+b)/c.
Puzzle #220 - Pentagonal sequence
I've drawn a regular pentagon of side 1 unit, inside which I've

constructed a second regular pentagon rotated by 24 degrees with the
largest possible area. I've repeated this process a further two times, so
that the final pentagon in the sequence has been rotated by 72 degrees
with respect to the original. The resulting image is shown on the left. I
calculate that the area of the innermost pentagon is approximately
0.55077 square units. I now repeat the whole exercise rotating each
successive pentagon by just 9 degrees - in this case, I have to draw 8
rotated pentagons, as shown in the image on the right. I calculate that
the innermost pentagon in this sequence has an area of approximately
0.36718 square units. I can now imagine the limiting scenario where the
angle of each successive rotation becomes vanishingly small, and the
number of pentagons I have to draw tends to infinity; what would the
area of the innermost pentagon be in this case? Give your answer to 5
decimal places.
****** ********** The END ***************
*Unanswered Puzzle-
All puzzles have not been answered by the author, these puzzles are
intended to solve promising students and teachers.
who are able to solve given un-answered puzzles, then author will
decide whose answers are perfect , then he/she will be featured on next
edition of the book.
*Verify your Answer

send your answer with proof at —
codeepie@gmail.com
* for corrections & Suggestions -
if you found any error in this book – please let me know and I will
correct them, thanks.
Dear Aspirants !
We hope you Solved a lot about
Un-answered Maths Puzzle in this book — and had lot of enjoy in the
process to solve! This book is filled with various type of Puzzles, and
we hope you now feel comfortable enough with the this book to move
on to building bigger things.
Thank you again for purchasing this book. — we truly appreciate it!

Unanswered Maths Puzzle

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Unanswered Maths Puzzle

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Unanswered Maths Puzzle

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Unanswered maths Puzzle : First

may be reproduced or distributed by any means without prior written

Yogendra Singh (software engineer) About The

Yogendra Singh is an author & editor of this book. He is an advance

He is passionate about teaching, writing and sharing his knowledge

This book is generally related to Puzzle problems, which is based on

Puzzle #2 - Strange number series: 6, 4, 7, 20, 15, 13, ?

Puzzle #3 - False Morse:

Puzzle #4 - River of colors:

Puzzle #5 - Tra ffic accident

Puzzle #7 - A lot of beer

BEER + BEER + BEER + BEER + BEER + BEER + BEER = DRUNK

Puzzle #8 - Letter shift

CANJD BLDKK XPWYX QSNVI BHEXA MQXUT IRMHP

Puzzle #9 - A common area

I have a surface area of 1247.4 square centimeters, and I can be found

Puzzle #10 - Blats

The town of Moneyville has a coinage system based on blats. Coins of

Puzzle #11 - Odd one out

CARAVAN, EXQUISITE, GERANIUM, HOLOGRAM,

Puzzle #12 - Word numbers, part 2

Puzzle #13 - Strange sequence

Puzzle #14 - Making things add up

Puzzle #15 - Broken words

Puzzle #16 - The ant's challenge

Puzzle #17 - Long words

Puzzle #18 - All the numbers

How many numbers can be made using the digits 0 to 9 a maximum of

Puzzle #19 - Common letters

ELECT, LUTES, ROAMS, TENTS, THREW, TONER

Puzzle #20 - Lego wall

I have a large box of Lego bricks of length 1, 2, 3, and 4 units. I want to

Puzzle #21 - Mixed-up phrase

AACDDEE, EEEFIL, MMMNNNNNOO, ORRR RR SSST UUYY.

Puzzle #22 - Playing with playing cards

Puzzle #23 - Thirds of words

ABRI, ADSH, AISE, ALLA, ANKE, ARDM, ARGE, AUCR

Puzzle #24 - Counting letters

THERE ARE FIVE CONSONANTS AND THREE VOWELS IN

Puzzle #25 - Wyrd wyse

Puzzle #26 - The dragonflower of Nirandra

The planet Nirandra is famous for the beauty of its three-colored

Puzzle #27 - Connections

Puzzle #29 - Cross-squares

Puzzle #30 - Common digits

Puzzle #31 - Thirds of words

ENCE, ENWR, ERPR, ERRA, ESIA, ESSF, ETKE, EVEM

Puzzle #32 - Endgame

Puzzle #33 - Cross-squares

Puzzle #34 - Century calendar

Puzzle #35 - "L"

Puzzle #36 - Not quite sudoku

Puzzle #37 - Super cross-squares

Puzzle #39 - Die averages

It's well-known that the average value shown by an unweighted cubic

Puzzle #40 - "E"

Puzzle #42 - Cross-squares

Puzzle #43 - Animal magic