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Author Archives: Alok Goyal
Puzzle #181: Hidden Cross
This is a wonderful puzzle – one of those “2 minute” puzzles that will be fun to do as a family. I have taken this from Martin Gardner’s Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems. It appeared originally in the … Continue reading
Solution to Puzzle #179: Crossing the River
This was a very simple puzzle, and therefore I guess I did not challenge enough minds. I got a correct answer from Mahi Saraf – well done Mahi! I would still encourage parents to show this puzzle to their children, … Continue reading
Puzzle #180: White and Black Beans
This is a wonderful puzzle for all ages from Alok Mittal’s weekly Math Circles class. The puzzle is doable by everyone, so please do try yourself and also have your children try this one. A pot contains 75 white beans … Continue reading
Solution to Puzzle #178: Minarets of Samarra
This was a beautiful geometry arrangement puzzle, and I received correct answers from three people – Vishal Poddar, Mahi Saraf and Suman Saraf – well done all! Am reproducing the answers from all of them, please notice the patters of … Continue reading
Puzzle #179: Crossing the River
After a rather difficult puzzle, here is an easy one, should take just a few minutes even for children, please do try! This one is from the site mathsisfun.com. Four adventurers (Alex, Brook, Chris and Dusty) need to cross a … Continue reading
Solution to Puzzle #177: How Many Times Can You Measure
This was a difficult puzzle. I got the correct answer only from Suman Saraf, and another correct answer to a slightly modified puzzle from Pratik Poddar. You can measure 23 different lengths. Here’s an explanation, taken from the site fivethrityeight.com. The … Continue reading
Puzzle #178: Minarets of Samarra
This is a wonderful puzzle contributed by Alok Mittal, through his Maths Circles class. There is one great minaret in Samarra, but what if the Caliph decided to build twelve? Since the Caliph loves regular geometry, he decides to build … Continue reading
Solution to Puzzle #176: Outsmart Your Teacher
This was a fun and relatively simpler puzzler, and I was bombarded with correct answers. People with correct answers included Mahi Saraf, Deepak Jayaraman, Rishikant Kumar, Abhinav Jain, Pratik Poddar and Shivanshu. I am taking the liberty of copying the … Continue reading
Puzzle #177: How Many Times You Can Measure
This is a variation of Puzzle #14 (https://alokgoyal1971.com/2013/04/28/puzzle-14-measuring-time/) that I found on the site fivethirtyeight.com. A fantastic puzzle! Suppose you have four ropes and a lighter. Each rope burns at a non-constant rate but takes exactly one hour to burn … Continue reading
Solution to Puzzle #175: The Three Bag Puzzle
This was a simple but cute puzzle, and thanks again to Suman Saraf for suggesting this one. I received correct answers from Deepak Jayaraman (a first time participant), Pratik Poddar and Vishal Poddar. Well done all! Here is the answer … Continue reading
Alok Goyal's Puzzles Page 