CategoryLogic
Monday Micro Softy 25: The Fishing Rod Blues
The Memphis bus driver was sympathetic but he couldn't let Johnny ride with his overlong fishing pole. Johnny solved the problem—but how?
Micro Softy Monday 24: Have You Ever Tried 3D Tic Tac Toe?
To liven up a predictable game, try doing it in three — or even four — dimensions! You won't be bored
Monday Micro Softy 23: Barnum’s Circus Receipts
Circus master Barnum's ticket seller had not kept proper track of the tickets sold. Can the limited information — and some algebra — help Barnum figure it out?
Monday Micro Softy 22: Can There Be Two Daddies?
The solution to last week’s puzzler lies in things we can do with binary numbers
Monday Micro Softy 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills
The solution to last week's deadly pills puzzle can be found, as we'll see, by numbering the bottles. But this week we make the challenge tougher…
Micro Softy 20: Which Bottle Holds the Deadly Fentanyl?
You can find out the answer, using advanced technology — but there is a price
Monday Micro Softy 19: The “Bermuda Triangle”
Why does the strange triangle, rearranged, appear to have a bit of extra area?
Monday Micro Softy 18: The Twin Paradox
It’s not Einstein’s Twin Paradox but it will certainly set you thinking anyway
Monday Micro Softy 17: Mixed-up Bags of Marbles
The bags-of-marbles puzzle is comparatively simple: How many marbles must you pull from the mislabeled bags in order to relabel them correctly?
Ross Douthat Makes the Case that Religious Belief Is Rational
His new book is written largely with the agnostic or full-on atheist in mind but believers would certainly also benefit, as I did
Micro Softy 15: What Happens to the Hole in a Hot Washer?
When a washer ring is heated, does the hole in the center get bigger or smaller?
Monday Micro Softy 14: How Did the Blind Ticket Seller Know?
This puzzle doesn’t require math skills so much as advanced common sense reasoning
How Mathematician Kurt Gödel Proved the Unprovable Proposition
He kicked over the mathematical sandcastles of those who proposed a mathematical Theory of Everything
Monday Micro Softy 13: Garbage Trucks, String Theory…
… and Stained-Glass Windows. What connects them?
Monday Micro Softy 12: Can You Connect the Dots?
You may use no more than four perfectly straight lines and the lines must be connected.
Monday Micro Softy 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar?
Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy get the discount for their cheap hotel rooms but the figures don’t really add up
Microsoft: What Did You Need To Work There in the Early Days?
They asked questions that were not about the details of computer technology. The questions made you think. Hard.
Bad Luck Seldom Persists — But it Never Guarantees Good Luck
Many people embrace the fallacious law of averages in their daily lives when "regression toward the mean" is a more realistic picture