Sisyphus Fats, exercises by pushing a giant bowling ball up a 100 foot hill. Every minute, he pushes the ball three feet closer to the top and then the bowling ball slides two feet back.
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Part of the trick to solving Monday Microsofty 56 is to decide whether or not to give it a high five.
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If you suspected that last week’s talk of baseball was just a distraction from the real puzzle hint, now you can find out.
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To solve last week’s puzzle, you don’t need to know the distance. Check the problem again for the number you do need to know.
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Today’s Micro Softy tests whether you are clever enough with math to code computers or be an engineer. Here’s the story: Senator Kornn did not like Governor Friar. Both were from Texas. When Kornn learned that Governor Friar was visiting Washington, DC, Kornn said “This town’s not big enough for the both of us.” So Kornn decided to leave DC for that period. Kornn and Friar get on planes at the same time. One was at Reagan International Airport in DC and the other was at the Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) Airport. So each was flying to the other’s airport. Both planes took off at the same time. After a while, Kornn looked out of his first-class window and saw Read More ›
When considering a mortgage, the correct comparison is not total payments but the return on the borrowed money versus the loan’s annual percentage rate.
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There are actually two possible solutions to last week’s puzzle, depending on how you interpret the pattern of the arithmetic.
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Last week’s puzzle is easy to solve if we recall how many parents a child needs and of what type…
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To solve Microsofty 50, about cutting a loaf of cornbread into eight pieces by making three slices, try thinking in three dimensions.
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You can guess the answer to Microsofty 49 if you try the test question yourself at home, using a small mirror.
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A hint for solving Micro Softy 45: Average speed is independent of the distance to the store.
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To solve Micro Softy 44, recall that Tony doesn’t need to take the individual pills each day, only the prescribed amount of each.
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For Micro Softy 43, the bookkeeper’s trick consists in applying the fact that when two adjacent digits are switched, the difference is always divisible by 9.
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Micro Softy 42 is easier to solve if we recall the rules for dividing by each of these numbers in turn.
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A hint for solving Micro Softy 41: Dividing an unusually shaped piece of land among four sons rather than three is easier if you think in terms of fractals.
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In Micro Softy 40, the critical question is not whether the watchman’s prophecy comes true or not; it’s how he came to learn the information anyway.
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AI does not, at present, originate the kind of deep insight required to solve a open mathematical problem.
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The answer to Micro Softy 36 lies in considering the problem from a number of angles…
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Here’s our thirst-quenching Micro Softy for this week. Three professors were on a trip through the Sahara Desert. They had an NSF grant to study the sleep patterns of the Saharan Grasshopper (Heteracris littoralis). They brought exactly enough drinking water with them to last for four days. To stay hydrated, each was allowed a half glass of water every hour during each sixteen-hour workday. The professors shared the water glass shown in the picture. To make sure the water lasted the entire four days, the professors made sure each portion of water filled the glass exactly halfway. There were no markings on the glass. How can they do this? We’ll give an answer next Monday right here on MindMatters.ai. Solution Read More ›
The solution to Monday Micro Softy 34 is quite simple if we pay attention to the exact measurements of the poles and the wires.
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