Monday Micro Softy 80: The Digits of Least Significance
The patterns found in numbers can be useful as well as fascinatingLast week’s puzzle is also easier to solve if we observe some of the patterns that number theory reveals.
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Monday Microsofty 79: The Last Digits in Fermat’s Last Theorem
Did Andrew Wiles really prove Fermat’s Last Theorem? Today we offer you a chance to decideAbout last week’s MicroSofty: Think of the probability issue as just a distraction…
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Monday Microsofty 78: Card Sharks That Bite Harder
You can beat the odds in some card games if you understand probability theory. Try your chances!Last week’s puzzle, like several others, is easy to solve if we use inclusive thinking about relationships.
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Monday Microsofty 59: Alfred Hitchcock’s Low-Pressure Tire
Could the tire in the old Hitchcock film really be reinflated in the way shown?The solution to last week’s puzzle is to ask whether the way each of the relationships is created makes any difference.
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Monday Microsofty 58: Is a Famous Bassist His Own Grandfather?
A Rolling Stone bassist can make such a claim but how far can he take it? Is he also his own grandson?We are reversing our usual order and giving the answer to #57 first. Ben could have one of two possible family relationships to me.
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Monday Micro Softy 55: “It Happens Every Spring”
Baseball, that is. Here’s a puzzle that takes in baseball's favorite season, summerTo 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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Micro Softy 54: A Plane Problem for Aspiring Engineers
The senator is leaving Washington to avoid the governor and their planes are headed in opposite directionsToday’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 ›
Monday Micro Softy 53: Kicking In the Door
To solve this puzzle, you will need to sharpen your abductive reasoning skillsThere are actually two possible solutions to last week’s puzzle, depending on how you interpret the pattern of the arithmetic.
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Monday Micro Softy 52: Elon Musk Parody Asks: Are You a Genius?
The puzzle comes from a parody X account but it is a genuine stumperLast week’s puzzle is easy to solve if we recall how many parents a child needs and of what type…
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Monday Micro Softy 51: A Tale of Two Auto Mechanics
I recognized the two mechanics when I went to the garage…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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Monday Micro Softy 50: Cutting Through the Cornbread
How did Yuri Senior cut the cornbread into eight identical portions using only three straight cuts?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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Micro Softy 49: Mirror Mirror On the Wall…
A man is rather surprised to discover that he is the owner of a rather strange sort of mirrorTo answer Micro Softy 48, consider: How might Freddy be moving his car from place to place without exerting much physical energy at all?
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Monday Micro Softy 48: Why Is Freddy Pushing His Car Around?
And, despite being a heavy smoker, he doesn't get winded…The answer to Microsofty 47 lies in considering whether it is an advantage for the outfielder to catch the ball, given the rules of the game.
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Micro Softy 47: Baseball: Is This an “Intentional” Error? Why?
This is an incident that merits a Micro Softy; it has happened more than once in major league baseballThe solution to last week’s Micro Softy turns on the difference it makes that one train leaves two minutes after than the other.
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Monday Micro Softy 46: Three Loving Brothers in New York State
Why did Mario, who was just trying to economize on Uber trips, end up visiting Luigi five times as often as he visited Bob?A hint for solving Micro Softy 45: Average speed is independent of the distance to the store.
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Monday Micro Softy 45: Can Tony Beat the Fast-Food Curfew?
An early curfew on fast food service motivated a boy to exercise more vigorously. But how fast was he pedaling?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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Micro Softy 44: Pete’s Pill Problem
Pete, alone on a desert island, accidentally scattered the pills he must take in the correct order. He has only a few numbers to work with to reconstruct his instructionsFor 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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Monday Micro Softy 42: Bacteria Multiply by Dividing
But our puzzlers must solve this math question without doing either. And no calculators allowed.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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Monday Micro Softy 41: King David’s Sons’ Puzzling Inheritance
Solomon must figure out how to divide an oddly shaped piece of land equally among his brothers and himselfIn 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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Monday Micro Softy 40: The Fate of a False Prophet
He wasn't actually fired for being a false prophet but for something that his prophecy unintentionally revealedThe solution to Micro Softy 39 lies in considering an alternative possible meaning of a word commonly used in sports.
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