Archive for math puzzles

AO. Choosing Balls from A Bag

A fifty-fifty chance of drawing four blue balls from a bag: how many balls were blue?

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AN. More Sucker Bets

Is there always a better choice?

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AM. Arrow's Theorem

Can A be better than B, B be better than C and C be better than A? No voting system will ever be fair!

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AL. Rumors and suckers

In which we show gossip is unreliable and how you can always fleece a sucker.

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AK. Paradoxes and Liars

The mathematics of gossiping!

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AJ. The Pop Quiz

Why 462 is the least interesting number less than 1000, and the students get a paradoxical pop quiz.

(plus, the answer to the census taker’s puzzle)

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AI. Census Taker's Puzzle

The solution to the problem of the Three Gods: one always tells the truth; one always lies; one sometimes lies and sometimes tells the truth. When asked which is which, the one of the left says the one in the middle is the god of truth. The one in the middle says he sometimes lies and sometimes tells the truth. And the god on the right says the god in the middle is the god of falsehood. Who is who?

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AG. The Eagle

How to do infinitely many things in a few minutes!

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AF. Counting All Rationals

Are there more fractions than counting numbers?

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AE. The Jalopy

An old jalopy zooms up and down Arkansas hills…

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