FK. Twiddling Screws
It’s really rather counterintuitive, I think: when two screws are twiddled past each other, do they move closer, or move further apart, or stay the same distance from one another?
Archive for The Mathcast
FJ. Loyd’s Atomic Easter Eggs
This puzzle comes from the collected works of the great puzzler Sam Loyd:
How many eggs can be packed in a 6×6 crate, if no more than two can lie on any row, column, or diagonal (even a short diagonal), and an egg must be placed in each of two opposite corners?
FI. Paranoia
Help the poor paranoid scientists!
FH. Girdling the Earth
A quite elementary question:
Imagine a tight band wrapped around the Earth (a perfectly spherical Earth!). If one foot is added to the band, it will be possible to lift it uniformly up, away from the surface of the Earth. Will the resulting gap be enough to pass a baseball card under? A baseball? A baseball player?
Another variation, which is really quite amazing, is what if a foot is added and the band is lifted up in just one spot? How high will the band lift up? Higher than a seball? A baseball player? A baseball stadium?
FG. Mr. Fled
Another nice standard; it seems there is not enough information to solve this puzzle but it has a simple solution.
FF. Hostile Flowers
This is a beautiful puzzle that appears in many different forms.
Arp and Bif are playing with a line of 100 flowers. Each flower is originally open. When an open flower is touched it closes, and when a closed flower is touched, it opens. First they touch every flower in the line, then they touch every other flower in the line, then they touch every third flower, etc.
When done, which flowers are open, which flowers are closed?
FE. Burn The Rope
Edmund Harriss, sometime contributor to the Math Factor, makes his first appearance in this early segment, from February 29, 2004.
FD. Space Walkers
How many ways can the astronauts link up to the space station?
FC. Cool Clear Water
In the fourth Math Factor segment, airing February 15, 2004, we posed a question much like the later Bananas and Rockets puzzle. How do we cross the infernal desert with limited supplies of water, but unlimited porters?
(We open with the theme to Bonanza and go out with a rendition of Cool Clear Water by the immortal Marty Robbins)
FB. The Legendary Monte Hall Problem
We never did pose the famous Monte Hall problem on the podcast, but we discussed it early on when we were just on the radio. Here is our third segment, from February 8, 2004.
We did discuss the difference between Let’s Make a Deal and Deal or No Deal in an earlier post…
(The opening tune is from Juan Garcia Esquivel’s brilliant Space Age Bachelor Pad Music )
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