[math-fun] puzzle on Facebook
FYI -- Better fire that math teacher and Professor Puzzler; maxima trivially solves this puzzle (follow link to jpeg of the equation set) and it has a unique answer. "Brain-splitting equation that even a MATHS TEACHER can't solve has the entire Internet baffled... So do YOU know the answer?" http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/06/16/07/3555F68A00000578-0-image-a-6_14... "A simple logic and maths puzzle has sparked debate on Facebook after thousands of people have debated over the answer. The puzzle, which replaces numbers with flowers, has caught thousands of people out. A maths teacher who solves logic puzzles online and goes by the name of 'Professor Puzzler' even refused to solve it, saying the problem had no answer."
Pity poor Professor Puzzler. The blue flower in the bottom row isn't the same as those above it--it has one less petal. # unknowns > # equations.
Nice catch. I think it means the 4-petaled blue flower is worth only 80% of the 5-petaled one. —Dan
On Jun 16, 2016, at 5:12 PM, Marc LeBrun <mlb@well.com> wrote:
Pity poor Professor Puzzler. The blue flower in the bottom row isn't the same as those above it--it has one less petal. # unknowns > # equations.
And how do you interpret the two superposed yellow flowers in the third equation? Is yellow flower 1 or 2 or some other number (sqrt(2) ? ). Brent On 6/16/2016 5:19 PM, Dan Asimov wrote:
Nice catch. I think it means the 4-petaled blue flower is worth only 80% of the 5-petaled one.
—Dan
On Jun 16, 2016, at 5:12 PM, Marc LeBrun <mlb@well.com> wrote:
Pity poor Professor Puzzler. The blue flower in the bottom row isn't the same as those above it--it has one less petal. # unknowns > # equations.
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I think we can all agree that however maxima interpreted the flowers must be correct. So, how did maxima interpret the different flowers? On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 5:26 PM, Brent Meeker <meekerdb@verizon.net> wrote:
And how do you interpret the two superposed yellow flowers in the third equation? Is yellow flower 1 or 2 or some other number (sqrt(2) ? ).
Brent
On 6/16/2016 5:19 PM, Dan Asimov wrote:
Nice catch. I think it means the 4-petaled blue flower is worth only 80% of the 5-petaled one.
—Dan
On Jun 16, 2016, at 5:12 PM, Marc LeBrun <mlb@well.com> wrote:
Pity poor Professor Puzzler. The blue flower in the bottom row isn't the same as those above it--it has one less petal. # unknowns > # equations.
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In the world of newspapers, nothing the Daily Mail claims can be trusted. They have zero journalistic ethics. So am not at all surprised that they're spouting nonsense here. I seem to recall that a few years ago they printed a story about someone who discovered that, contrary to what all mathematicians had erroneously believed, you actually *can* divide by zero in ordinary arithmetic. —Dan
On Jun 16, 2016, at 4:57 PM, Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:
FYI -- Better fire that math teacher and Professor Puzzler; maxima trivially solves this puzzle (follow link to jpeg of the equation set) and it has a unique answer.
"Brain-splitting equation that even a MATHS TEACHER can't solve has the entire Internet baffled... So do YOU know the answer?"
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/06/16/07/3555F68A00000578-0-image-a-6_14...
"A simple logic and maths puzzle has sparked debate on Facebook after thousands of people have debated over the answer. The puzzle, which replaces numbers with flowers, has caught thousands of people out. A maths teacher who solves logic puzzles online and goes by the name of 'Professor Puzzler' even refused to solve it, saying the problem had no answer."
* Dan Asimov <dasimov@earthlink.net> [Jun 17. 2016 08:06]:
In the world of newspapers, nothing the Daily Mail claims can be trusted.
I think you spelled "Daily Fail" incorrectly 8^)
They have zero journalistic ethics.
So am not at all surprised that they're spouting nonsense here.
I seem to recall that a few years ago they printed a story about someone who discovered that, contrary to what all mathematicians had erroneously believed, you actually *can* divide by zero in ordinary arithmetic.
That one went into several newspapers with non-zero reputation as well. Now consider that (at least here in Krautistan) one can study "technical journalism", look at the science/technology articles in the well-established newspapers, and silently weep. Btw. the German version (mostly translation, but some added material) of the "Scientific American" banned formulas altogether (I heard there's one exception: you may say E = m c^2, once, and get away with it). [Is the same true for the original?] They once had a piece about what's in the (lovely) article Michael Kleber: Goldbug Variations, http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0501497 ... their "popularized" version was completely incomprehensible. Best regards, jj
—Dan
On Jun 16, 2016, at 4:57 PM, Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:
FYI -- Better fire that math teacher and Professor Puzzler; maxima trivially solves this puzzle (follow link to jpeg of the equation set) and it has a unique answer.
"Brain-splitting equation that even a MATHS TEACHER can't solve has the entire Internet baffled... So do YOU know the answer?"
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/06/16/07/3555F68A00000578-0-image-a-6_14...
"A simple logic and maths puzzle has sparked debate on Facebook after thousands of people have debated over the answer. The puzzle, which replaces numbers with flowers, has caught thousands of people out. A maths teacher who solves logic puzzles online and goes by the name of 'Professor Puzzler' even refused to solve it, saying the problem had no answer."
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I've always found these "What do *you* think I meant?" puzzles annoying. Often the authors make arbitrary assumptions that cannot be logically defended, but nevertheless you're expected to replicate their flawed logic to match their result. In this case, ok, maybe two yellow flowers are supposed to be twice as much as a single yellow flower. I guess I can buy that. But how about the blue flowers with 4 vs. 5 petals? Is a 4-petal flower really worth 80% of a 5-petal flower? If so, then that assigns 100% of the value to the petals. Why? What if 50% of the value lies in the center? And what if some of the value lies in the leaf or stem? And if the answer is "Well, that's too complicated, counting the petals is simple and clear", then my response is "When was the last time you saw flowers for sale whose price was dependent on the number of petals? Clearly it's simpler to value them all the same." Also, presumably multiplication is meant to group more tightly than addition in the bottom row, but who knows, they may think all arithmetic should proceed left-to-right regardless of standard operator precedence. Tom Henry Baker writes:
FYI -- Better fire that math teacher and Professor Puzzler; maxima trivially solves this puzzle (follow link to jpeg of the equation set) and it has a unique answer.
"Brain-splitting equation that even a MATHS TEACHER can't solve has the entire Internet baffled... So do YOU know the answer?"
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/06/16/07/3555F68A00000578-0-image-a-6_14...
"A simple logic and maths puzzle has sparked debate on Facebook after thousands of people have debated over the answer. The puzzle, which replaces numbers with flowers, has caught thousands of people out. A maths teacher who solves logic puzzles online and goes by the name of 'Professor Puzzler' even refused to solve it, saying the problem had no answer."
Oh what fun. Two flowers are twice one flower; four petals are 4/5 of 5 petals; a brown box is square root. So, 9. But why stop there? Speak it and interpret it as German; translate to English to get “No.”, which is an abbreviation for number. So the answer is, “a number”.
On Jun 16, 2016, at 7:57 PM, Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:
FYI -- Better fire that math teacher and Professor Puzzler; maxima trivially solves this puzzle (follow link to jpeg of the equation set) and it has a unique answer.
"Brain-splitting equation that even a MATHS TEACHER can't solve has the entire Internet baffled... So do YOU know the answer?"
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/06/16/07/3555F68A00000578-0-image-a-6_14...
"A simple logic and maths puzzle has sparked debate on Facebook after thousands of people have debated over the answer. The puzzle, which replaces numbers with flowers, has caught thousands of people out. A maths teacher who solves logic puzzles online and goes by the name of 'Professor Puzzler' even refused to solve it, saying the problem had no answer."
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I had no idea about the brown box, but had been thinking the puzzle would be more fun if there were a square root sign over the LHS of the equation. (Is that what you're saying a brown box on the RHS means? Because if so then the LHS ain't equal to the RHS.) —Dan
On Jun 16, 2016, at 8:05 PM, Mike Beeler <mikebeeler@verizon.net> wrote:
Oh what fun. Two flowers are twice one flower; four petals are 4/5 of 5 petals; a brown box is square root. So, 9. But why stop there? Speak it and interpret it as German; translate to English to get “No.”, which is an abbreviation for number. So the answer is, “a number”.
participants (9)
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Brent Meeker -
Dan Asimov -
Dan Asimov -
Henry Baker -
Joerg Arndt -
Marc LeBrun -
Mike Beeler -
Tom Karzes -
Tom Rokicki