Category: Games and Puzzles

An Intriguing Number Pattern Problem

Games and Puzzles

Somebody forwarded this math puzzle several days ago. Believe me it is quite challenging, especially for the math majors.  🙂  To those who want to exercise their brain muscles, you may want to check this out.

8809=6
7111=0
2172=0
6666=4
1111=0
3213=0
7662=2
9313=1
0000=4
2222=0
3333=0
5555=0
8193=3
8096=5
7777=0
9999=4
7756=1
6855=3
9881=5
5531=0
2581=?

By the way, please don’t post the answer.

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Who owns the Zebra?

Games and Puzzles, Math Lite
I found the puzzle below at a 1990 edition of Geometry (University of Chicago School Mathematics Project) book and I think it’s quite interesting.  Honestly, I haven’t solved it yet (actually, I haven’t solved a puzzle of this type before), so let’s solve it together.
Please don’t post the answer or solution. You don’t want to spoil the excitement of other readers.
***
The 15 clues below are from a famous puzzle in the 1950s called “Who Owns the Zebra?” Note that when this puzzle was made, the dangers of smoking were not widely recognized yet.
  1. There are 5 houses, each of a different color and inhabited by men of different nationalities, with different pets, drinks, and cigarettes .
  2. The Englishman lives in the red house.
  3. The Spaniard owns the dog.
  4. Coffee is drunk in the green house.
  5. The Ukranian drinks tea.
  6. The green house is immediately to the right (your right) of the ivory house.
  7. The Old Gold (cigarette brand) smoker owns snails.
  8. Kools (cigarette brand) are smoked in the yellow house.
  9. Milk is drunk in the middle house.
  10. The Norwegian lives in the first house on the left.
  11. The man who smokes Chesterfields (cigarette brand) lives in the house next to the man with the fox.
  12. Kools (cigarette brand) are smoked in the house next to the house where the horse is kept.
  13. Lucky Strike (cigarette brand) smoker drinks orange juice.
  14. The Japanese man smokes Parliaments (cigarette brand) .
  15. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

Questions: Who drinks water? And who owns the Zebra?

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The Codebreaker Game

Games and Puzzles, Math Lite

Codebreaker is an online logic game that allows the player to guess  a correct color combination “code.” In each guess (represented by the rows of circles in the leftmost part of the diagram), the computer places  black circles in  smaller pegs (see circles below the Accept button in the diagram) to indicate the number of colors in the right position, and white circles to indicate the number of correct colors in the wrong position. The player is allowed up to eight guesses to win the game, otherwise he loses.

The Codebreaker Game is very similar to Mastermind, a well-known board invented by Mordecai Meirowitz. It’s a good game for developing critical thinking of students. A good activity would be to let students develop their own strategy of making the least number of guesses in breaking the code.

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