Earlier than we get to in the present day’s puzzles, here’s a curious reality I realized not too long ago:
If you happen to begin with the phrase “YES” and advance every letter 16 alongside within the alphabet, it spells “OUI”?
Incroyable. I do know. On this lexical-numerical spirit, all of todays puzzles are about quantity patterns in phrases.
1. Pair and share
The phrases ‘zero’ and ‘one’ share letters (‘e’ and ‘o’). The phrases ‘one’ and ‘two’ share a letter (‘o’), and the phrases ‘two’ and ‘three’ additionally share a letter (‘t’). How far do you need to rely in English to seek out two consecutive numbers which don’t share a letter in frequent?
2. Spell it out!
‘Eleven trillion’ has an fascinating property. It consists of 14 letters and when written out is 11,000,000,000,000, which consists of 14 numbers.
What’s the lowest quantity to have this similar property, particularly that the variety of letters when written as a phrase equals the variety of digits when written in numerals?
3. Satisfying sentence
“This sentence comprises _______ letters”
Write a quantity in phrases within the clean house within the above sentence that can make the assertion true.
4. Humorous fractions (and win a prize)
Within the phrase “two ninths”, the fraction of letters which are vowels is 2 ninths. Discover another fractions which have related self-referential properties.
Be artistic! You could possibly win a prize!
I’ve a replica of a brand new ebook, That’s Arithmetic, and I’ll ship it to the one who sends me the self-referential fraction I like essentially the most.
The ebook was written by Chris Smith, Scotland’s primary maths trainer, as a tribute to the mathematician and songwriter Tom Lehrer, who’s famously as playful with phrases as he’s with numbers.
Again in in 2000, in the course of the Covid lockdown, Chris and two maths trainer friends Ed Southall and Ben Sparks determined to adapt Lehrer’s music That’s Arithmetic and ask maths popularisers from around the globe to sing a line from it. They edited the contributions collectively and the video – that includes Hannah Fry, Bobby Seagull, Rachel Riley, Vsauce, Eddie Woo and extra – registered extra that half one million views. Shortly afterward, a writer approached Smith asking him if he needed to show the music right into a youngsters’s ebook. He did, and the ebook is out on March 1 within the UK.
It was Chris who alerted me to the actual fact about YES and OUI , and he additionally steered puzzles 1, 3 and 4. (Puzzle 2 is from Eric Angelini).
Unwell be again at 5pm UK with the options and the winner.
PLEASE NO SPOILERS. As an alternative talk about your favorite Tom Lehrer songs and canopy variations.
I set a puzzle right here each two weeks on a Monday. I’m at all times on the look-out for excellent puzzles. If you need to recommend one, e mail me.
I give faculty talks about maths and puzzles (on-line and in particular person). In case your faculty is please get in contact.
Lastly, if you wish to see That’s Arithmetic sung by 22 maths popularisers (together with me) right here it’s:
That’s Arithmetic by Chris Smith primarily based on phrases by Tom Lehrer is out on March 1. You’ll be able to preorder right here.
