Transcript PUZZLES
By
Katie Dzerovych
Jon Wood
JB Henderson
Mentor
Professor Snapp
Puzzle
A game, toy, or problem designed to test ingenuity or
knowledge.
History
The first puzzle found was an Egyptian document, the
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, that is over 3,600 years old
There were 85 different puzzles in the papyrus
One puzzle is: Seven houses contain seven cats. Each cat
kills seven mice. Each mouse had eaten seven ears of grain.
Each ear of grain would have produced seven hekats of
wheat. What is the total of all of these?
Archimedes invented a division of a square into 14 pieces
leading to a game similar to Tangrams, Stomachion,
involving making figures from the 14 pieces
Quick Puzzles
http://www.puzzles.com/puzzleplayground/OutOfGla
ss/OutOfGlass.htm
http://www.puzzles.com/puzzleplayground/CrazyCut
/CrazyCut.htm
http://www.puzzles.com/puzzleplayground/Counting
TheSquares/CountingTheSquares.htm
Tower of Hanoi
Must transfer the tower of disks from one end peg to the
other end peg
The only rule is you cannot place a larger disk over a smaller
disk
Depending on the number of disks what is the least
possible moves to make this work
History of the Tower of Hanoi
Created by French mathematician, Edouard Lucas, in 1883
Based on the legend of a Hindu temple where the puzzle
was used as mental discipline for young priests
The legend says that since the beginning of time the priests
in the temple were giving a stack of 64 gold disks one each
a little smaller than the one below it
The priests were to transfer the 64 disks from one of the
three poles to another, the only rule they had was that a
larger disk could never be on top of a smaller disk
The legend says that when they finish the temple will
crumble and the world will end
Tower of Hanoi Game
http://www.speedyadverts.com/SAFlashGames/html/
game71.html
Equation for Tower of Hanoi
The number of moves grows exponentially with the
number of disks used
If n is the number of disks and M is the number of
moves
n
M=2 -1
Homework
The legend of Hanoi says that there were 64 disks the
priests would have to move before the world would
end, how long would it take the priests to move the
disks if it took them one second a move?
Works Cited
O'Connor, J., and E. Robertson. "Mathematical Games and Recreations." May 1996. Web.
30 Nov. 2011. <http://www.gapsystem.org/~history/HistTopics/Mathematical_games.html>.
Tower of Hanoi. Digital image. WTS. 2007. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://www.wooden-toystore.com/Tower%20of%20Hanoi.asp>.
Belluck, Pam. "Ancient Egyptians’ Mathematical Ingenuity, Written on Papyrus NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 06 Dec.
2010. Web. 30 Nov. 2011.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/science/07first.html?_r=1>.
"LHS: Tower of Hanoi Facts." Lawrence Hall of Science. Web. 30 Nov. 2011.
<http://lawrencehallofscience.org/java/tower/towerhistory.html>.
Petković, Miodrag. Famous Puzzles of Great Mathematicians. Providence, RI: American
Mathematical Society, 2009.
http://www.tabbykat.com/Archimedes%20Square%20R.jpg
http://www.tabbykat.com/Alexander%27s%20Star%20R.jpg
http://www.tabbykat.com/Number%2015%20R.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangram
http://www.sudoku.org.uk/
http://www.seriouspuzzles.com/i7134.asp