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