by MathPickle | Feb 6, 2017 |
The crow took pebbles and dropped them into an urn so that the water level rose until the crow could drink. What a smart crow! That’s as much as Aesop wrote, but afterwards he witnessed a peculiar algorithm that the crow devised… The crow started with a...
by MathPickle | Jan 17, 2017 |
Skinny Man Tango starts with a shape and then changes it to another shape based on three simple rules. The results can be as beautiful as watching tango. To explain the rules I’ll start with this shape. Replacement Rule: Each edge of your shape must be replaced...
by MathPickle | Jan 16, 2017 |
Is this Venn-like diagram a good fit for Reptile, Crocodile, Female? Does this make sense? No – it suggests that some Crocodiles are not Reptiles. WRONG. It also suggests that all Crocodiles are Females. WRONG. Fix it… This works. Some Crocodiles and...
by MathPickle | Jan 11, 2017 |
King Kong rearranges the city skyline. The skyscrapers create interesting patterns even though they are generated by a simple algorithm. Let’s look at an example if he starts with 5:2 skyscrapers. The algorithm: King Kong removes the top floor from every...
by MathPickle | Nov 28, 2016 |
Uncracked 114 (Diophantus of Alexandria, c. 215-290) Students working with exponents should be asked to find which values of n from 0-100 are possible by summing the cubes of three positive integers: a^3 + b^3 + c^3 = n. Next, ask if the cubes can be negative. This is...
