Today’s puzzles all come from … the Hyde Park Math Zine!
This delightful publication is written in pen on a single folded sheet of paper, has a print run of 30 copies, and is distributed in the neighbourhood of Hyde Park in Austin, Texas.
Fanzine culture is well established in sports and music. Math educator Kevin Gately thought the format would work for puzzles too. “It dawned on me that there might be people in my community who find the novelty of a hyper-local math zine to be amusing and/or curious,” he said. And it seems there are.
Each issue of HPMZ presents three problems, with easily understandable answers, and let’s not forget the cover artwork!
Gately’s puzzles are mostly taken from other sources, and tweaked. Here are four that took my fancy.
1. Ring it
Each region has a perimeter given by its enclosed number. What is the length just along the edge of the entire figure?
2. Eight ball
Place the digits 1 to 8 in the circles so that no digit is linked to an adjacent digit. (i.e 3 cannot be linked to 2 or 4)
3. Round the block
Assuming all corners are right angles, what is the perimeter?
4. Tennis teaser
Steffi and Boris are playing tennis and their current game score is deuce. If Steffi has a 0.6 probability of winning any point while Boris has the probability 0.4, what is the overall probability that Steffi goes on to win the game?
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the solutions.
PLEASE NO SPOILERS. Please tell me about your favourite fanzines.
I’ve been setting a puzzle here on alternate Mondays since 2015. I’m always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me.
