Maths Puzzles

On the train home from Works, I see heads buried in their newspapers. People madly scribbling little numbers, filling in their Sudoku Maths Puzzles.
The journey home is consumed by this desire to finish off the daily Sudoku puzzle.

What's with the this craze. Sudoko Puzzles are everywhere, Crowded trains, hushed by inquiring minds immersed in these Sudoku puzzles , mind you I can't think of a better thing to do on a train.

Books stores have shelves and shelves of books on the Sudoku phenomena.

The boring trip just a blur, time stands still, all that matters is you crack this compelling puzzle.

My friend has his own system for completing a Sukodu puzzle.

My 75 year old father does a couple of Sudoku puzzles, because he reckons it keeps his mind agile.

He's always saying "Use it or Lose"

My daughter rang me at work a couple of days ago. "Dad can you buy a newspaper on the way home."

I asked "What's wrong with the one I already bring Home"

"Dad!" she cried "I want to do the Sudoku Puzzle and you already had a go at it. So can you get a newspaper with a clean Sudoku puzzle."

If that's not bad enough her sister pipes up with " I want one too"

So now I just photocopy the Sudoku Puzzle.

Now it a competition to see who can finish the Sudoku first.

But if you think they stopped at Sudoku's, now their devouring any maths puzzle, they can find.

"Hey Dad, I bet you can't guess this one"

"Or what about this one, that will stump you"

"Aha Got you"

And to think it wasn't to long ago they were struggling with their maths.

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Maths Puzzles

So try these maths puzzles, there sure to test your grey matter.

Let me know, if you could solve them.

The Barrels Of Balsam

A merchant of Bagdad had ten barrels of precious balsam for sale. They were numbered, and were arranged in two rows, one on top of the other, as shown in the picture. The smaller the number on the barrel, the greater was its value. So that the best quality was numbered "1" and the worst numbered "10," and all the other numbers of graduating values. Now, the rule of Ahmed Assan, the merchant, was that he never put a barrel either beneath or to the right of one of less value. The arrangement shown is, of course, the simplest way of complying with this condition. But there are many other ways-such, for example, as this:-

Here, again, no barrel has a smaller number than itself on its right or beneath it. The puzzle is to discover in how many different ways the merchant of Bagdad might have arranged his barrels in the two rows without breaking his rule. Can you count the number of ways?

OK how did go?

Are ready for the next one?

Try The Nine Almonds Puzzle

The Nine Almonds
"Here is a little puzzle," said a Parson, "that I have found peculiarly fascinating. It is so simple, and yet it keeps you interested indefinitely."
The reverend gentleman took a sheet of paper and divided it off into twenty-five squares, like a square portion of a chessboard. Then he placed nine almonds on the central squares, as shown in the illustration, where we have represented numbered counters for convenience in giving the solution.
"Now, the puzzle is," continued the Parson, "to remove eight of the almonds and leave the ninth in the central square. You make the removals by jumping one almond over another to the vacant square beyond and taking off the one jumped over-just as in draughts, only here you can jump in any direction, and not diagonally only. The point is to do the thing in the fewest possible moves."
The following specimen attempt will make everything clear. Jump 4 over 1, 5 over 9, 3 over 6, 5 over 3, 7 over 5 and 2, 4 over 7, 8 over 4. But 8 is not left in the central square, as it should be. Remember to remove those you jump over. Any number of jumps in succession with the same almond count as one move.

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Maths Puzzles