Tag Archives: Solution

Happy Boxing Day from The Indisputable Santa Mathematical Advent Calendar!

Happy Boxing Day!

Throughout the month, to accompany the release of our book on the Mathematics of ChristmasHannah Fry & I were tweeting out Christmathsy bits and pieces, one a day, advent calendar style.

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A final post, to provide the solution to Friday’s puzzle.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE WHOLE CALENDAR

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Merry Christmas from The Indisputable Santa Mathematical Advent Calendar!

Merry Christmas!

Throughout the month, to accompany the release of our book on the Mathematics of ChristmasHannah Fry & I were tweeting out Christmathsy bits and pieces, one a day, advent calendar style.

calendar_title

Thanks for following the Indisputable Santa Mathematical Advent Calendar. Just a few loose ends to wrap up, with a solution to our Christmas Eve puzzle today, with the solution to Friday’s puzzle (Santa’s Dressing Room Disasters) to come tomorrow…

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE WHOLE CALENDAR

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No, the answer wasn’t obvious…

Squares Puzzle Stephen Morris has provided a very detailed response to this question, which I have copied to the end of the original post.

It turns out that my intuition was correct (the tiling is possible if and only if r is a rational number lying in the half open interval (0,1]), but the proof is not obvious. The maths involved seems to be rather lovely though, so Stephen’s comments are well worth a look.

The solution to the algebra puzzle…

Untitled presentation

The solution to Puzzle #4 is now up. Either follow the links from the puzzle itself HERE, or, if you have seen the question already, click HERE to go straight to the solution.

As I mentioned previously, I think this is a good puzzle for mathematics learners at GCSE level or for those setting out on A-level courses, both for checking up on basic algebraic understanding and for illustrating some specific problem-solving skills. I have summarised the key learning points that I think the puzzle raises on the solution page.