Wuppies, Fietsen, Kersen, Lingerie
Well, we’d *planned* to take today off, but we ended up going on a “quick” four-hour outing anyway. It was pleasant, to be sure, but by the time we got home, ate dinner, had some vla and coffee, and did a little sudoku, I only had time to finish one video.
I’m trying to upload it right now, but the wireless connection in this bedroom is a bit sketchy, and it keeps stalling out on me. Whenever the video finally makes its way to YouTube, I’ll add it here. Done!
While we wait, here’s a puzzle for you to ponder. My aunt Bettina challenged me with it at lunch the other day, and after some hard thinking I came up with the solution in about ten minutes, which is apparently a record among the people she’s tried it on. The format will be familiar to those of you who played the “24″ game in school. So:
You have three 5’s and one 1 (5, 5, 5, 1). Using only the four basic operations (+, -, *, /), how do you get to 24?
You may not use any roots or powers, but you may use parentheses. You must use all four digits. You may not combine multiple digits into a single number (e.g., 55 - 15 = 40). You may not turn numbers upside-down, do the arithmetic in base-7, or anything else similarly tricksy.
The solution is rather elegant. There’s no catch—everything in the rules is to be interpreted literally and exactly as you’d expect it—but you do have to think outside the box a tiny bit.
If you have the answer, email me (prepoceros at gmail) rather than leaving it in a comment, so as not to spoil anyone else’s fun. I’ll post the solution in a few days, but with plenty of spoiler alerts if you’re determined to work through it on your own. Happy puzzling!
P.S. If you want to see more video of wuppies in action, YouTube can totally hook you up.
Tags: math & puzzles
July 10th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
Hey, Natalie! I found ’s Gravenzande on the map! Your not far from Hoek van Holland, whatever that is. We’re enjoying the videos of your trip. I liked the Dutch version of Halftime Highlights much more than what we see in America. I wish President Bush would dissolve his government until the November elections.
July 11th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
Yeah! We walked around Hoek van Holland yesterday afternoon, actually. It’s a pretty interesting little town: it was the headquarters of the Germans’ North Sea defense during WWII, so there are lots of bunkers and underground tunnels scattered among the dunes. I got plenty of video, of course. =P
I’m with you on halftime show and the Bush thing, ha.