The Puzzler – Week 7

Welcome to The Puzzler. Every week, there are 2 new puzzles related to my passion: math, logic, and thinking. The first puzzle will be The Puzzler Quik, meant for those who crave something fun-sized. The second puzzle will be The Puzzler Think, meant for those who love to ponder. The answers will be posted in next week’s column. Don’t forget to submit your answer for a potential shout-out in the next edition of the Puzzler.

Don’t forget to check out our new section: Mind Bogglers. It features counter-intuitive math thoughts and paradoxes.

The shout out for the Puzzler Quik from last week goes to Derick from Oregon!

The shout out for the Puzzler Think from last week goes to Emmett from Ohio!

Puzzler Quik

What is the smallest whole number that is equal to seven times the sum of its digits?

Puzzler Think

A singles tennis match is held in which 30 men participate. If a player is eliminated as soon as he loses a match, how many matches must be played to have a unique winner?

Want a hint? Contact me at aditya@thepuzzlr.com

Answers To Last Week’s Puzzlers

Click here to go to last week’s Puzzlers

Puzzler Quik

Last week’s Puzzler Quik was a tricky one!

The shout-out goes to Derick from Oregon! Good Job!

40 people take 20 minutes to eat 20 oranges. We wish to find the amount of time it takes for 2 people to eat 1 orange. If we divide the number of people by 20 from our given information, we must also divide the number of oranges that were eaten by 20. But wait! We have the desired expression: 40 people take 20 minutes to eat 20 oranges. Thus, our answer is 20 minutes. As one ThePuzzlr subscriber said: “it must have been a big orange”!

Puzzler Think

Kudos to Emmett from Ohio for solving this problem. for solving this problem. His submission was the first one received.

Do you know what “perfect numbers” are? They are positive integers whose positive factors except for themselves add up to the number itself. For example, 28 is a perfect number because $$1+2+4+7+14=28$$ Well, the answer to last week’s Puzzler Think was in the name: ” The Perfect Pyramid”! Each element was a perfect number that was smaller than the one below it. Therefore, our answer was the only smaller number less than 28 that is also perfect. The only number that satisfies this condition is 6. Therefore our missing number was 6!

Have any questions? Want to send me a puzzle to possibly be the next puzzler? Email me at aditya@thepuzzlr.com