In my puzzle blog earlier today I set you the following puzzle: Imagine you are in a grid 100 squares long and 100 squares wide. (The grid is fixed to the compass directions: up/down is N/S, and left/right is W/E.) On each square of the grid, there’s an arrow. Each arrow is pointing either N,…
Hi guzzlers Today’s puzzle is for escapologists. Imagine you are in a grid 100 squares long and 100 squares wide. (The grid is fixed to the compass directions: up/down is N/S, and left/right is W/E.) On each square of the grid, there’s an arrow. Each arrow is pointing either N, S, W or E. Choose…
Credit: Queensland University of Technology How does the ‘brain’ of a living cell work, allowing an organism to function and thrive in changing and unfavourable environments? Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researcher Dr. Robyn Araujo has developed new mathematics to solve a longstanding mystery of how the incredibly complex biological networks within cells can adapt…
Longest sailable straight line path on Earth. Credit: arXiv:1804.07389 [math.HO] A pair of researchers, one with United Technologies Research Center, the other with IBM Research, has developed an algorithm that can be used to determine the longest straight-line path over water on Earth. In their paper uploaded to the arXiv preprint server, Rohan Chabukswar and…
The puzzle. Credit: University of Huddersfield A University of Huddersfield lecturer has puzzled the world. Ed Southall already had a big following for the maths posers that he posts online and publishes in book form. But his latest conundrum has gone globally viral. Deceptively simple, it is a pink triangle inside a square, accompanied…
The 1581-vertex, non-4-colourable unit-distance graph G. Credit: arXiv:1804.02385 [math.CO] Professional biologist and amateur mathematician Aubrey de Grey has partially solved the Hadwiger-Nelson problem, which has vexed mathematicians since 1950. He has published a paper describing the solution on the arXiv preprint server. The Hadwiger-Nelson problem came about when Edward Nelson and Hugo Hadwiger wondered about…
A 17-year-old Briton has won a gold medal in an international mathematics competition, becoming the first UK entrant to achieve full marks. Emily Beatty, who attends King Edward VII school in Sheffield, came joint-first among nearly 200 teenagers who took part. She was one of only five competitors to get a perfect score of 42…
Aaron Leventman estimates how many beads are in the jar. Credit: Scott Wagner via Santa Fe Institute In 1907, a statistician named Francis Galton recorded the entries from a weight-judging competition as people guessed the weight of an ox. Galton analyzed hundreds of estimates and found that while individual guesses varied wildly, the median of…
On my puzzle blog earlier today I set the following questions: 1) Two hipsters, Atticus and Abe, were arguing about whose electronic bicycle was the slowest. They decided to race them along a 100m track. They agreed that the bike reaching the finish line last would be the winner. The guys got on their bikes…
Mathematical model geometry of post-EVAS AAA. (a) Solid cut-view of the idealised geometry of a sealed AAA with helical-like shape stents. (b) Transparent view of the idealised geometry of a sealed AAA showing the surface separating the two polymer filled endobags. (c) Transparent view of the sealed AAA for Patient 1. (d) Transparent view of…