mathNEWS BYOB #3

Break Your Own Brain - Triple your pleasure

Time to find out which brain shall reign supreme! Oh wait, wrong parody. Time to figure out who's brain will sink a thousand mips, or something like that anyway. Alright, how about we tell you what the answers were.

Crime and Treason: tooth and nail, pork and beans, law and order, nuts and bolts, stars and stripes, black and blue (other answers here were Stack and Queue, Walk and Chew, and Backpack and Canoe), hide and seek, pencil and paper, ham and eggs, high and mighty, show and tell, fun and games, cops and robbers, rank and file, song and dance, fine and dandy
Digititis:

We had a ton of submissions this time around! Keep up the good work. Out of a score of 28: Ross Brown (a former mathNEWS editor by the way) 28, Greba 28, Dan Lynch 16, Andrew 25, MG+AJ 28, Avery 26.5, Josh Li 28, Olena 27, Snuggles 28, Frogg 28, Bryce 28. So we have a 7-way tie for the winner, and by our highly secret tiebreaking maneuver (sometimes called the flip) it has been determined that we have one more submission! That's right, despite 7 perfect scores there was one submission who got 29! Congratulations SquirrelToken, you got a bonus point for rhyming Stack and Queue (rhyming to Yak and Gnu), the answer was Black and Blue despite other suggestions (walk and chew, backpack and canoe), but for the answer that only a CS'er could love you win. Come on by MC3038 (AKA The MathSoc office) to pick up your C&D gift certificate. Great job on the pile of submissions. I love this job.

This week we're introducing a new tie-breaking methodology because ties suck (when more then one person gets the top score we mean, not the Pink Tie, it rocks the free world, and most of the not-so-free world. Note that you don't *have* to do the tiebreaker but if you tie for the win and then lose cause you didn't even try the tiebreaker, don't come crying to mathNEWS... we're not very absorbent. Oh fine, you can come cry on our shoulder, but you're still not the winner. Yes, you're special, no you can't have the gift certificate. So what is this mystical tiebreaker you ask? Not telling.

Time for a whole new set of problems, even if you don't get them all, submit anyway, you know you want to (submit submit submit! submit to me!!!!) Answers must be in by 6pm on Monday June 21^st. You can drop them in the BLACK BOX between the C&D and Comfy (the BLACK BOX is always hungry, and you can feed it more then just submissions to BYOB, Squiz or gridWord, you can submit articles, profQUOTES, packs of skittles, responses to things that didn't ask for responses, money, and so much more, don't submit your brain, it won't fit through the slot). You can also email us at mathnews@student.math.uwaterloo.ca And away we go.

Mmmmmagic Squares

Everyone likes magic, it's fun, it's magical, it's... um... fun. Below are several squares (two 3X3, two 4X4 and a 5X5). The numbers in each row must add up to the number found at the end of that row. The numbers in each column must add up to the number found at the end of that column. The diagonals must add up to the number found at the end of the diagonal, here's an example.

           15
----------
| 1| 2| 3| 6
----------
| 4| 5| 6| 15
----------
| 7| 8| 9| 24
----------
12 15 18

a) For the 3X3s you must use each digit (1-9) exactly once

           8
----------
|  |  |  | 14
----------
|  |  |  | 16
----------
|  |  |  | 15
----------
15 16 14  8

b) For the 3X3s you must use each digit (1-9) exactly once

           18
----------
|  |  |  | 14
----------
|  |  |  | 14
----------
|  |  |  | 17
----------
15 14 16  23

c) Now we get a little tougher, a 4x4, but you've been given one number in each row, column and diagonal. And you no longer have to use each number exactly once, you are free to use any digit between 1 and 9 that you like, as often as you like, as long as it all adds up.

              14
-------------
|  |  |  |1 | 22
-------------
|  |5 |  |  | 19
-------------
| 8|  |  |  | 22
-------------
|  |  | 4|  | 16
-------------
26 16 20 17  20

d) Only three threes for you here, but this one is truly magic, all the sums are the same.

              20
-------------
|  |  |  |3 | 20
-------------
|  |  |  |  | 20
-------------
| 3|  |  |  | 20
-------------
|  |  | 3|  | 20
-------------
20 20 20 20  20

e) Time to get downright wacky with a 5X5

                 28
----------------
|  | 6|  |  |  | 28
----------------
|  |  |  | 8|  | 22
----------------
| 7|  |  |  |  | 18
----------------
|  |  | 4|  |  | 30
----------------
|  |  |  |  | 8| 21
----------------
22 21 20 31 25  20

Taztacular

As the Tasmanian Devil says on the Looney Toons... "Taz like magic, Taz hate water", and with that in mind, here is the next puzzle. Taz is drinking his chocolate smoothie with a straw that is 105 cm long and has a 20 cm circumference. In order to prevent him from devouring the straw entirely a rescue string is wound around it exactly 7 times (beginning at the top and finishing at the bottom). Taz realizes he's nearing the end of his smoothie so he starts sucking with abandon, as was expected the straw gets lodged in his throat and Taz gets angry. You grab the end of the string and pull it (and then the straw) right out. Taz decides not to eat you as a reward. How long is the string? [and how did you determine that]

Alrighty then, now that you have read the problems maybe I should tell you the tiebreaker. It's a combination of brilliant and lazy, on our parts of course. Here's the tiebreaker this week, give us a riddle/puzzle/brain teaser along with full solution, in the event of the tie, our favourite will win. Also you get a chance to have your name immortalized in the National Library of Canada (didn't think that ISSN number was just a gag did ya?) if we decide to use your puzzle. See, good tiebreaker (and if you can't come up with one, just accept that you'll lose in the event of a tie, and all your friends will point and scream loser as you walk by... or maybe they won't), and it gives us fodder for the next installment of [begin booming announcer voice] "Break Your Own Brain". Till next time this is your friendly neighbourhood Brain Masters (yes master...) going to see what's playing in your memory centers.

Snuggles and Krease... together we are Snuggease or Kreagles