PUZZLESBy

Katie DzerovychJon Wood

JB Henderson

MentorProfessor Snapp

PuzzleA game, toy, or problem designed to test

ingenuity or knowledge.

HistoryThe first puzzle found was an Egyptian document, the

Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, that is over 3,600 years old

There were 85 different puzzles in the papyrusOne puzzle is: Seven houses contain seven cats. Each

cat kills seven mice. Each mouse had eaten seven ears of grain. Each ear of grain would have produced seven hekats of wheat. What is the total of all of these?

Archimedes invented a division of a square into 14 pieces leading to a game similar to Tangrams, Stomachion, involving making figures from the 14 pieces

Quick Puzzleshttp://www.puzzles.com/puzzleplayground/Ou

tOfGlass/OutOfGlass.htm

http://www.puzzles.com/puzzleplayground/CrazyCut/CrazyCut.htm

http://www.puzzles.com/puzzleplayground/CountingTheSquares/CountingTheSquares.htm

Tower of Hanoi

Must transfer the tower of disks from one end peg to the other end peg

The only rule is you cannot place a larger disk over a smaller disk

Depending on the number of disks what is the least possible moves to make this work

History of the Tower of HanoiCreated by French mathematician, Edouard Lucas, in

1883Based on the legend of a Hindu temple where the puzzle

was used as mental discipline for young priestsThe legend says that since the beginning of time the

priests in the temple were giving a stack of 64 gold disks one each a little smaller than the one below it

The priests were to transfer the 64 disks from one of the three poles to another, the only rule they had was that a larger disk could never be on top of a smaller disk

The legend says that when they finish the temple will crumble and the world will end

Tower of Hanoi Gamehttp://www.speedyadverts.com/SAFlashGame

s/html/game71.html

Equation for Tower of HanoiThe number of moves grows exponentially

with the number of disks usedIf n is the number of disks and M is the

number of moves

M=2n-1

HomeworkThe legend of Hanoi says that there were 64

disks the priests would have to move before the world would end, how long would it take the priests to move the disks if it took them one second a move?

Works Cited O'Connor, J., and E. Robertson. "Mathematical Games and Recreations." May 1996.

Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://www.gap-system.org/~history/HistTopics/Mathematical_games.html>.

Tower of Hanoi. Digital image. WTS. 2007. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://www.wooden-toy-store.com/Tower%20of%20Hanoi.asp>.

Belluck, Pam. "Ancient Egyptians’ Mathematical Ingenuity, Written on Papyrus - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 06 Dec. 2010. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/science/07first.html?_r=1>.

"LHS: Tower of Hanoi Facts." Lawrence Hall of Science. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://lawrencehallofscience.org/java/tower/towerhistory.html>.

Petković, Miodrag. Famous Puzzles of Great Mathematicians. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 2009.

http://www.tabbykat.com/Archimedes%20Square%20R.jpg http://www.tabbykat.com/Alexander%27s%20Star%20R.jpg http://www.tabbykat.com/Number%2015%20R.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangram http://www.sudoku.org.uk/ http://www.seriouspuzzles.com/i7134.asp