Arithmetickles is a new, hilarious romp of a show that combines live theatre with creative math. The program gives children the opportunity to boost their problem-solving abilities while strengthening their imaginations and advancing their math skills. Arithmetickles focuses on the many ways math is used in everyday situations, from basic math operations through creative problem solving. Children are actively involved in the learning process with games that capture the imagination and encourage them to open their minds to the wonderful world of math. The program was conceived in US by Children’s Theatre Center. Arithmetickles includes: creative number games, problem solving, multiplication, subtracting, percentage, telling time, division, counting, fractions and more ! A friend recently showed me portions of the program and I was amazed. Cheers to all who designed it.

PUZZLE 1: A horse breeder goes to a horse show with a certain number of horses. The first buyer comes by and purchases half of the horses the breeder brought plus half a horse. The second buyer comes by and purchases half of what remains plus half a horse. The third buyer comes by and purchases half of what remains plus half a horse. The breeder leaves, satisfied that he has sold all the horses he brought.

All three buyers have purchased whole horses, and there is no shared ownership among them. How many horses did the breeder bring to the show?

PUZZLE 2: A customer at a 7-11 store selected four items to buy, and was told that the cost was $7.11. He was curious that the cost was the same as the store name, so he inquired as to how the figure was derived. The clerk said that he had simply multiplied the prices of the four individual items. The customer protested that the four prices should have been ADDED, not MULTIPLIED. The clerk said that that was OK with him, but the result was still the same: exactly $7.11. What were the prices of the four items?

Solutions on May 15

CORRECT ENTRIES

April 10

Sayonil Mitra, Shantiniketan; Ranjan Sur Chaudhury, Sodepur; Sudha Malpani, Arnab Thokdar, Calcutta; Vinesh Vijayan, Don Bosco Park Circus; Sudipto Banerjee, Minneapolis; Kuntlesh Dewangan, Ranchi; Sreechandra Banerjee, Cal- 19; Dr. Subhasis Saha, Cal- 42; Shruti Srinivasan, Salt Lake; Sourya Pal, Cal; Amit Choudhury, Madhyamgram; Suranjita Banerjee, Cal- 42; Arnab Kumar Sadhukhan, Barrackpore; Shayak Bhattacharya; Aparajita Bose, Bhagalpur; Soumava Chakraborty; Sudha Malpani; Suhas Dey, Ravi Raja.

Please send your to knowhow@abpmail.com within 10 days. For snail mail the address is Brainstorming KnowHOW, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta- 700 001. Send complete solutions, not one line entries.

PUZZLE CRACKED

The response this week was great. Ravi Raja was methodical in his approach. Here goes the solution:

Solution: The six dogs live at 16 Summerset Terrace as follows:

1A - Cobbs, Britney, Terrier

1B - Manns, Lucky, Poodle

2A - Duffs, Spike, Chow Chow

2B - Hills, Gunnar, Schnauzer

3A - Witts, Pete, Shih Tzu

3B - Barrs, Willis, Dachshund

Hint: Owners of Chow Chow and Gunnar live opposite to each other. Britney and Poodle owners live on the same floor . Owners of Pete and Willis also live on the same floor. Owners of Terrier live below the owners of Spike. The family living in 3A do not own the Dachshund. Fitting in these the possible combinations and logically eliminating the others we can solve the problem.