This is from the American Mathematical Society website. The “Fib” is a new poetical genre: a six-line 20-syllable poem where the line lengths (in syllables) are given by the first six Fibonacci numbers. This information came from an article in the April 24 2006 New York Times, “Fibonacci Poems Multiply on the Web After Blog’s Invitation,” by Motoko Rich. The invitation initially came from Gregory K. Pincus, “a screenwriter and aspiring children’s book author in Los Angeles,” who posted the rules on his blog. The New York Times ran a photograph of Pincus next to one of his poems:

One
Small,
Precise,
Poetic,
Spiralling mixture:
Math plus poetry yields the Fib.

Rich tested poets and mathematicians for their reactions to the new genre. Annie Finch, a poetry professor at the University of Southern Maine, was enthusiastic: “Poets ... love constraints that allow the self to step out of the picture a little bit. The form gives you something to dance with so it’s not just you alone on the page.”

PUZZLE 1: Five authors have just sent their latest murder stories to the publishers ? so we all look forward to reading them soon. In the meantime, however, we intend to completely spoil your enjoyment of the novels, by inviting you to solve the problem of who murdered whom, as well as the motive involved and the location of the story!

Neither the butler nor the plumber committed the murder (which took place in Brighton) for the sake of an inheritance. The revenge killing didn’t take place in Fishguard or Dunoon. The artist didn’t murder the partner (who was neither the victim killed in revenge nor the one murdered as the result of a power struggle). The dentist murdered a cousin (but not for revenge or love) in Halifax. The sister wasn’t murdered in Brighton or Fishguard; and the victim in Fishguard wasn’t the one killed for the love of someone. The butler didn’t murder his partner.

In the novel in which the solicitor murders someone, the motive is power, but didn’t involve the killing of a friend (Teri Nutton)

Solutions on June 5

CORRECT ENTRIES

May 8

Sayonil Mitra; Hardeep Khurana; Shukla Dey; Pulkit Swarup Saini; Kalyan Dey; Ashish Rathi; Amit Singh; Tanay Das; Kuntalesh Dewangan; Arnab Kr Sadhukhan; Soumya Shaw; Pritam Bhattacharya; Sreeja Dutta; Anup Kumar; Danish Anwar; Kanishk Kanoria; Tabish Imam; Sunipa Dev; Maharshi Ray; Samarjit Mukherjee; S.N. Bhattacharya; Anurag Dey; Sourav Nanda; Subrata Ranjan Das.

PUZZLE CRACKED

The response this week was really very encouraging. Sorry for not being able to fit everybody’s name. Brainstormer Arnab Kr Sadhukhan was methodical in his approach. The solution sent by him is as follows: Al Harper had ordered downhill skis but got dishware and lives in apartment number #4.

Ed Campbell had ordered automotive tools but got golf clubs and lives in apartment number #3.

Harry Bates had ordered dishware but got television set and lives in apartment number #1.

Roger Weiseman had ordered television but got Downhill skis and lives in apartment number #2.

Tom Smith, had ordered golf clubs, but got automotive tools and lives in apartment number #5.