by John Ehrke | Aug 28, 2018 | Problem of the Week
Background The POTW competition has existed in form or another since September 3, 1990, when the first problem was given by Dr. Bo Green, professor emeritus of the Department of Mathematics until his retirement in 2009. The competition was excitedly restarted in Fall...
by John Ehrke | Feb 25, 2022 | Problem of the Week
Problem 12 – A Riddle of Ages A census worker visits the home of a woman. After he knocks on her door, she answers and he can see three kids behind her. He asks about the ages of the children. She says, “The product of their ages is 72. And the sum of their ages...
by John Ehrke | Feb 11, 2022 | Problem of the Week
Problem 11 – Complete a Nerdle! On the heels of the success of Wordle comes a new game called Nerdle. Nerdle can be found at https://nerdlegame.com/. Over the next week complete games of Nerdle. Screenshot your results and submit them at the end of the week...
by John Ehrke | Jan 21, 2022 | Problem of the Week
Problem 10 – Ken Kens! Solutions are due by 5:00 PM on Thursday, Jan 27. Please send submissions to mathpotw@acu.edu. Only one correct solution was submitted by Wyatt Witemeyer. Congrats Wyatt!
by John Ehrke | Jan 14, 2022 | Problem of the Week
Problem 9 – Alternative Math In an alternative math world suppose that a+b means the maximum of a and b, while a*b means the sum of a and b. For example, 2 + 3 = 3 and 5^2 = 10. In this world, which of the graphs below represents f(x) = x^2 + 2x + 1? If you...
by John Ehrke | Nov 18, 2021 | Problem of the Week
Problem 8 – Putting Out the Campfire The following is a famous calculus problem first posed and solved by Pierre de Fermat in the 1700s. Suppose that you are camping near a river (you are 10 feet away) and you see a campfire that’s getting out of hand in the...
by John Ehrke | Nov 5, 2021 | Problem of the Week
Problem 7 – Keep Your Distance We have all seen the following graphic for how people should physically distance from one another during the COVID pandemic.A savvy math student will notice that this figure cannot possibly be correct. If everyone is standing in...
by John Ehrke | Oct 29, 2021 | Problem of the Week
Problem 6 – Jack O’ Squares Consider the following Jack-O-Grid of equally spaced Jack-O-Lanterns. How many squares are there, whose vertices are Jack-O-Lanterns in this grid? Solutions are due by 5:00 PM on Thursday, November 4th. Please submit all...
by John Ehrke | Oct 15, 2021 | Problem of the Week
Counting Squash or Smashing Pumpkins (if you are in to that sort of thing). A field contains 25 squash, each of which is either a pumpkin or a zucchini. There are more pumpkins than zucchini. If you go into the field and select two squash at random, the probability...
by John Ehrke | Oct 13, 2021 | Mu Sigma Events
Mu Sigma is hosting a lunch time colloquium with Dr. Karabegov delivering an address about the deep mathematical relationships present in the game of SET – a department favorite. Lunch will be served by the department/Mu Sigma at the event. Tentatively the...
by John Ehrke | Oct 8, 2021 | Problem of the Week
Given the following, find r. Solutions are due to mathpotw@acu.edu by 5:00 PM on Thursday, October 14. Blessings! No correct solutions were submitted. Solution
