#142 Simultaneous pleasure
During lockdowns, I researched viral internet maths sensations. Several of them are what a teenager might recognise as simultaneous equations. In the emoji example above, smiley faces = 4 and blown minds = 5. Simultaneous equations without emojis are less likely to go viral, but can be more fun. Here are two of my favourites.
1. A pen and a pencil cost 拢1 together. The pen costs 90p more than the pencil. How much do they each cost?
2. There are some cows and some chickens in a field. I can see 40 eyes and 64 legs. How many are there of each animal?
Kyle Evans鈥檚 book, , is available now
#141 Sam鈥檚 speed
Solution
10 kilometres at 30 kilometres per hour takes 20 minutes, so Sam has 10 minutes left to drive the remaining 10 kilometres. This means he now needs to maintain a speed of 60 km/h.
Quick quiz #130
1 What name is given to the boundary where the solar wind is stopped by the interstellar medium?
2 Bradypus and Choleopus are the two extant genera of which mammals?
3 What are flowering plants also known as?
4 In what year did Patrick Blackett show that radioactivity could cause one element to transmute into another?
5 A prime number that is 1 less than a power of 2 is known as what?
Quick quiz #130
Answers
1 The heliopause
2 Sloths
3 Angiosperms
4 1925
5 A Mersenne prime