#230 Train of thought
Set by Daniel Griller
She looked like a tourist 鈥� peaceful and observant as the train moved through the outskirts of the city 鈥� with an impressive-looking camera on her lap.
鈥淢ay I ask what you are taking pictures of?鈥� I inquired.
鈥淭he landscape; one at each station,鈥� she replied.
And yet she didn鈥檛 move when the train pulled into a platform soon afterwards. She spoke before I could form my next question: 鈥淚鈥檓 travelling from one end of the line to the other and back again. I took a picture at this station on the way out.鈥�
She smiled, then returned her gaze to the woods beyond the window.
I knew this line well. Seven stations, one picture at each. And, as I whiled away my journey, I found myself wondering: across the entire day, in how many different orders could she take her photographs?
Solution next week
#229 The greater gouda
Solution
The best Madeline can do is six cuts.
Consider the cube in the centre that has six faces, all of which need to be separated from their neighbouring cheesy cubes. However, no straight slice can detach more than one of these faces from its neighbour, so she can鈥檛 improve on her six-slice solution.
Quick quiz #210
set by Bethan Ackerley
1 The tongue-like structure used by molluscs for feeding is known as what?
2 Who was the first African-American person in space?
3 In what year was Concorde's maiden flight?
4 Name the polymath thought to have carved his surname into the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge in the UK.
5 Which kind of tissue does the pancreas contain more of: endocrine or exocrine?
Quick quiz #210
Answers
1 The radula
2 Guion Bluford
3 1969
4 Christopher Wren
5 Exocrine