Mathematics Stack Exchange
Mathematics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [recreational-mathematics]

Mathematics done just for fun, often disjoint from typical school mathematics curriculum. Also see the [puzzle] and [contest-math] tags.

Recreational mathematics is a general term for mathematical problems studied for the sake of pure intellectual curiosity, or just for the enjoyment of thinking about mathematics, without necessarily having any practical application or expectation of deep theoretical results.

Recreational mathematics problems are often easy to understand even for people without an extensive mathematical education, even if the theory they lead to may turn out to be surprisingly deep. Thus, recreational mathematics can serve to attract the curiosity of non-mathematicians and to inspire them to develop their mathematical skills further.

Many typical recreational mathematics problems fall into the fields of discrete mathematics (combinatorics, elementary number theory, etc.), probability theory and geometry. Important contributors to recreational mathematics are Sam Loyd and Martin Gardner.

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$f(x+1)= {3x+5 \over 2x+1}, x\neq-1/2, f(x)=?$

$f(x+1)= {3x+5 \over 2x+1}, x\neq-1/2$ How can I get f(x)? More generally, if I have $f(x+k)$ what do I have to do to get $f(x)$
carlos
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Does this histogram approximate any known distribution?

Here is the histogram of the data: What could be a distribution density function for the data of the histogram?
user
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How to calculate overall conversion percentage?

Let's a say there's an exam which has a 10% passing percentage from Prelims to Main then 15% passing percentage from Main to Interview and 2% passing percentage from interview to final selection. Then how will we calculate the overall conversion…
RockstarSanta
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Depreciation Problem

I am hoping that you can all assist, for which I would be grateful so we have a bolt & it's worth $100 This bolt has a 40 year in service life based on its required usage (we will only need it for forty years - not a single one but access to this…
laughing_pangolin
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How do I assign stream order when a river diverges?

I'm in the process of tracing various river systems in Great Britain, and I've arrived at a problem. At the town of Earith, the Old and New Bedford Rivers diverge from the main course of the River Great Ouse (5th order), and I have no idea how to…
Will
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What type of polygon will fit this description?

A particle moving with constant speed turns left by an angle of 74° after travelling every 1m distance. It returns back to the starting point in 18s and we are required to find out the speed of the particle. My attempt: I know that the particle will…
Dylan Rodrigues
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How can I convert this python code into Mathematical notation?

$\sum_{i=0}^n \frac{\sum_{i=0}^n n}{n!} $ Is it possible to convert this series to the form $ \frac{ n(n+1)}{2} $ I've tried my best to convert the code below to math notation but can't seem to get the same answer. Python…
JJ-Pysquared
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A set problem (inspired by geometry)

Here's my problem: say we have four sets of letters (abcdef) (abde) (abc) (ad). We can only add or subtract those sets in a way that (abc) + (ad) = (aabcd), (abcdef) - (abde) = (cf), but (abc) - (ad) is not allowed. Is it possible to get (b) only…
hecxagon
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Difference between arrangement and order

I am little bit confused about the difference between the words arrangement and order. At first, I thought the two words were the same, but then I came up with an example which made me think that these two words are different. The example was…
user87284
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It is possible to find which one is the switch of the light without going upstairs in this recreational problem?

You are in the downstairs lobby o f a house. There are three switches, all in the "off' position. Upstairs, there is a room with a light bulb that is turned off. One and only one of the three switches controls the bulb. You want to discover which…
Muḥammad Mushfiqur Raḥman
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Mathematical theorems which look impossible externally

I'm trying to write an article series on ''Impossible-looking mathematical theorems". I may not be familiar to many of this kind of mathematical theorems. So I need a suggestion of which to include. The theorems should be externally beautiful. You…
F Nishat
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Odds of Not Rolling a 3 After 80 Rolls of 2 Dice

Can someone tell me what the odds of not rolling a total of 3 on two dice (that is, a combination of 1 and 2 that totals 3) after 80 rolls of the dice? Each die is 6 sided (your typical dice) with 1 through 6 on each side. I played an electronic…
Oceanside
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How would the graph of $y=x^{x^{x^{x^\cdots}}}$ appear?

Image you had the graph where $x$ is raised to itself an infinite amount of times. Like this: $$y=x^{x^{x^{x^\cdots}}}$$ What would this graph look like, and/or how is that computed? Thanks in advance.
Joey Peluka
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Help to calculate human resources

I need to calculate the number of people I would need to complete a task. So I have to prepare 2000 items in 4 hours and I know that on avg one person can prepare roughly 30 items per hour, also I know that each hour I receive additional 400 items…
Zenik
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Converting a decimal number with non-repeating and repeating digits to an improper fraction

What are the steps to convert $3.2\overline{901234567}$ to an improper fraction?
David_M
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