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.

5128 questions
7
votes
1 answer

cake cutting puzzle: why do finitely many cuts suffice?

Puzzle from http://www2.maths.bris.ac.uk/~majwm/compendium/cakeslice.php A piece of angle $x$ is cut from a cake, which is purple on top and yellow underneath, and turned upside down. Then another piece of angle $x$ is cut from where the last cut is…
Angela Pretorius
  • 10,200
7
votes
4 answers

What is some creative mathematical work that an undergraduate can do?

I can’t contribute to the forefront of modern research, but, roughly equivalent to the way musicians can go out and play gigs, what can an undergraduate mathematician do, apart from reading math books and taking classes? Can they try to prove…
julkarham
  • 247
7
votes
2 answers

Determining the strength of an abstract army

Lets imagine we have two armies, represented by lists of pairs of positive numbers, like this: [($attack1$,$defence1$),($a2$,$d2$)...($an$,$dn$)] face each other in combat. The rules of combat are the following: each unit (pair of attack $a$ and…
Curious Programmer
  • 95
7
votes
2 answers

Concise naming-scheme for polyominoes

There is a neat naming scheme for pentominoes based on letters they resemble. Is there a generalized naming scheme for polyominoes? If there isn't a canonical one, can you think of a good one? Criteria I should be able to look at a given…
Paul Orland
  • 6,888
7
votes
3 answers

Trouble simplifying a tough equation

I'm having trouble simplifying the following equation. I've tried grouping terms in different ways, but it's not looking any more joyful. Can someone please help with its resolution? Hopefully by midnight?? $$ \omega - \ln Y=\ln\left(H p^2 a +…
mjqxxxx
  • 41,358
7
votes
1 answer

mole trapped in a snowball

In Famous Puzzles of Great Mathematicians by Miodrag S. Petković there is this problem: A large avalanche in the Alps traps an unhappy mole. When the avalanche stops, it turns out that the poor mole has been buried somewhere inside a snowball with…
mau
  • 9,774
7
votes
3 answers

Using the digits $1-9$ each only once find the closest sum to $1000$.

Using the digits $1-9$ each only once find the closest sum to $1000$ by filling in the following spaces. $$_ _ _+_ _ _+_ _ _$$ I tried to get $1000$ but couldn't (not even sure if you can). So then I tried $999$. I was able to get $152+378+469=999$…
Ahmed S. Attaalla
  • 18,518
7
votes
3 answers

Bicycle Route Optimization Puzzle

I tried to make some expressions about where each person stops the bike, but I couldn't solve it :( There are three people who would like to cross the road. It takes $a$ minutes for the first person to cross the road by walking. It takes $b$…
rkm0959
  • 3,437
7
votes
2 answers

Running in the rain, good or bad idea?

I originally wanted to ask this on the Skeptiks site, but while having a look around I came across this site which seems to have some complicated maths, but not a reliable answer. The conclusion it attempted to arrive at: So here we have it - more…
going
  • 591
6
votes
1 answer

Why do my professors ignore my work?

I'm a high-school student finishing in December and about to pursue a career in mathematics. In my free time, I like to ''research'' hard problems and come up with unique proofs or combine already-established proofs to come up with a beautiful…
Paze
  • 1,956
6
votes
2 answers

Can you improve your chances of guessing the time by waiting for a bit?

Let's say you have a digital clock that only shows you the hour, not the minutes. If you wanted to guess the correct time, down to the minute, you'd have a 1 in 60 chance of getting the minute correct. However, let's say you noted the time, came…
Elliott Price
  • 117
  • 3
6
votes
3 answers

How can I get started doing math for fun?

My math teacher says that they do math for fun, and I wonder how they do that? I want to do math in my free time. Where can I find problems to solve that will engage me and will take a while to complete?
Joseph Wilt
  • 69
6
votes
3 answers

What's the deal with recreational mathematics?

Mathematics is not my primary discipline, but I know enough about both it and academics in general to know that many to most mathematical researchers do what they do because they enjoy doing it. This would seem to make "recreational mathematics" a…
Foobie Bletch
  • 263
6
votes
4 answers

What is the importance of an integer sequence like the happy numbers?

I've been looking at the happy numbers which led me to the OEIS and showed me that there are many documented integer sequences. What I don't understand is the importance of these sequences. To me, the happy number just look like an interesting…
Matt Markland
  • 61
6
votes
1 answer

Question on Q&A's

My friend gave a fun problem to me that went as follows: A. For how many of these questions is zero the answer? B. For how many of these questions is one the answer? C. For how many of these questions is two the answer? D. For how many of these…
Clayton
  • 24,751
1 2
3
…
35 36