Solution to Puzzle #59

A lot of people seemed stumped with this one, so I thought I would provide a full solution. At first sight it seem there is not enough information given. You are given the length of the middle line (which in the general proof below I will call M) and the distance between the circle centres (which I will call C), but not the radius (r) of the two circles. This proof below demonstrates that the length of the base is not dependent upon r, but only on M and C.

So the formula for the base is C(2M-C)/(M-C). Plug in the values given for M and C (60 and 24 respectively) and the length of the base turns out to be 64.

Solution of the Week #58 – Triples: Actors – submitted by Ellen Stockman

I wrote the names of the actors in the order I found them.  I saw the name Malkovich right away and could thus eliminate 3 chunks. The way I arrived at the solution is a combination of simply seeing some names, eliminating, and the logical fact that some chunks are more likely to be the beginning or the end of a name, also the combination of vowels and consonants.

MALKOVICH

NICHOLSON

BLANCHETT

ZELLWEGER

LANCASTER

MANSFIELD

RADCLIFFE

DEPARDIEU

FAIRBANKS

CHEVALIER

Solution of the Week #12 - Maze - submitted by Eddie Draaisma

The method used is to keep to the side of a wall, in my case I kept close to the wall at the right hand, and followed it at every corner. When entering a dead-ended branch, one will eventually exit it coming along the wall at the other side.

The red trace is the total walk ; the blue trace is the shortest path extracted from that.