Date: Mon, 04 Mar 2002 20:52:35 -0500
From: Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Math question
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Candy Madigan wrote:
>
> what 2 whole numbers multipled together = 1,000,000,000?  No zeros.
>
> My boss needs it for his kid.

Let's see.  1,000,000,000 = (2*5)^9.  Any two numbers that together are
the product of nine fives and nine twos will give a billion (thousand
million if you're British).  If you have a two and a five in the same
number, you'll get a number ending with zero.  So you put all the twos
on one side and all the fives on the other.

The two numbers are:

2^9 = 512
5^9 = 1,953,125

Now one for you.  Assume you have a checkerboard and a bunch of
dominoes.  Each domino exactly covers two squares on the checkerboard.
You can cover the entire checkerboard with 32 dominoes.

Now, remove the lower left square and the upper right square on the
checkerboard.  How do you arrange 31 dominoes to cover the remaining
squares?  (Be quiet, Eric.  I know you know the answer.)

--
Steve Smith                                           sgs at aginc.net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."