Date: Mon, 04 Mar 2002 21:32:41 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
To: <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.)

I think a saw would be quite useful here . . .

mjw

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