Puzzlebomb is a monthly puzzle compendium. Issue 40 of Puzzlebomb, for April 2015, can be found here: Puzzlebomb – Issue 40 – April 2015 The solutions to Issue 40 can be found here: Puzzlebomb – Issue 40 – April 2015 – Solutions Previous issues of Puzzlebomb, and their solutions, can be found here.
Not mentioned on the Aperiodical, 3/4/15
Here’s a round-up of some mathematical news from last month.
Eight Easy Pieces (you can touch but don’t look)
Here’s a bar bet you can’t lose. Actually, it’s more of a kitchen bet, being a quiche cutting conundrum. You’ve just bought a lovely fresh haggis quiche at your local Minus 4 shop and are planning to eat it in one sitting, in your kitchen with a friend. You’ve agreed to share it in the…
Power lines follow power laws, says somebody
A headline appears on my screen: “Ancient and Modern People Followed Same Mathematical Rule To Build Cities”, on Slashdot. Ooh, I get to break out my “holy power law, Batman” image again! Yippee! Ctrl+F “power law” – no hits. That’s odd.
Bread & Kisses
Bread & Kisses is a short film by Katherine Fitzgerald about a mathematician who discovers love – I know, I know, you’ve heard this one before – but it also contains a mathematician who moves to the Alps to get more skiing in, so it’s the most realistic film about mathematicians ever. It also features the emotion of love…
Zeeman Archive
To celebrate Christopher Zeeman’s 90th birthday and their own 150th, the London Mathematical Society have opened an online archive of Sir Christopher’s work.
Apiological: mathematical speculations about bees (Part 3: Travelling Salesman)
This is part 3 of a three-part series of mathematical speculations about bees. Part 1 looked at honeycomb geometry, and part 2 looked at how bees estimate nest volumes. The sight of bumblebees roaming around British gardens, foraging for nectar, is common and comforting. The movement of these fuzzy bees between flowers and plants can often seem…