1) What do these represent? Place your answers in the adjoining column. See the official answers next month.
| 36 = STS | |
| 20 F and T | |
| 21 GS | |
| 4 RA in a R | |
| 1 P in a PT | |
| 20000 L under the S | |
| 2468 WDWA | |
| 1969 = FM on the M | |
| 1815 B of W | |
| 1024 B in a KB | |
| 206 B in the HB | |
| 666 M of the B | |
| 81 # W by LB | |
| 93 MM to the S | |
| 1 M and HD | |
| 1 F the R | |
| 0 FP of W | |
| 1 AB | |
| 40 W | |
| 77 SS | |
| 3 SY and T | |
| 66 CC | |
| LB A 40 | |
| S 16 and NBK | |
| 8 P on a C | |
| 10 T on a P of F | |
| 7 C of the R | |
| 3 N of DD (H,D,L) | |
| 5 L and 3 F | |
| 5 C on E | |
| 6 of O H a D of A | |
| RA the R | |
| 8 L on a S | |
| 2TU | |
| 2 US of C | |
| 2 LDB | |
| F=14D | |
| B and B | |
| 4 C in the H | |
| 24 BBB in a P | |
| OC 9 | |
| 1000 = SR of a M | |
| 1001 AN | |
| 1 F in the G | |
| AB and the 40 T | |
| 12 E on a C | |
| 21 S on a D | |
| 2S to ES | |
| 4S in a Y | |
| 88 K on a P | |
| 26 M in a M | |
| 25 YM = SWA | |
| 76 TL the BP | |
| 4 W and a F | |
| 1000 W that a P is W | |
| 1 W on a U | |
| 8 M a M | |
| 288 = 2X a G |
2) Take x to the power of x. Take the whole thing to the power of x. And so on forever. If the total of the entirety is 2, what is x?
3) Pif and Paf are members of Mensa and queslexic (vel sim); they can only ask questions. Pif can only ask questions whose answer is yes. Paf can only ask if the answer is no. They can’t leave their house because of this dysfunction. One day an escapee from Mensa’s lunatic asylum breaks into their home. The escapee can’t lie and may only believe what’s true or only believe what’s false. Pif or Paf asks "Am I Paf?" Who asked the question and what type was the escapee?
4) What letter should appear next in this sequence? C H K P S ?
Answers to the December puzzles:
1) These are the Fibonacci Numbers, an infinite series. The 12th number is 144. Each term after the first is the result of adding the two numbers that precede it. The series has the unexpected property that the ratio of two adjacent numbers tends to the Golden Section, ie 1.618…, a number which crops up everywhere from the ratio of diagonals in the Pythagorean star embedded in a pentagon, to the height/length ratio of the Parthenon, and the petals of flowers.
2) The nth number is the number of factors of n, not counting itself. The next n is 21, which has as factors (not counting itself) 1, 3, 7. Therefore the number is 3.
3) 401. The rule is the smallest factor (not counting 1) of 4 times n squared plus one. The next number in our sequence is 10. Squared, it’s 100. Times 4, it’s 400. Plus 1, it’s 401. The smallest factor of 401 (not counting 1) is itself, ie 401.
4) Sauna
