#234 Remember December
Set by Brian Hobbs
“Happy anniversary, Craig,” said Maria. “Do you remember when we first started dating? You brought me hot chocolate every Monday in December that year.”
“Yes,” replied Craig, “and you brought me your homemade caramel corn every Thursday that December as well, because you just couldn’t let the month go by without there being an exactly equal exchange of gifts.”
“I’ve always needed the symmetry,” she said, smiling.
“Our first kiss was New Year’s Eve, which I believe was on… Tuesday? Wednesday? Well, I can’t remember what day of the week it was.”
Maria pondered this for a moment. “We don’t need to remember. I think we’ve already said enough for us to figure out which day of the week it was.”
On which day did Craig and Maria have their first kiss?
Solution next week
#233 An odd league
Solution
Five goals were scored in total.
The four “odd” teams (call them A, B, D, E) must have seven, five, three and one points, and since there were 20 points available, team C must have earned four. For the lowest number of goals, drawn games must end 0-0 and the rest 1-0. If teams A, B and C beat E, and A beat C and D while all the other games were draws, this is the final table (where F stands for goals for and A for goals against):
W D L F A Pts
A 3 1 0 3 0 7
B 1 3 0 1 0 5
C 1 2 1 1 1 4
D 0 3 1 0 1 3
E 0 1 3 0 3 1
Quick quiz #214
set by Bethan Ackerley
1 In geology, connate fluids are associated with which type of rock?
2 How many hexagons are there in the structure of a buckyball?
3 Cirripedology is the study of which arthropods?
4 The word "parsec" is a portmanteau of which phrase?
5 Fossils of Australopithecus afarensis have been found in Ethiopia, Tanzania and which other country?
Quick quiz #214
Answers
1 Sedimentary rocks. They are expelled as the rocks form.
2 20
3 Barnacles
4 "Parallax of one second." It was coined by Herbert Hall Turner in 1913.
5 Kenya