The solution to today’s puzzles

Earlier today, I set a puzzle by UCLA professor Terry Tao, who is widely regarded as one of the world’s top mathematicians.

Here it is again with solutions.

a regular plant produces a single coin per day

a mother plant produces a single coin and two seeds per day. (A seed will grow into a regular plant the following day.)

Terence Tao teaser time

Today’s puzzle is set by Terence Tao, who may be the world’s most famous mathematician.

Tao, aged 51, has been a global phenomenon since the age of ten, when he became the youngest competitor at the International Maths Olympiad, a record he still holds. For the last three decades he has been a professor at UCLA, where he has been garlanded with prizes, and where one of his colleagues famously said: “Terry is like Mozart: mathematics just flows out of him.”

a regular plant produces a single coin per day

a mother plant produces a single coin and two seeds per day. (A seed will grow into a regular plant the following day.)

The solutions to today’s puzzles

Earlier today I set you these six puzzles. Here they are again with solutions.

The round table

A puzzle for the ages

It’s made of wood, it’s in the shape of a circle, and it is the forum for many an important gathering.

It is also the setting for today’s puzzle.

The solution to the seventeenth century stumper

Earlier today I set you a puzzle that Isaac Newton posed in 1679 in a latter to Robert Hooke. I mentioned that the answer is counter-intuitive, and also gave you the hint that it might have something to do with figure skating. Here’s the problem again, with its solution.

The tower drop

slightly to the west

slightly to the east

exactly at the bottom

The problem that changed the world

Today’s puzzle played a pivotal role in the birth of classical physics.

The tower drop

slightly to the west

slightly to the east

exactly at the bottom

The answers to today’s puzzles

Earlier today I set four engineering puzzles. Here they are again with solutions. (Do check out the hundreds of great comments posted below the line in the original story.)

The cranberries

Hacks from the hidden world of test engineering

Today’s puzzles test your engineering smarts.

The cranberries

The solution to today’s underwater conundrums

Earlier today I set you the following puzzles. Here they are again with the solutions.

A fish is swimming in a tank that is two metres high, one metre across and one metre deep. The image below shows one path it swam.

Can you think in 3D?

Today’s puzzle concerns a fish swimming in a tank that is two metres high, one metre across and one metre deep.

The image below shows one path the fish swam.

The solution to today’s puzzle

Earlier today I set you the following puzzle, suggested by Briton Alex Chui, the most successful ever candidate at the International Mathematical Olympiad.

Last month Alex, who is a pupil at Tonbridge School in Kent, became the first person to win a medal at the olympiad for seven years in a row. Bravo!

A genius puzzle from a teenage genius

Last month, British student Alex Chui became the all-time most successful contestant at the International Mathematical Olympiad.

Chui, a year 13 student at Tonbridge School in Kent, scored 100 per cent in this year’s event, held in Shanghai, winning him a gold medal, and bringing his tally of medals to seven, five of them golds.

A scorching puzzle about heat

UPDATE: Read the solution here

In a summer heatwave, you keep the curtains drawn all day.

It helps keep the room cool.

The answer to today’s puzzle

Earlier today I set you this puzzle about an imaginary game show.

At the end of the show two people will be chosen and each placed in a separate booth.

A probability puzzle

Today’s puzzle imagines a TV game show.

The compere announces that at the end of the show two people will be chosen and each placed in a separate booth.

The solutions to today’s puzzles – and the winner of the Anguish Languish contest

Earlier today I set these three puzzles about deception. Here they are again with solutions.

1. Super syllabus

The answer to today’s puzzle

Earlier today I set this elegant number puzzle. Here it is again with a solution.

Nose to tail

This game is end to end!

Today’s offering is for fans of the number 4. It’s a cute puzzle that offers up its solution in an elegant way.

Nose to tail

Check it out

UPDATE: Read the answers here

Today’s four puzzles are inspired by chess. (If you haven’t yet watched the recent documentaries on Judit Polgár and Hans Niemann, I recommend them.)

1. Oddities

The answers to today’s pronunciation puzzles

Earlier today I set you these two word puzzles. Here they are again with solutions.

1: Pronounced the same, spelt differently.

(Second option) (Switch back and forth)

(Suitable) (Commandeer)

(Satisfied) (Components)

(Conference attendee) (Assign)

(Price reduction) (Disregard)

(Way in) (Enrapture)

(Incorrect) (Disabled)

(60 seconds) (Tiny)

(In attendance) (Give)

(Fruit and vegetables) (Generate)

(Deny) (Rubbish)

(Distress) (Surprise victory)

Alternate

Appropriate

Content

Delegate

Discount

Entrance

Invalid

Minute

Present

Produce

Refuse

Upset