Mar 8, 2021
Madison Math Circle
Providing Madison children with a friendly environment that fosters learning beautiful mathematical theories beyond the regular school curriculum and developing critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Announcements
It was awesome to see so many of you for our talk last week by Colin Crowley about fractals and imaginary numbers.
For more cool math about fractals, check out this week's video.
Shout out to Liam and Will for solving our batty riddle!
– Professor Andrews
Video of the Week
Weekly Riddle
Suppose you have a balance scale such as the one shown which can be used to compare the weights of two objects (the heavier object goes closer to the ground). Someone gives you 9 coins that look identical, but one of the coins is fake. Using only the scale, what is the minimum number of weighings required to definitively identify the fake coin in each of the following cases:
- You know the fake coin is lighter than the real coins.
- You know that the fake does not have the same mass as a real coin, but you don’t know whether it is heavier or lighter.