Ken's blog

It was a sunny, fluffy-cloud afternoon on an idyllic beach in the Caribbean. Sam was chatting up a blonde, fashion-model type girl at a table adjoining a beach snack bar. Her name was Heidi and she was from Vienna.

“When I get to Vienna one of these days – which, by the way, might be very soon – I would really like to see you,” said Sam, flashing a charming smile and taking a hefty swig from his beer bottle.

“Yu are velkom to kom to mein haus eef you ken find it,” laughed Heidi.

“Just give me the address and I’ll be there for sure, no problem,” said Sam confidently with a sweeping gesture of his arm.

“Eef yu say yu ken do dis, Sem. Eet ees a fery long street, de Kaiserstrasse, end I am on ze side dat start with ze haus nummer won,” said Heidi with a mischievous glint in her eye, sipping some white wine.

“No problem, I like long streets,” countered Sam with a big grin, flexing his biceps. “And what’s the number?”

“I vil tell yu, Sem. De sum of ze numbers of ze hausen before mein haus nummer is equal to ze sum of ze nummers of ze hausen after mein haus nummer. Eef yu can vork zat aus, I vil be glad to see yu, Sem,” said Heidi.

Sam was taking notes on a napkin. “Right… Very interesting.”

“Eef yu join zese too haus nummers end prefix 699 yu vil haf my lokal fone nummer so yu ken kall me ven yu kom,” added Heidi.

“Hmm,” said Sam. “What do you do for a living, Heidi?”

“Ai em ein mazematik prefessor at ze universitet. Maibee I see you suun, Sem. Haf to go now to zee my brother Arnold,” said Heidi, downing her white wine.

Heidi grabbed her bag and left, leaving Sam holding his beer bottle in a confused and puzzled state of mind.

Can you help Sam meet up with Heidi?

At a Shanghai dart tournament, Henry asked a referee about the rounds played by Jack and Jill.

“I don’t know exactly how many rounds they played before they left, but they flipped a coin each time to see who would go first, and I know that Jack won the toss four times,” said the referee.

“Thanks,” said Henry and pulled out a small notebook and a pen from his shoulder bag. “I’ll work it out.”

How many rounds did Jack and Jill play?

An eccentric billionaire decided to build two tall pointed towers consisting of a series of stacked cubes. They would serve decorative purposes being placed in parallel at a large futuristic gate in his theme park. The material to be used would be a high-strength, transparent nanomaterial. The billionaire stated that rainwater and some kind of energy would be collected for undisclosed purposes.

The first cube was to have a side length of 1 cm, the subsequent cube sides 1 cm greater than the previous, up to the last cube with a side length of 100 cm.

The architect scratched his head thinking how to add up the volumes. Can you help him greatly simplify the calculations?

What would be the height of the towers, and their combined volume?

Jack and Jill were sitting in the shade of a large tree, relaxing after attending some university lectures.

“What about flipping some coins, Jack,” suggested Jill.

“Good idea, I have a silver dollar,” offered Jack.

“Professor Wiseman suggested a coin flipping game,” said Jill. “We alternately flip a coin and the one who gets the same face as the last face to appear wins. Sound good to you?” asked Jill.

“Sure,” said Jack,“so long as I go first.”

“No problem, Jack, as always, you go first, even after I win,” smiled Jill cheerfully.

They proceeded to play quite a number of games, in which to Jack’s dismay Jill always remained on top.

What is the probability of a game finishing before the coin is flipped six times?

Why did Jill win twice as many times as Jack?