Sport Puzzles

Sorry, no puzzle or newsletter last week. My days have been very busy with the Holidays, vacation, taxes and my kids' birthdays. For those who haven't read about my April family management miscalculations, here is my Due Date Math story.

This week I am coming back with a set of sport puzzles. You can answer one or all in a single comment below.

1. By non-obvious reasons I seem to be taking to the sports my kids learn. Perhaps I am envious and want to be more than a driver, perhaps it is watching them play that sparks the idea, perhaps it is just a convenience.  So, in parallel with my daughter, I started taking group tennis lessons. There are four of us in the group. A few weeks ago one of the players didn't come and we all found ourselves much more exhausted than usual. No wonder, we each had to work harder. By how much?
2. During the tennis lesson we spend 50% of the time learning to play and 50% gathering tennis balls all around the court. We are all beginners and balls are spread all around the court, frequently all around the town. Each of us picks a quarter of the court and gather all the balls onto his/her racket. Usually one holds the racket flat in one hand and picks the balls with another, carefully managing the balance of the racket as it is filled with balls. I have been thinking that a different approach is easier and faster. Place the racket on the floor in the center of the ball cluster and pick balls with both hands, filling the racket. Then move the racket to another cluster. What do you think?
3. My father is jogging every morning. He runs a few mins and then walks the same number of mins, then runs again etc. His running speed is twice than his walking speed. When he started his jog the other day he met an old friend running with a slower speed than my father. They waved. After completing one run and walk cycle my father met this friend again. What can be said about their relative speeds?
4. My friend's kids went to the sports camp during their school vacation. Camp instructions say that everyone should wear red on Monday, yellow on Tuesday, green on Wednesday, blue on Thursday and black on Friday. On one of the days 1/3 of the kids came in rainbow shirts as they were not able to find clothes of the required color in their closet. What day was it?

Your answers are accepted any time until midnight Eastern Time on Sunday, on our Family Puzzle Marathon.
Top image by Brooks Elliott, distributed under the CCL.

A Billiard Puzzle

I found this puzzle in a tiny but mighty pocket puzzle book named Optical Illusions.

Suppose the yellow billiard ball strikes the bumper at the point identified by the arrow. If the ball has the energy to keep rolling, which pocket will it eventually sink into? 
Let's identify pockets as upper or lower, left, center or right.

Your answers are accepted any time until midnight Eastern Time on Sunday, on our Family Puzzle Marathon.

Super Bowl Bet

A camel who lives in New Jersey’s Popcorn Park Zoo has accurately predicted the last five out of six Super Bowl champions.  Camel is she and her name is Princess. How does she do the picking?  In a very scientific way. The General Manager of the zoo writes the names of the competing teams on each hand. He then places a graham cracker in each hand. The hand (and team) that Princess picks, through nibbling on the graham cracker, is going to be the winner.  This year I suspect that the general managed spread some Nutella on one of the crackers as Princess' Super Bowl XLVI pick is The New York Giants.

If camel can do it, we surely can try as well. Plus, from the last week's puzzle we all learned that the only impossible score is a score of 1. So, let's do a Super Bowl bet. No football knowledge is required to participate. Graham crackers and Nutella are optional.

We will try something a bit more sophisticated than a camel:
You name the winner correctly and your difference of the teams scores is within 3 points of the resulting difference - get one puzzle point.
You name the winner correctly and precisely predict the score - get two points.

For example: if the result is going to be Giants 25 - Patriots 31, with a score diff 31-25=6 then anyone who will predict the Partiots' win and propose a  score with a diff  6+/-3 that is in between 3 and 9 will get 1 puzzle point.

Your bets are accepted any time until noon Eastern Time on Sunday, on our Family Puzzle Marathon. They will be unleashed at noon on Sunday February 5th. Scores will be assigned on Monday morning. One score per person, please.

Top image by Fancy Jantzy, distributed under CCL.

An Impossible Score

There was a lot of football talk this week in my household, as the New England Patriots advanced on to the Super Bowl. I asked my husband if he can suggest any football puzzle and he recollected the following story.

A number of years ago my husband discovered that our dentist and a long-time friend happens to be friends with Tom Brady's hairdresser, and occasionally gets invited to the Patriots games. From this moment on my husband's teeth showed a suspicious attraction to the dentist's office.  One day, after breaking cement of his tooth bridge, he even found himself in the dentist's home kitchen where he bumped into... who else but the Tom Brady's hairdresser himself, who was on his way to the game. Some football talk and a few hours later they all drove by our house to pick up our son for a Patriot's game.
Next morning my husband excitedly described to me the special box seats and how he almost met Giselle, while our son proudly shared with his summer-camp friends how late he stayed up, how tasty the hot dogs of Gillette stadium were and how noisy the football crowd was.

"What was the score?"  asked his counselor.
Our son named the score he remembered.
"That's impossible!" answered the counselor.

What could possibly have been our son's answer?

Top image by Not enough megapixels, distributed under CCL.

Your thoughts and ideas accepted any time until midnight on Sunday, January 29th(EST), on our Family Puzzle Marathon. They will be hidden till then and everyone who submitted something reasonable will get a puzzle point.

Run buddy, run.

My husband has encountered this real-life puzzle last week and we are both looking forward to hearing your suggestions.

He wants to organize a running race at his work. His center consists of different groups. The group that will win the race will be awarded with a significant prize. We need your help defining the winner.

What does it mean for a group to win the race? Here are your guidelines:

• Groups can be of different size, but each group should have equal chances to win.
• Wide participation should be encouraged (and rewarded) more than running performance. 
• Running performance should also be taken into account.
• The runners that finish first, second and third should add special bonuses to their groups' total result count.

Therefore, in order to rank each group in this race we need some kind of a function that takes into account all of the above requirements, uses participation and run results and produces a number for each group. Group with the largest number would be declared the winner.

Top image by JerryFest, distributed under CCL.

Your thoughts and ideas accepted any time until midnight on Sunday December 25th (EST), on our Family Puzzle Marathon. They will be hidden till then and everyone who submitted something reasonable will get a puzzle point.

What's wrong with Messi's pants?

Shopping for school supplies, our son picked a cool notebook featuring images and autographs of his favorite players from FBC Barcelona. Later at home he noticed a strangely reversed number "10" on the front player's (famous Lionel Messi) pants.

We were all puzzled. Word UNICEF appears correctly printed on all three players' shirts. Numbers 8 and 9 are oriented as expected on the right part of the other two players' pants. What is wrong with Messi's pants?

Answer ideas accepted any time until midnight on Saturday August 27th (EST), on our Family Puzzle Marathon. They will be hidden till then and everyone who suggested something reasonable will get a puzzle point.

A Sport Fan's Nightmare

The sport scene is tense and exciting in Boston this time of year. Celtics playing Cavaliers, Bruins playing Flyers, Red Sox breaking our hearts every night. Sport fans could hardly sleep. When we do fall asleep, we imagine ourselves playing basketball, then growing bats and chewing gum, then the bats morph into hockey sticks and the baseballs turn into packs flying around with a swooshing sound. In a nightmare, you could imagine becoming smaller and smaller and... turning into a baseball ball. You turn your head and see a giant and heavy basketball chasing you. Attempting to escape the orange giant's jumping steps, you (as a baseball), are darting closer and closer to the wall, looking for a corner. Could a baseball hide safely from a basketball in a corner without being "hurt"?

Basketball diameter is 9.39". Baseball diameter is 2.866".


( puzzle adapted from B. Kordemsky book)

Submit your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon Be first to solve three puzzles and get a prize!

Are You Ready for NBA?

With basketball season in full speed, this is a great puzzle to startle everyone at the game commercial. It is suggested by our All-Star Puzzle Winner - Kim. Please solve it with me. Kim will determine the puzzle winner.

You are charged with generating the schedule for a single-elimination basketball tournament. There are 247 teams in the tournament. How many games will you need to schedule in order to determine the winning team?

Submit your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon Be first to solve three puzzles and get a prize!

Saints' T-shirt or Mini-dress

My son is growing up an inch every season of the year while the T-shirts I buy for him shrink approximately an inch every season during washing and drying. When will he fit into this over-sized Saints' shirt a friend brought to him from New Orleans? The shirt is five inches too long for him now and looks like a minidress. Will he be able to enjoy it before the next Superbowl?

Submit your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon Be first to solve three puzzles and get a prize!

Vancouver Olympic Podium

Do you think the first place podium at the Vancouver Olympics is as much higher than the second, as second place podium higher than the third?

A recent scientific research demonstrated that people that won bronze on average are much happier about their award than people that won silver. Do you think podium height may have something to do with that?

Submit your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon Be first to solve three puzzles and get a prize!

Superhero Speed Skating Bodysuit

Remember the Speedo LZR swimsuit and the fun we used to have with it?
Vancouver Olympics are revealing a new fashion gadget: speed skating bodysuit. New York Times writes: "These suits, which are the culmination of four years of research and testing, are more aerodynamic than human skin." Suits are made in Japan of specially woven fiber material and are 0.3 of a millimeter thick!! (Ouch, nails)


With suits being so thin and undoubtedly exclusive and expensive, do you think we may start seeing a new type of sports' crime?
I am wondering whether one can steal, fold and ship a suit like that in a regular postal envelope?

Submit your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon Be first to solve three puzzles and get a prize!

Vancouver Olympics Puzzle

Weather has not collaborated with the Olympic schedule this year, and instead of Vancouver a few feet of snow have been dumped on Washington DC. With not too much pressed white powder to slide on, skiers felt strong friction on the slopes. One of the athletes reported that in the first second of her descend she moved just 10 feet, in the second only 5 feet, in the third 2.5 and so on slowing down by half every second. Will she reach the finish line, which is 100 feet down from the start, in less than a minute?

Submit your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon Be first to solve three puzzles and get a prize!

The Running Puzzle

New puzzle suggested by my husband: Two runners are running on the oval track in opposite directions. How would each of them know if he/she is running faster than the other.

Submit your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon site. Solve three puzzles and get a prize!

It's all in the Speedo LZR suit...

Speedo LZR swimsuits could apparently make you swim 1% faster. A proof to it is an avalanche of broken world records at the 2009 FINA world swim championship in Rome. Worrying that swimming becomes a matter of clothes rather than sportsmanship, world swimming council decided to ban this "magical" suit from the future competitions. Now, that suits will be banned, they may be coming on sale...
Who wouldn't look good in this elegant black and gray super skin?


If you swim with half of Michael Phelp's speed, how many suits do you need to put on, in order to reach his speed?

Submit your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon site. Solve three puzzles and get a prize!

The unusual Indy 500 race

Three Indy 500 racers were standing and chatting after the big race. One of them, Danica Patrick, mused that it could be great to have a race where the winner is the one who finishes last. In fact, she said, I will give $100,000 to any of you two, whose car will come last to the finish. Hearing this, one of the racers, the famous driver and puzzle solver Kalonni, jumped into the car and put the pedal to the metal. She won. How?

Submit your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon site. Solve three puzzles and get a prize!

Fun Run

Two school kids, Ben and Mike, participated in a 100 meter Fun Run.
Ben lost by 10 meters. Mike, being a nice guy, took pity on his friend and offered him a 10 meter handicap on the next race. Meaning that he started 10 meters before the Start line and run 110 meters while Ben did 100 meters. Who won the second race? Please explain.