February 2, 2012
The Puzzle
In our last puzzle, you were asked to find the interesting Hamilton-related property exhibited by four workout times for each of four Hamilton faculty members. One way to see the special property is to make a little table.
M. T. W. Th.
Oerlemans 49 48 46 47
Casey 45 44 42 43
Buchman 53 52 50 51
Shuster 59 58 56 57
The times form what is commonly known as a magic square. The four faculty have coordinated their workout times so that the sums of their four times, taking one for each of the four days and one per person, is a constant.
For example, take Oerlemans on Monday (49), Casey on Wednesday (42), Buchman on Thursday (51) and Shuster on Tuesday (58). Or take Oerlemans on Thursday (47), Casey on Wednesday (42), Buchman on Tuesday (52) and Shuster on Monday (59). Every such sum is the same: Hamilton College’s age of 200 years.
Perhaps a simpler way to get to the 200 is to sum the average workout times for each faculty member.
Winners
The winner of the logic puzzle contest, chosen by lot from among acceptable solutions by eligible candidates, is Jordan Graziadei ’15. Correct solutions were also submitted by Evan Kaplan ’12, Mary Swartwout ’15w and Robin Kinnel. Thanks to all who submitted a response!
Visit our website: www.thatmarcusfamily.org/philosophy/HCPuzzles