Vamshi Jandhyala
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Mathematical writing · The Fiddler: Solutions

Contents

153 chapters. Puzzles are from Zach Wissner-Gross's Fiddler on the Proof, reproduced with attribution; all solutions are my own.

  1. 1Seeking Alpha
  2. 2Can You Design a Quadrangular Logo?
  3. 3Can You Gerrymander Like a Dummy?
  4. 4How Fast Can You Surf?
  5. 5Can You Swim With the Fishes?
  6. 6Can You Frame the Triangle?
  7. 7Can You Swap the Cups?
  8. 8Can You Cheat on the Quiz?
  9. 9Can You Win at Asymmetric Bingo?
  10. 10Can You Spell Like a Queen Bee?
  11. 11How Far Can You Roll?
  12. 12Camp Algebra
  13. 13How Lucky Can a Baseball Team Get?
  14. 14Can You Sneak Past the Rings?
  15. 15Can You Win the World Cup?
  16. 16Can You Power up the Hill?
  17. 17Can You Fit the Stars on the Flag?
  18. 18Can You Tile the Hexagon?
  19. 19Can You Fix the Random Number Generator?
  20. 20Can You Catch the Longest Wave?
  21. 21Can You Infer the Color of Your Hat?
  22. 22Can You Spot the Sheep?
  23. 23The Ant Goes Marching
  24. 24Can You Play Hide-and-Seek?
  25. 25Can You Drink the “Random-ade”?
  26. 26Can You Hop Around the Chessboard?
  27. 27Will You Be Right on Time?
  28. 28Have You Heard the Buzz?
  29. 29Can You Number the Number Cubes?
  30. 30Can You Rile and Grace the Polyhedron?
  31. 31Can You Pile the Primes?
  32. 32Can You Trace the Locus?
  33. 33Can You or “Cantor” You Find the Distance?
  34. 34Can You Shovel the Snow?
  35. 35Can Every Day Be First?
  36. 36Can the Archers Coordinate?
  37. 37Can You Get the Rover Home?
  38. 38How Long Is the All-Star Streak?
  39. 39Can You Hop in a Spiral?
  40. 40Bingo!
  41. 41Can You Brighten Up the Room?
  42. 42Some Coffee With Your Tea?
  43. 43Can You Topple the Tower?
  44. 44Can You Fling the Fractal Darts?
  45. 45Can You Take the Heat?
  46. 46A Loopy Holiday Gift Exchange
  47. 47Can You Irrigate the Garden?
  48. 48The Randy Hall Problem
  49. 49How Much Does Game 1 Matter?
  50. 50Will the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor?
  51. 51Can You Reach the Edge of the Square?
  52. 52Let’s Make a Tic-Tac-Deal!
  53. 53When Will You Cross Your Path?
  54. 54Can You Take a “Risk”?
  55. 55Can Your Team Self-Organize?
  56. 56Can You Box the Letters?
  57. 57How Low (or High) Can You Go?
  58. 58How Far Can You Run Before Sundown?
  59. 59How Much Free Money Can You Win?
  60. 60Can You Canoodle at the Coldplay Concert?
  61. 61Can You Squeeze the Squares?
  62. 62Can You Sprint to the Finish?
  63. 63Can You Meet Me at the Mall?
  64. 64Can You Hack Bowling?
  65. 65The Dozo Board and the Fifty Stars
  66. 66Can You Crack the Roman Code?
  67. 67How Greedily Can You Mow the Lawn?
  68. 68Can You Race Against Zeno?
  69. 69Can You Squeeze the Bubbles?
  70. 70Can You Weave the Web?
  71. 71How Long Is the River?
  72. 72Can You Permeate the Pyramid?
  73. 73Can You Sweep the Series?
  74. 74How Many Rides Can You Reserve?
  75. 75Can You See Between the Trees?
  76. 76Can You Throw the Hammer?
  77. 77Can You Grow a Hibiscus Hedge?
  78. 78A High Schooler’s Favorite Puzzle
  79. 79Can You Root for the Underdog?
  80. 80Can You Play the Favorite?
  81. 81A Pi Day Puzzle
  82. 82Can You Tip the Dominoes?
  83. 83How Many Rabbits Can You Pull out of a Hat?
  84. 84Can You Defend Your Trivia Knowledge?
  85. 85Can You Squeeze the Heart?
  86. 86Can You Bounce a Ball Like an AI?
  87. 87Can You Spin the Graph?
  88. 88Can You Hop to the Lily Pad?
  89. 89Can You Break the Bell Curve?
  90. 90Can You Survive Squid Game (Season 2)?
  91. 91Can You Squeeze the Sheets?
  92. 92Can You Survive “The Floor”?
  93. 93Can You Squeeze the Particles Into the Box?
  94. 94Did xkcd Get Its Math Right?
  95. 95Can You Fold the Hexagon?
  96. 96Where Will the Sorting Hat Put You?
  97. 97Can You Solve the Tricky Mathematical Treat?
  98. 98Can You Make the Biggest Bread Bowl?
  99. 99How Many Dice Can You Roll the Same?
  100. 100Can You Win at “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock”?
  101. 101Can You Make a Toilet Paper Roll?
  102. 102Can You Shut the Box?
  103. 103Can You Turn a Right Triangle Into an Isosceles Triangle?
  104. 104Round, Round, Get a Round, I Get a Round
  105. 105How High Can You Jump?
  106. 106Can You Hack Gymnastics?
  107. 107Can You Even the Odds?
  108. 108Can You Catch the Breakaway?
  109. 109Can You Fail to Lose the Tennis Match?
  110. 110Can You Find a Matching Pair of Socks (Again)?
  111. 111How Many Ways Can You Tile the Tilted Square?
  112. 112Can You Pack the Circles?
  113. 113Can You Ace the Technical Interview?
  114. 114Can You Win at Non-Traditional Blackjack?
  115. 115When Is a Triangle Like a Circle?
  116. 116Can You Solve a High Schooler’s Favorite Puzzle?
  117. 117Can You Beat the Heats?
  118. 118Can You Play ‘The Price Is Right’ Continuously?
  119. 119Can You Win the Collaborative Card Game?
  120. 120Can You Eclipse via Ellipse?
  121. 121Can You Paint by Number?
  122. 122Can You Pour the Water?
  123. 123Can You Survive March Madness?
  124. 124Can You Save the Pizza?
  125. 125Can You Fairly Cut the Birthday Cake?
  126. 126Could You Have Won the Super Bowl?
  127. 127Can You Sum Some Cards?
  128. 128How Many Loops Can You Slither Around?
  129. 129How Many Times Can You Add Up the Digits?
  130. 130Can You Race Across the Chess Board?
  131. 131Can You Roll the Dungeon Master’s Dice?
  132. 132Don’t Flip Out!
  133. 133Can You Make the Connection?
  134. 134Can You Race Around the Monopoly Board?
  135. 135Can You Flip the Coins Exactly as You’d Expect?
  136. 136Can You Squeeze Your Quads?
  137. 137Iceberg, Right Ahead!
  138. 138How Long Would It Take to Pick a Speaker at Random?
  139. 139Can You Ride out the Slow Car Chase?
  140. 140Can You Throw the Card Game?
  141. 141Can You Figure the Factorial Numbers?
  142. 142Can You Light Up the Pinball Machine?
  143. 143Can You Shape the Peloton?
  144. 144How Likely Is a Lopsided League?
  145. 145Can You Bob and Weave?
  146. 146Can You Bet Solely on Your Team’s Record?
  147. 147Can You Set a Winning Baseball Lineup?
  148. 148Can You See the Forest for the Trees?
  149. 149How Many Ways Can You Raise the Dots?
  150. 150Can You Make Something out of Nothing?
  151. 151Can You Survive Another Squid Game?
  152. 152Can You Order the Operations?
  153. 153Can You Escape the Infinite Loop?