Spring 2016 POTW #5: Check (Your Work), Please!

Solutions due by Sunday, April 24, 2016.

This is the final POTW of the year! We will be awarding prizes for yearlong standings at an Emmanuel Math Department event at 4:30 pm on Thursday, April 28, 2016 (which is also Senior Distinction Day). At the same time, we will be inducting members of the graduating class into the mathematics honor society Pi Mu Epsilon. Emmanuel folks, please join us in celebrating the outstanding achievements of our seniors and you, the puzzlers!

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The 6 members of the Emmanuel Math Department recently went out to a celebratory dinner. When it came time to pay the bill, they discovered a few curiosities:

• Everyone except Brendan owed exactly the same amount for their meal.
• Brendan was an extravagant spender: His meal cost $10 more than twice the average of everyone's cost.
• Meanwhile, each other person's meal cost $10 more than half the average of everyone's cost.

What was the total bill for everyone, and how much did Brendan's meal cost?

Fall 2015 POTW #7: Emmanuel Fay Cult

Solutions due by midnight on Sunday, November 22, 2015.

Last week, the World Scrabble Championships happened in Australia. It just so happens that a few of my friends participated in the event and did very well! Specifically, congrats to Evan, John, Jesse, Dave, and Chris. They all placed in the Top 40 and deserve recognition; congratulations, all of you!

I used to play in Scrabble tournaments myself. The folks I met in that world have gone on to achieve marvelous things; in honor of them, this week's puzzle is based on anagrams.

Specifically, each answer here is the last name of a professor/lecturer at Emmanuel College. The names are clued by revealing a specific two word phrase which you must then anagram into someone's name. To help you, I have included the department in which the professor/lecturer works at EC, and I have tried to make the phrasal clues as transparent as possible (without being so revealing as to be uninteresting).

You may use the following website, which lists faculty at Emmanuel College, as a resource: http://www.emmanuel.edu/academics/our-faculty.html . Of course, you may use any other resource you wish, as well; part of the point of this puzzle is to get you to think and do some research. (Don't necessarily feel like you should be able to answer these questions off the top of your head!)

Keep in mind: Each clue reveals a two word phrase which then anagrams to the last name of someone on the list in the website link above; your answer should be the last name of the professor/lecturer clued.

For example, if the clue were, "This history professor has 2000 pounds of evergreens", the answer would be FORTIN since TON FIR anagrams to FORTIN.

I will award 2.5 points for each correct answer.

What is your name (or team name)?
(Please use the same name every week so that I can properly record your scores!)

(1) This math professor has caused TV and radio to report on a specific happening.


(2) This chemistry professor's rally cry might be translated as, "Huzzah, geek!"


(3) This education professor drinks a juniper liquor from a place where you pay for a nightly stay.


(4) This political science professor has a limb made from the element with atomic number 50.

Puzzle: Another encounter with Logic Club

Submissions to this puzzle are due by midnight on Sunday March 29.

(See sidebar for submission rules: email sullivanb@emmanuel.edu)

To join Logic Club, you must decide to always tell the truth or always lie. Members of Logic Club know who among them are Liars and who are Truthers, and they always follow the rules according to their role.

It just so happens that the Math Department faculty are members of Logic Club! You're on your way to find Ben, and you bump into Todd and Patterson standing outside Ben's office.

• You ask them both: "Is Ben in his office now?"
• Todd replies: "Ben is here and Ben is a Liar."
• Patterson replies: "Ben isn't here and Ben is a Liar."
• At that moment, Ben pokes his head out of his office and says: "Hey, I heard you guys! Todd is a Liar!"
• Paterson chimes in again: "Yeah, that's right; Todd is a Liar."

What are the roles of Todd, Patterson, and Ben?

Which are Truthers and which are Liars?

Puzzle: An encounter with Logic Club

Submissions to this puzzle are due by midnight on Sunday March 22.

(See sidebar for submission rules: email sullivanb@emmanuel.edu)

To join Logic Club, you must decide to always tell the truth or always lie. Members of Logic Club know who among them are Liars and who are Truthers, and they always follow the rules according to their role.

It just so happens that the Math Department faculty are members of Logic Club! You meet three of them -- Yulia, Brendan, and Christine -- in the hallway one day and decide that you want to determine each of their roles, Truther or Liar.

• You ask Yulia: "What is your role in Logic Club?"
• She answers in Russian, so you cannot understand!
• You turn to Brendan and ask: "What did Yulia say?"
  Brendan replies: "Oh, she just said that she is a Liar."
• Yulia chimes in (in English) to say: "That's correct."
• But Christine jumps in to say: "Wait, don't believe them; they're both Liars!"

What are the roles of Yulia, Brendan, and Christine?

Which are Truthers and which are Liars?