The question “How old are you?” or “How old is he (or she)?” actually has more than one type of answer, depending on the individual concerned. For instance, you, the readers of this webpage, will probably reply with statements like “I’m 14 years old”, or “I’ll be 25 next month”. (Scroll to the bottom of [...]
Background As each calendar year comes to an end and a new year approaches, we often see two special symbols in the media getting ready for the big partying that goes on December 31-January 1. One is the little Baby New Year, all decked out in his diaper and top hat. The other is old [...]
Once upon a time there was a young man named Robert Appleson. He lived in a place called Appleland. It was famous for growing delicious red apples. Robert, who was known as Bobby to all his friends, had the largest apple orchard in all of Appleland. Everyone loved his apples, including the family of forty [...]
INTRODUCTION A popular category of puzzle-problems often involves something like the following: What is the 1998th digit in the decimal expansion of the fraction 1/7? Or here’s another one that involves a more basic idea: What is the 1000th digit of this sequence: 1234567891011121314151617… ? In another context, I have seen a problem like this [...]