Publications by Quoc Tran
2020-07-10-Classic
Riddler Classic By Zach Wissner-Gross From Austin Shapiro comes a story of stacking that may stump you: Mira has a toy with five rings of different diameters and a tapered column. Each ring has a “correct” position on the column, from the largest ring that fits snugly at the bottom to the smallest ring that fits snugly at the top. Each ring ...
1776 sym R (3540 sym/6 pcs) 2 img
2020-07-13-Express
Riddler Classic By Zach Wissner-Gross It’s summertime and my local swimming pool, which has exactly five swimming lanes (and no general swim area), may be opening in the coming weeks. It remains unclear what social distancing practices will be required, but it’s quite possible that swimmers will not be allowed to occupy adjacent lanes. Under...
2121 sym R (1508 sym/10 pcs) 5 img
2020-08-14-Classic
Riddler Classic By Zach Wissner-Gross From Angela Zhou comes one riddle to rule them all: The Riddler Manufacturing Company makes all sorts of mathematical tools: compasses, protractors, slide rules — you name it! Recently, there was an issue with the production of foot-long rulers. It seems that each ruler was accidentally sliced at three ran...
854 sym R (4252 sym/8 pcs) 1 img
2020-09-18-Classic
Riddler Classic By Zach Wissner-Gross From Oliver Roeder, who knows a thing or two about riddles, comes a labyrinthine matter of lexicons: One of Ollie’s favorite online games is Guess My Word. Each day, there is a secret word, and you try to guess it as efficiently as possible by typing in other words. After each guess, you are told whether t...
3001 sym R (1829 sym/10 pcs) 2 img
2020-09-11-Classic
Riddler Classic By Zach Wissner-Gross This month, the Tour de France is back, and so is the Tour de FiveThirtyEight For every mountain in the Tour de FiveThirtyEight, the first few riders to reach the summit are awarded points. The rider with the most such points at the end of the Tour is named “King of the Mountains” and gets to wear a spec...
2816 sym R (758 sym/2 pcs)
2020-10-23-Classic
Riddler Classic By Zach Wissner-Gross Now that LeBron James and Anthony Davis have restored the Los Angeles Lakers to glory with their recent victory in the NBA Finals, suppose they decide to play a game of sudden-death, one-on-one basketball. They’ll flip a coin to see which of them has first possession, and whoever makes the first basket win...
2804 sym R (3391 sym/8 pcs) 2 img
2020-12-18-Classic
Riddler Classic By Zach Wissner-Gross From Keith Wynroe comes an epic power battle that is sure to wear you down: The Game of Attrition has two players, each of whom starts with a whole number of “power points.” Players take turns “attacking” each other, which involves subtracting their own number of power points from their opponent’s ...
1902 sym R (1068 sym/4 pcs) 1 img
2020-10-30-Classic
Riddler Classic By Zach Wissner-Gross From Ricky Jacobson comes a party game that’s just in time for Halloween: Instead of playing hot potato, you and 60 of your closest friends decide to play a socially distanced game of hot pumpkin. Before the game starts, you all sit in a circle and agree on a positive integer N. Once the number has been ch...
2403 sym R (1405 sym/7 pcs)
2020-11-20-Classic
Riddler Classic By Zach Wissner-Gross From Patrick Lopatto comes a riddle we can all be thankful for: To celebrate Thanksgiving, you and 19 of your family members are seated at a circular table (socially distanced, of course). Everyone at the table would like a helping of cranberry sauce, which happens to be in front of you at the moment. Instea...
3184 sym R (1554 sym/4 pcs) 1 img
2021-01-08-Classic
Riddler Classic By Zach Wissner-Gross Robin of Foxley has entered the FiveThirtyEight archery tournament. Her aim is excellent (relatively speaking), as she is guaranteed to hit the circular target, which has no subdivisions — it’s just one big circle. However, her arrows are equally likely to hit each location within the target. Her true lo...
1635 sym R (882 sym/6 pcs)