This week’s puzzle was created at the Unsolved K-12 Conference, a recent event focused on identifying 13 unsolved problems in mathematics (one problem for each grade) that could be used to spur creative thinking and collaboration in elementary school math education. (The conference was held Nov. 15-17 in Banff, Alberta.) The puzzle, which was created by conference participants and edited by frequent Numberplay contributor Joshua Zucker, is the following:
That’s it for this week’s puzzle. As always — for an optimal Numberplay experience, use Gary Hewitt‘s Comment Enhancer. Just bring up a blog post in comment view and then click here. (You may need to also click a violet box that says “Enhance.”) And send your most glittering puzzles to me at gary.antonick@nytimes.com.
Solution
Check reader comments on Friday for Joshua Zucker’s solution and thoughts on the week’s discussion.