I commented in the recent Scrabble Dictionary thread that Marilyn Vos
Savant tends to include unstated, but vital, assumptions in her
problems, apparently without realizing it. My local newspaper does
not include Parade magazine, for which I am grateful, but the thread
provoked me to check out some of her recent columns online. I didn't
have to go far to fine a similar unstated assumption. From April 13,
2008:
"Say I collect gold coins. One day, my wife asks, "How many do we
have?" I say, "If I divide the coins into two groups, then 33 times
the difference between the number of coins in each group equals the
difference between the squares of the two numbers." How many coins do
we have?"
I won't spoil the intended answer for those who enjoy junior high
algebra. But note that the possible solutions are infinite, since
there is nothing in the problem that states the two groups must be of
different size.
Richard R. Hershberger
|
