Reader\'s Digest Australia - 06.2019

132 | June• 2019

BRAIN POWER

TEST YOUR MENTAL PROWESS

Puzzles

Challenge yourself by solving these puzzles and mind stretchers,

then check your answers on page 131.

BY MARCEL DANESI

FOREST FOR THE TREESMODERATELY DIFFICULT

A spanning tree (or just a tree, for short) is a diagram made of dots and

straight lines, where every line goes between two dots, where all the dots

are connected and where there are no paths that go around in a loop.

Here are some examples:

A drawing that has several spanning trees is called a forest.

If a forest has three trees and 27 lines in it, how many dots does it have?

ARITHME-PICKEASY

Place one of the four basic arithmetic operations (+, –, ×, ÷) in each box

to m ake a correct equation. Symbols may be repeated, and you don’t have

to use all four. All operations are performed from left to right, ignoring

the m athematical order of operations. The result at each step must be

a positive whole number. What is the equation?

(THE MISSING LINK, FOREST FOR THE TREES) DARREN RIGBY; (SUDOKU) IAN RIENSCHE; (ARITHME-PICK) FRASER SIMPSON.

2 4 3 2 1 = 15