The Handy Math Answer Book

has to piece together what actually hap- pened by using clear and logical thinking (thus the name). One of the most famous logic ...

What is an example of a logic puzzle? M ost of us have encountered logic puzzles before, usually on mathematics tests given in g ...

Of course, there are some mathematicians who can’t leave well enough alone, and have calculated the total number of cats, kits, ...

Using a 52-card deck as an example, the odds of drawing a king from the deck are 1 in 12—or 4:(52 4) 4:48, which equals 1:12. ...

On the other hand, odds are expressed as the number of chances for (or against) versus the number of chances against (or for). T ...

CARD AND DICE GAMES What are card games? A collection of cards (or a deck) is a set of nrectangular pieces, usually made of heav ...

In five-card pokerthe probability of drawing a royal flush (a poker hand with the ace, king, queen, jack, and 10 all in the same ...

slightly less than the true odds of win- ning the game. There are definitely exceptions to this rule, which is why there are pro ...

SPORTS NUMBERS What is sabermetrics? Sabermetrics is the study of baseball using objective evidence, such as baseball statis- ti ...

a good measure of a hitter’s ability. This statistic combines getting on-base (on-base percentage, or OBP) and advancing runners ...

League ranks this at 70 percent in completions, 10 percent in touchdowns, 1.5 per- cent in interceptions, and 11 yards average g ...

points in order for the bettor to win. If Army wins by exactly five points, the game is called a “push,” and no one wins. How do ...

For example, a person chooses the number 25 and keeps that number to him- or herself. Ask the person to com- pute 3 n. (3  25 ...

accompanying illustration, the 6 on line 5 is the sum of the pair of 3’s above; the next line is 1, 10 (1 9), 45 (9 36), 120 ( ...

Figuring out how much air you breathe during a lifetime is another fun mathematical calculation. If you opti- mistically decide ...

our star 30 times. In order to work out how old a person is on another planet, the per- son’s age has to be divided by the perio ...

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(Note: The authors have diligently sought and researched the following Web site addresses, mailing addresses, and phone numbers ...

vides profiles of many working mathematicians, and lists several books about careers in mathematics. Where can I get an undergra ...

Mathematical Sciences is located at the University of Waterloo in Toronto, Canada. This is a center for mathematical research ac ...