Installment one of "Question of the Week": Matthew Prins' weeklish (maybe) series of answerable questions, probably mathematical in nature
(Let me know if you like this idea or not. Unless you don't, in which case don't let me know, because my fragile psyche can't handle a blow as striking as that.)
I was thinking about football, and it occurred to me that other than the number 1, every other positive integer can be scored by a football team. (Hypothetically.) Any even number x can be scored by getting x/2 safeties, and any odd number x can be scored by getting one field goal and (x-3)/2 safeties.
Thus, a progressively more difficult three-part question:
a) Given a game where the only two ways to score give a team 5 points and 7 points, what is the highest integer score that is not possible to get?
b) Given a game where the only three ways to score give a team 17 points, 23 points and 27 points, what is the highest integer score that is not possible to get?
c) Given a game where the only two ways to score give a team x points and y points, where x and y are relatively prime, what is the highest integer score that is not possible to get?
Send your answers to mdprins@yahoo.com. The winner will get something suitably cool.
oh so lovingly written by
Matthew |
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
