NotCH 1: Maths Masters Quizzes

More or less by accident, this post is the beginning of a new series: Not Crap Here.

A couple of people have suggested that we could occasionally include Dr. Jekyll material on this blog. You know, helpful stuff. It’s a decent idea, if our current thoughts weren’t so influenced by misanthropic disgust and murderous rage. Still, we’ve received two specific requests for the same old Jekyll material,* and which entailed some digging. Having finally dug, we’ve decided to post the material here, for whomever is interested. Whether or not there will ever be a NotCH 2 is anybody’s guess.

As many readers will know, for a number of years we cowrote with the Evil Mathologre the Age Maths Masters column. Our final column each year was a quiz, consisting of thirty Easy-Medium-Hard puzzles. These quizzes were rush jobs and were hardly masterpieces of Dudeney-Loyd creation (or theft). Still, the quizzes seemed to be well-received. In any case, we’ve finally dug them up and somewhat sorted them.

Below, are the quizzes, the short answers and the solutions for each year from 2008 to 2013. The files are in PDF format, and the whole package is collected as one zip file. In general, the puzzles are what they are, and we have no interest in amending them, updating embedded (and irrelevant) links, and so forth. But of course anyone believing a puzzle or solution is in error is welcome and encouraged to make criticisms in the comments.

Teachers, parents, anyones are free to use the quizzes as they see fit, and no acknowledgement of this blog is required or expected. Thus, impressionable youth may enjoy the puzzles with no danger of being contaminated by bad language or unvarnished truth.

Have fun.

*) The first such request was in November 2019, i.e. pre-pandemic. Remember that? We replied to the requester that we would get back to them “soon”. On that point, requests are genuinely welcome, but people making such requests should keep in mind the implicit definition here of “soon”. The definition of “in a while” is a puzzle left for the reader, whose solution may benefit from a logarithmic scale.

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(04/01/22 – links changed to the zip file and 2008 quizzes, to correct some file names)

All Quizzes, Answers and Solutions – zip file (25MB)

2013 – Quiz, Answers and Solutions (Easy, Medium, Hard)

2012 – Quiz, Answers and Solutions (Easy, Medium, Hard)

2011 – Quiz, Answers and Solutions (Easy, Medium, Hard)

2010 – Quiz, Answers and Solutions (Easy, Medium, Hard)

2009 – Quiz, Answers and Solutions (Easy, Medium, Hard)

2008 – Quiz Part A and Quiz Part B (newspaper scans), Answers and Solutions (Easy, Medium, Hard)