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by Dave Youngs
This month's Puzzle
Corner is a modification of one of the many match stick puzzles that abound
in books on recreational mathematics. This particular puzzle comes from the
collection of the great British mathematician and puzzlist, H. E. Dudeney (
1847- 1930). As has been previously noted in this column, there was a tremendous
interest in puzzles that could almost be described as puzzle mania around
the turn of the last century. This puzzle mania swept Asia, North America, and
Europe. Newspapers and magazines carried various mathematical puzzles like the
ones that regularly appear in this column in addition to the more traditional
crosswords and word jumbles. Since things like radio, television, and video
games were pastimes of the future, many people occupied their hands and minds
with puzzles like the one presented here.
As with many match
stick puzzles, there is a story to go with Penning a Half-Dozen. This
story explains that a farmer had a sheep pen made of 13 identical fence pieces
which enclosed six sheep pens all of identical shape and size (as pictured on
the student page using toothpicks). One night a thief stole one of the fence
pieces, leaving the farmer with only 12. How can the farmer rebuild the sheep
pens so that there are still six pens of identical shape and size! All of the
fence pieces must be used without overlapping or cutting any of them.
This is the challenge
with which your students are faced as they solve this problem - to create six
equal- sized shapes using 12 toothpicks. Emphasize that they do not need to
double up or overlap the toothpicks in any way to correctly solve this. I would
encourage you to have your students work on this problem independently so that
they can all experience the joy of discovering the solution.
Worksheet
I hope you and
your students enjoy this puzzle. |
