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You are here: Home / Beers / Martin Gardner’s Beer Signs On The Highway

Martin Gardner’s Beer Signs On The Highway

October 21, 2015 By Jay Brooks

math
Today is the birthday of Martin Gardner, who was an American science and mathematics writer. For many years, beginning in 1957, he wrote a column that appeared in Scientific American. He helped popularize science, and especially math, creating hundreds of puzzles, often collected into books. He passed away in 2010, at age 95. My father-in-law was a huge fan and read most, of not all, of his books.

One of his brain teasers was called “Beer Signs on the Highway,” and originally appeared in Gardner’s column in Math Horizons, in the November 1995 issue. It was also included in the collection My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles and also New Mathematical Diversions.

my-best-mathematical-and-logic-puzzles new-diversions

So here it is:

beer-signs-on-highway

If you think you know the answer or have worked it out, leave your answer in the comments. I’ll post the answer in a couple of days. Good luck.

And the answer is? Drumroll, please:

drum_roll_please-Ringo

Could I get a proper drumroll, please?

drumroll

The Answer:

We can answer this without knowing the car’s speed. If x is the number of signs that the car passes in one minute, then the car will pass 60x signs in an hour. We’re told that the car is traveling at 10x miles per hour, so in 10x miles it will pass 60x signs, and in one mile it will pass 60x/10x signs, or 6. So the signs are 1/6 mile, or 880 feet, apart.

Filed Under: Beers, Just For Fun, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Birthdays, Math



Comments

  1. Richard Stueven says

    October 22, 2015 at 5:15 am

    1½ furlongs.

    • Dave Suurballe says

      October 22, 2015 at 12:01 pm

      Hmm, I get 1 1/3 furlongs.

  2. Jos Brouwer says

    October 22, 2015 at 2:17 pm

    That’s not metric – count me out. 0,0684 Fathom?

  3. Alec Moss says

    October 22, 2015 at 3:33 pm

    880 feet or 1-1/3 furlongs

    • Beerman49 says

      November 21, 2015 at 4:50 pm

      Alec & Dave won the virtual pint payoff tiebreaker for getting the furlong calc correct! 🙂

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