THE THIRD ANNUAL HOLIDAY PUZZLE!!
It’s that time of year again. It’s December! For my longtime listeners, you know what that means! For my new time listeners, I’ll fill you in. Every year I do a puzzle. And I post it on the interwebs for you to solve. The first person to solve the puzzle, and email me the correct answers, will not only receive interweb recognition, but you will also receive a $40 Amazon gift card and a complimentary Math! Science! History! sticker! That’s right, I am upping the ante from last year’s amount along with other cool stuff!
So without further ado, let’s get this party started.
Ph.D. – that’s an acronym for Permanently Have Deskface. Anybody who has gone to graduate school would understand why someone would permanently have desk face because sometimes your desk is the best place to take a nap. Actually, Ph.D. stands for Doctor of Philosophy. And this is the highest of graduate degrees that you can possibly get. Sometimes people go from their bachelor’s degree into their master’s degree and then on to their doctorate. And other times, they jump straight into their Ph.D. from their doctorate. But, whether one gets a master’s degree or a doctorate, graduate School is rigorous. Additionally, those who receive these higher degrees deserve so much respect for the amount of work they have put into their education and the extent they go to in order to make the world a smarter place!
The word doctor derives from the Latin word doctoratus. The term was first used in the Middle Ages by the Catholic Church and their universities. The Catholic Church had the authority to provide the license for teaching to those who could pass an academic test, take an oath of allegiance to the university and the church, and pay a fee. This license was and is known as the doctorate, and in Latin, that is licentia docendi.
There is debate as to where the doctorate originated from. However, in the 1930s, the British Christian Arabist Alfred Guillaume proposed that these licenses originated in Arabic education in Muslim schools in the tenth century. In Arabia academics would receive an “authorization” to teach, called the ijazah.[1]
Today the Doctor of Philosophy doesn’t just represent philosophy. The word philosophy refers to the love of wisdom. So, one can have a Doctor of Philosophy in a variety of different subjects, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, history, literature, philology, the list goes on and on. Though the first doctorates were initially awarded to only men, the first women to receive doctorates included Julianna Morell in 1608, Elena Cornaro Piscopia in 1678, and Laura Bassi in 1732.[2]
Today, in the United States, women academics outnumber men when receiving masters and doctorate degrees. In 2020, in the United States, over 40,000 doctorates were awarded to women. Yeah! Furthermore, some of these women hold multiple graduate degrees! And such is the case of the nine professors of this year’s puzzle. For the sake of the puzzle, the nine professors are fictional, and their names have been changed to protect the innocent.
With the holidays approaching, nine professors decide to get together for game night and to share gifts. However, the host, Ellen Shellstrop, forgot to inform some of the other guests that there was a gift exchange. As a result, some of the other eight professors brought gifts, and some of the other eight professors did not.
So, our cast of characters is, obviously, Ellen Shellstrop. (See what I did there?) The other eight professors include Eva Polastri, Buffy Sumners, Michelle Burnham, Annalisa Keating, Bessie Knope (it’s like the merging to two Amy Poehler characters), Mischa Hawthorne, Kimiko Miyashira, and Sophie Burset. As noted before, each of these women holds multiple advanced degrees.
PART ONE OF THE PUZZLE
Part one of the puzzle goes as follows: Sophie has more degrees than Eva. Kimiko has more degrees than Bessie but less than Annalisa. Buffy has as many degrees as Annalisa. Buffy has fewer degrees than Ellen, who has as many degrees as Eva. Both Mischa and Michelle have fewer degrees than Eva, but only one of the professors has one less than Eva. Mischa has fewer degrees than Bessie. Not one of these women has exactly seven degrees. Michelle has more degrees than Annalisa. Each of these amazing women holds from two to nine degrees. Up to this point, Ellen and Sophie have been mentioned only once.
The first part of the puzzle is to list these professors from most degrees to least degrees and write down how many degrees they each have.
Now, I was going to do a puzzle about who has the highest student debt, but I think the answer to that one is kind of obvious.
Now that we know who has the most degrees let’s play games! Ellen has set out three tables. At table one is a bag of marbles, at table two is a deck of cards, and at table three is the game Monopoly.
PART TWO! TABLE ONE!
Table one puzzle is as follows: Ellen placed five different colored marbles in a bag, which were red, green, blue, orange, and purple. There are 40 marbles in the bag. This includes 8 red marbles, 7 green marbles, 6 blue marbles, 9 orange marbles, and 10 purple marbles. She then asks the group, “What is the probability that Buffy will pull out an orange or green marble?” They all got the answer right because they are brilliant!
What do you think the answer is? In percentage please.
PART TWO! TABLE TWO!
At table two, Ellen holds out thirteen cards that are all face down. These thirteen cards hold a full suit, which is Ace through King. However, they are not in order. Ellen takes the cards, makes a deck, then takes the top card and puts it at the bottom of the deck and counts out loud “one!” She then takes the next card off the top of the deck and places it on the table face up. This card is an Ace.
She pulls two more cards off the top, one and then two, and puts them on the bottom and pulls out another card and places it on the table facing up, announcing “two!” This card is a 2.
Then, again, she pulls three more cards off the top, one, then two, then three, and puts them on the bottom of the deck, one, then two, then three. She then pulls out another card, places it on the table face up, announcing “three.” This card is a 3!
She repeats this process for numbers four through thirteen, with the Jack representing 11, the Queen representing 12, and the King representing 13. This leaves only one card left. She places the final card on the table face up, and it is a King, which is 13.
What was the original order of the deck of cards before Ellen started?
PART TWO! TABLE THREE!
Finally, they get to table three, and Ellen announces that she will go set the gifts out and make food while everybody plays a game of Monopoly. About 30 minutes go by as Ellen organizes the gifts and sets out food when she hears Michelle yell, “Bessie, you cheated! I quit!” Ellen comes running in to see what happened. Bessie announces that she landed on Park Place. Since she already had Boardwalk, she now has a monopoly. Michelle tells everybody to look at the dice. Bessie had rolled a seven to land on Park Place. How did Bessie cheat?
PART THREE! OPENING GIFTS!
Next, all the professors get up and decide to open their gifts. However, since Ellen forgot to tell everybody that there was a gift exchange, so some people did not bring gifts. Nevertheless, everybody is having a good time and decides to open gifts. Under the tree, there are 56 gifts. If each of the nine professors purchased a gift for all those at the party, how many gifts would there be?
So, the unwrapping commenced! All the professors wanted to let Ellen go first since she was so generous with the drinks, food, and gaming. Rounding up and down to solve the following puzzle, figure out how many gifts each professor received.
After Ellen opened all of her gifts, there were 47 gifts left. Michelle, Annalisa, and Bessie have the same number of gifts, which totaled almost 32% of the remaining gifts after Ellen opened hers. When added together, Sophie and Kimiko received the same number of gifts that was 60% more than Ellen received. Eva, Buffy, and Mischa each received the same number of gifts, which when added together were 30% more than what Sophie and Kimiko received. How many gifts did each professor receive? Which professor bought herself a gift?
By the time the evening was over everybody had a wonderful time! There was much partying, intelligent banter, love and friendship exchanged between all nine professors that defined the true meaning of sisterhood.
So, this is the complete puzzle! To recap, here are the answers I will need to receive:
- How many degrees does each professor have?
- What is the probability is that Buffy could pull out an orange or green marble?
- What was the original order of the deck of cards before Ellen started laying out the cards?
- How did Bessie cheat at Monopoly?
- How many gifts should have been under the tree?
- How many gifts did each professor receive?
- Who bought herself a gift?
Once you solve the puzzle, send me an email! The first person to send the correct answers to Gabrielle@mathsciencehistory.com will win a $40 Amazon gift card and a Math! Science! History! die-cut sticker. Please submit your answers along with an email where I can send you your eGift card! Please put the header “MATH SCIENCE HISTORY HOLIDAY PUZZLE 2021” in the subject so that I see it. Also, please note: if you are in another country, please let me know so that I can send a gift card that is site and currency-specific for your location.
If you’re enjoying this puzzle, I have an extra puzzle posted at Patreon for my patrons. If you would like to see it and become a Patreon patron, come on over to Patreon.com/mathsciencehistory, pick a tier and join the conversation. Depending on the tier you choose, you can receive all kinds of additional benefits and early content, including my newest Math! Science! History! sticker. Your patronage at Patreon helps to pay for my equipment and to keep the podcast up and running!
Thank you so much for playing!!
Until 2022, Carpe Diem!
Gabrielle
These puzzles were inspired by Braingle.com, World’s Most Incredible Puzzles by Charles Barry Townsend, Mathematical Puzzles by Peter Winkler, and my awesome dad John Birchak!
[1] Syed Farid Alatas, “From Jāmi’ Ah to University: Multiculturalism and Christian–Muslim Dialogue,” Current Sociology 54, no. 1 (January 1, 2006): 112–32, https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392106058837.
[2] S. Griswold Morley, “Juliana Morell: Problems,” Hispanic Review 9, no. 1 (1941): 137–50, https://doi.org/10.2307/469691.