How Much Of Yourself Can You See In A Mirror?

This week ’s puzzle is a hardheaded one ; you’re able to solve it with pen and paper , but it ’s a mint more fun to try this genuine - world phenomenon for yourself .

Sunday Puzzle #14: How Much Of Yourself Can You See In A Mirror?

Imagine you are stand before a small wall - mirror . This is no funhouse mirror ; it is utterly 2-dimensional , and mounted flush with the vertical wall on which it hang . How much of yourself do you see in the mirror ? What if you take a few step backward , away from the mirror ? Can you see more of yourself ? Less of yourself ? How bighearted of a mirror would you need to see your integral head reflected back at you , at a given aloofness ? How big of a mirror would you need to see your entire consistency reflected back at you ? ( Bear in head : The mirror depicted in the nontextual matter at the top of this post has not been pull to scale . )

We ’ll be back next week with the solution – and a new puzzle ! Got a heavy brainteaser , original or otherwise , that you ’d like to see featured?E - mail me with your recommendations.(Be sure to include “ Sunday Puzzle ” in the dependent blood . )

UPDATE : The solvent to this puzzle has been postedhere .

Art by Tara Jacoby

SOLUTION To Sunday Puzzle #13: Mathematical Poetry

Last week , I showed you the following mathematical equivalence . Said equation is already balanced ; the measure on both sides of the peer sign is 81 :

What ’s interesting about this equation , however , is n’t that it ’s balanced , but what it sounds like when register loud . This expression , it turns out , is a numerical limerick . When show aloud , it equal the verse scheme of a five - seam limerick . ( AABBA ) . But there ’s a bit of a twist .

A dozen , a gross , and a scorePlus three prison term the square root of fourDivided by sevenPlus five times elevenIs nine squared and not a bit more . This particular mathematical limerick was created by British wordplay expert Leigh Mercer ( perhaps best known for write the palindrome “ A man , a program , a epithelial duct — Panama ! ” ) , and originally appeared in a 1980 issue of Word Ways . Find more mathematical limerickshere .