Whilst sitting one evening looking through lists of Listener, Tough Crosswords and Magpie mathematical puzzles wondering where my next puzzle for The Magpie would come from and listening to the greatest keyboard player in rock and roll Keith Emerson molesting his Hammond by sticking knives in it I was struck that WORD SUMS had not been used for some considerable time. (more…)
Inspiration for puzzles comes from many sources - whether it be a sidelong glance in a reference book, or a more determined review of thematic material - mine simply came from a Christmas shopping trip. Any solver who has ever visited Winchester (my home city) may have turned off the high street at the Butter Cross, walked between the two pasty shops (or into them, in my case), and (more…)
This photograph was taken in the Chobe national park in Botswana in early May 2008. If you look closely in the branches of the tree, you might be able to make out a rare migrant visitor, the pica pica, or Magpie. This one has been caught and tagged - just the 65th such individual known to science. (more…)
Here is one of the esteemed Magpie editors, Simon Anthony (right) and one of our esteemed subscribers, David McNeill (left) warming up for some Magpie solving at the World Sudoku Championships in Goa (more…)
Owing to a combination of misfortune and ineptitude, the web site was unavailable from Monday the 14th of April until the middle of Tuesday the 15th. (more…)
We’re always on the lookout for new ways to improve the Magpie, and we recently managed to secure the services of a business manager with an excellent reputation. He is Adolf Y Polaris, of AIST in the City. This addition to the Magpie team fills a crucial gap in terms of market awareness and customer focus. Here’s how he sets out his mission for the coming months: (more…)
The stats for issue 61 are available to logged-in users now. Just click on the “Stats” link at the top. (more…)
We’re pleased with the response we’ve had from subscribers after our first complete cycle from puzzle publication to solution publication in the new format. Thanks for all the feedback.
As a way of answering some of the questions that are often asked (and some that we thought ought to be asked), we’ve added considerably to the “Help” page, which can be accessed via a link in the top menu if you are logged in.
Hopefully if you have questions they will mostly be answered there. Otherwise, feel free to e-mail us.
I’ve been a fan of John Horton Conway’s “Game of Life” since it was first publicised by Martin Gardner in Scientific American in October 1970. That such interesting patterns and effects could arise from extremely simple rules fascinated me. At that time, the best you could do with a “Life” computer program was to output its results, generation by generation, to a line printer. Not very inspiring! But this all changed (more…)
The first version of this puzzle was quite different from the one that was published. A few years ago I think I read an article in which multiplications were performed from left to right and the wrong answer ensued! The title of the Dylan track The Times They-Are-A Changin’ was too good an opportunity to miss and so about a year ago I tried to relocate the article amongst my many books and journals and failed dismally! This resulted in my making up my own version in which the multiplication was done from left to right with the tens digit being put down and the units digit as the carry. In order to illustrate this I intended (more…)
