Another Puzzle from Crack the Safe: Level 2

2/2/2021

If you enjoy these puzzles (or if you need help learning to solve them) then our new book Crack the Safe: Level 2 is now available. This new book contains 31 unique puzzles and includes full, detailed solutions.

4 Comments

Channa Comer link

3/25/2021 06:50:00 am

I ordered the complete set of GridsforKids and only received Level 4. There is no contact information anywhere on your website. Please contact me ASAP.

Thank you

The Math Profs

3/25/2021 06:58:50 am

Channa, we e-mailed you the files. And we will look into why this happened. Thanks, and Happy Puzzling!

Mattis

8/31/2021 06:53:17 am

I can't find any contact info on you guys.

I just bought the Grid for kids, and it looks great. I have never seen such thing before and I was wondering, what skills does it teach? And isn't it kind of the same effect as with Sudoku, where you get good at solving Sudoku, but nothing else? I mean is there any long term carry-over effect?

The Math Profs

8/31/2021 09:35:06 am

Our email address is in the front matter of the book you bought, but I'm sending you an email from our account, just in case you don't see it.

Excellent question regarding long term benefit! The purpose of the Grids For Kids series is to strengthen the capacity for logical reasoning. The puzzles themselves are, of course, unlike any task one is likely to see in the "real world". But the logical connections they build, and the reasoning machinery that they develop, are both highly useful in the world around us. At the higher levels in the series, the puzzle solver is actually forced to use some of the rules of formal logic, without realizing it! In other words, the solver develops a natural background in the functional use and practical application of logical reasoning, before any exposure to an abstract formal logic course.

I like to compare it to weightlifting. A man rarely comes across a situation in the "real world" that requires lying flat on a bench, slowly lowering a heavy barbell to his chest, and then pushing it back up to its starting point. However, the strong chest, shoulder, and triceps muscles that are developed by such an exercise are highly useful for a variety of "real world" activities.
In a similar way, I used to admit to my Calculus students that very few of them would actually take the precise techniques of differentiation and integration learned in class, and use them in their future jobs. However, the mental agility, reasoning, and creativity developed by tackling hard Calculus problems would later be used by almost all of them in the future.

Authors

Brian and Melanie Fulton both earned doctoral degrees in mathematics at Virginia Tech. They formerly taught math at the university level, and now run a hobby farm while accuracy-checking collegiate mathematics texts. They homeschool their four children, frequently employing the aid of chicken, dairy goat, cat, and dog tutors.

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