bodner088

While strolling through cyberspace via search engine , I came across some nifty word problems involving mixtures or solutions . These are my favorite types of algebra problems because there solutions require solutions. I can't seem to get enough irony (or wordplay) - I might be anemic. These are great problems to try to do in your head (visualize containers and the pouring process) if the math is easy enough. There are great fun, highly gratifying, and wonderful brain-trainers -- not only for algebraic reasoning, i.e., find the missing number, but for improving your ability to visualize.  That's right. The Braintenance Blog is offering our adherents (those who stick with us or to us) two benefits for the price of one. In fact, if we wanted to keep this sale in proportion we'd have to offer four benefits for the price of two; or three benefits for the price of one and a half; or (let's get crazy) one whole benefit at half price... do you see where I'm going? Here...

The mind secretly craves paradoxes that defy reconciliation. These little pieces of self conflictory speech are to the mind what a painting by M.C. Escher is to the the eye. Some Paradoxes get the mind running iteratively to the point of exhaustion, but not a single revolution of mental turnover is wasted . The mere cycles make the mind more resilient, the imagination more expansive, the ability to visualize keener, and general problem-solving skills more powerful. The mind strives for stability -- a one-root solution -- but is stimulated by the exercise of arriving at the point of stability through its own internal logical machinations. From a more mysterious and possibly sinister perspective, the mental fatigue caused by repetitive anti-logic and the essential bouncing from wall to wall effect can put the mind into a trance-like or increasingly suggestible state. This is excellent for meditation, but under certain controlled circumstances, it can provide an opening for elem...

The number Pi is a mathematical constant . It represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter . If you divide the circumference of any circle (or perfectly-formed, hand-tossed pizza) by its diameter (the measure of a straight line cutting the pizza in half), you will get Pi, which is equal to 22/7, or approximately 3.14. Now let's review Fabian's quandary, from a couple of days ago... Background : Fabian Focaccia (not his real name, which is Sal Monella)  is a struggling 'artist' who is working at a neighborhood pizzeria in Brooklyn, New York (not his real location, as he is in the Federal Witness Protection Program , but which is still the best geographical location to make a pizza purchase if you/ youse should ever get around to it) to pay his bills until he can sell one of his paintings. He is faced with a decision and needs your help. He has cardboard boxes for 'take out' pizza (this pizza parlor does a big take-out busines...

A riddle is a word puzzle which is designed to challenge (i.e., exercise) your mind. You use memory, associative intelligence, logic, vocabulary, semantics and a variety of other skills, all in motion at the same time in order to "solve" a riddle. I'll provide you with some mind-expanding (and highly-entertaining) riddle links at the end of this post. You sharpen your intellectual and verbal skill sets (together! yes!) every time you work through one of these cunning conundrums [ hey...isn't that alliteration he's using ?]. Douglas E Castle (my third-person, holier-than-thou-sounding eponymous alter-ego) prescribes at least one to five good challenging repetitions ("brain crunches," if you're Jared DiCarmine, or some other rising star in the fitness guru firmament) daily. Following are two horrific examples of genuinely groan-worthy mind-poppers {you may wish to have children and persons with cardiac conditions or a propensity toward seizures leave...