Gifts for economists, 2011
What would you get an economist as a gift? Each year on this blog I have tackled this question, and here are the three previous guides: –Gifts for economists, 2008 –Gifts for economists, 2009 –Gifts for economists, 2010 You should check out those lists, which are still full of good ideas that I do not ...

Video: When not knowing math can cost you $15,000
Game shows occasionally ask math questions, and it is always amusing to see if contestants can answer them. What follows is a clip from the show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." The contestant had already won $1,000, and he could win an extra $15,000 by getting the question right. The question ...

7 tips for working while sick
In a perfect world, no one would have to work while sick. Everyone could take rest and return to work once fully recovered. But in reality, most of us have to work at least a little bit while we are sick. There is a lot of financial pressure to work. Nearly ...

Alice and Bob play chess – a logic puzzle
Even if you don't like chess, you can appreciate today's puzzle. The problem does involve playing chess, but at its heart, the problem is a logic puzzle. Here is the setup:

Puzzle: a Christmas probability
This year Christmas will fall on a Sunday, but last year Christmas happened on a Saturday, and in general, the day can change from year to year. Because of the way dates rotate, you might think that Christmas can fall on every day of the week with equal probability. But in ...

A math tip for calculating change
I normally use calculators for my computations. But occasionally it helps to be able to do some mental math, say if you are going cash-only and want to verify you got the correct change quickly. This post is about a small tip that can help with calculating change. I first want ...

Denny’s math commercial
I have a soft spot for TV commercials that mention math, as you may recall from my post about Little Caesar's pizza topping combinations. I recently came across a commercial for Denny's that also brings up a math problem involving combinations. It's a much easier problem but I still found it ...