Skip to main content

Solving Car Talk Puzzlers with Python

If you're not familiar with Car Talk, it's a horrible talk radio show hosted by Tom and Ray Magliozzi (aka Click and Clack the Tappet brothers). Every week there is a new puzzler and every so often it's math oriented. After hearing this week's mathy puzzler, I thought it would be fun to dig into the archives (2009 and 2008) and try solving a few of them in Python. Here's what I came up with:
# 2008-10-20 The Perfect Square Dance!
import itertools, math

for numbers in itertools.permutations(range(1, 19)):
for a, b in zip(numbers[::2], numbers[1::2]):
sqrt = math.sqrt(a + b)
if not str(sqrt).endswith('.0'):
break
if a == 1:
sallys_partner = b
elif b == 1:
sallys_partner = a
else:
print 'Sally danced with %d' % sallys_partner
break

# 2008-10-27 One is the Magic Number
print ''.join(str(n) for n in xrange(0, 1000000)).count('1')

# 2008-12-08 It's Math Time!
for ab in xrange(10, 100):
cab = ab ** 2
if str(cab)[1:] == str(ab):
print cab
break

# 2009-05-26 Equate This!
from __future__ import division # Avoids truncation.
import random

numbers = [2, 3, 4, 5]
operations = ['*', '**', '+', '-', '/']

while True:
random.shuffle(numbers)
random.shuffle(operations)
equation = ''
for i, number in enumerate(numbers):
equation += str(number)
if i < len(numbers) - 1:
equation += operations[i]
result = eval(equation)
if result == 26:
print equation
break

# 2009-06-08 Number One
print len([n for n in xrange(0, 1000000) if '1' not in str(n)])
I'd like to see someone good with Ruby, Perl, or Lua do the same so we can compare solutions.

Popular posts from this blog

Python on Android

Note: This post is out of date. If you'd like to run Python on your Android device, please see my Android Scripting Environment project. Here's an early Christmas present for all those Python fanatics (self included) out there! With a lot of help from my friends (thanks Manuel and Thomas !) I managed to install Python 2.4.5 on my G1. It's still rough around the edges, but I think it's a good start. Klaus Reimer has a nice overview of how to cross-compile Python . My instructions borrow a lot from his. Download and build the Android source . These directions assume that you have installed the source to /android_src . Download and build the Python 2.4.5 source . These directions assume that you have installed the source to /python_src . Make copies of python and pgen for use later in the build process then clean up. $ cd /python_src $ cp python hostpython $ cp Parser/pgen Parser/hostpgen $ make distclean Apply the following patch to the Python source. diff -r -c -b P...
Read more

Email Injection

Not so long ago, I ran a wiki called SecurePHP. On that wiki, there was one particular article about email injection that received a lot of attention. Naturally, with all the attention came lots of spam. As a result, I disabled editing of the wiki and content stagnated. Still, the email injection article remained popular. About a year later, the server that hosted SecurePHP died and I never had a chance to hook it all back up. I saved the article though and I'm reposting it now. It may be a bit old (I've been away from PHP for a long time), and I didn't write all of it, so feel free to leave comments about needed updates and corrections. Though this article focuses on PHP, it provides a lot of general information regarding email injection attacks. The PHP mail() Function There are a lot of ways to send anonymous emails, some use it to mass mail, some use it to spoof identity, and some (a few) use it to send email anonymously. Usually a web mailform using the mail() funct...
Read more

Review of Fable III

Damon says : Fable III is the most disappointing sequel since The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull . Laura says : I was disappointed. The worst part was that the game was okay - maybe a 6/10 or 7/10 thanks to the Darkness Incarnate quest. It wasn't great, but it wasn't so poor that I felt I could legitimately hate it. The graphics are fun if cartoony, the sound is good, the gameplay is easy , the customization is almost non-existent, and the story is mediocre at best and boring at worst. Oh, and for some of the achievements you need an Xbox Live account, which annoys me to no end. The environment in Fable III is as rich as ever. Plenty of different regions, all with different climates, peopled by various citizens/denizens/enemies that change as you play. As always, the people of Albion are incredibly chatty, but since Lionhead seems to have supplemented the new stuff they recorded with all the random NPC comments from Fable II, there is enough variation to not driv...
Read more