Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Puzzle of the Day

Below is a list of scores from a fictitious college basketball season. Based on the given scores only, if Kansas State were to play Tulane during this particular season, who would win and by how much?
Tulane 83 New Mexico 69
Kansas State 93 Northern Iowa 92
New Mexico 95 Northwestern 91
Northern Iowa 101 California 98
Northwestern 62 Boston College 59
California 79 Minnesota 75
Minnesota 88 Boston College 56

6 comments:

Chiemi said...

This one is way over my head. I don't even know where to start. Someone what to give me a hint? Pretty please. :)

Kellie said...

I TOTALLY agree, Chiemi! I was trying to see if there was a pattern, or if I should try to configure some sort of average... but nothing was working. I guess I need some tutoring. I got an F on this one! :)

ChristyVoltron said...

You have to work out how much the teams lost or won with the teams that they played in common. For example, if Tulane beat UCLA by 5 points and Washington lost to UCLA by 10 points the Tulane would beat Washington by 15 points.

Jennie said...

I'm going to guess that Kansas State wins by 10 because these puzzles aren't usually filled with math. It's probably too easy an answer...but there you are.

ChristyVoltron said...

Kansas State would beat Tulane by 19 points.
A. Minnesota beat Boston College by 32 points and Northwestern beat Boston College by 3 points. If Minnesota were to play Northwestern, they would win by 29 points.
B. New Mexico beat Northwestern by 4 points and since Minnesota would have beaten Northwestern by 29 points, they would beat New Mexico by 25 points.
C. Tulane beat New Mexico by 14 points, so Minnesota would beat Tulane by 11 points.
BUT
D. California beat Minnesota by 4 points, so California would beat Tulane by 15 points.
E. Northern Iowa beat California by 3 points, so Northern Iowa would beat Tulane by 18 points.
F. Finally, Kansas State beat Northern Iowa by 1 point, so Kansas State would beat Tulane by 19 points.

Chiemi said...

I have the answer right here and I still don't get it.