mscroggs.co.uk
mscroggs.co.uk

subscribe

Sunday Afternoon Maths XLII

 Posted on 2015-04-19 

The taxman

In a very strange country, the tax system works as follows.
£1, £2, £3 up to £12 are available.
You pick an amount. You keep this amount, but the taxman takes any factors of it. You cannot pick any amount without a factor.
This continues until you can take no more money. The taxman gets any remaining money.
For example, you might play as follows:
In this example, you end with £22 and the taxman ends with £56.
Is it possible to get more money than the taxman? What is the most you can get?

Show answer & extension

Tags: numbers, money
If you enjoyed these puzzles, check out Advent calendar 2023,
puzzles about folding tube maps, or a random puzzle.

Archive

Show me a random puzzle
 Most recent collections 

Advent calendar 2023

Advent calendar 2022

Advent calendar 2021

Advent calendar 2020


List of all puzzles

Tags

the only crossnumber axes pascal's triangle dice clocks cubics integration albgebra digital clocks digital products symmetry percentages advent star numbers cryptic crossnumbers coordinates wordplay shapes expansions books sequences money consecutive numbers floors lines rectangles division consecutive integers balancing dominos 2d shapes unit fractions surds calculus circles graphs cryptic clues tournaments number palindromes ellipses addition proportion taxicab geometry differentiation squares median probability mean fractions sums decahedra sum to infinity perimeter area bases remainders logic hexagons menace cards multiples functions routes elections partitions sport square numbers indices chess polygons geometric means digits dodecagons 3d shapes pentagons geometry triangles probabilty polynomials parabolas combinatorics factors determinants binary speed range shape regular shapes irreducible numbers matrices angles crossnumber triangle numbers planes cube numbers quadrilaterals christmas multiplication games colouring spheres grids chalkdust crossnumber coins quadratics prime numbers integers numbers crossnumbers algebra doubling tangents time gerrymandering people maths perfect numbers trigonometry square roots chocolate dates even numbers arrows scales means folding tube maps products factorials ave sets volume tiling geometric mean rugby crosswords odd numbers averages complex numbers

Archive

Show me a random puzzle
▼ show ▼
© Matthew Scroggs 2012–2024