## Fall color peak

This week’s Riddler Classic is a seasonal puzzle about leaves changing color.

The trees change color in a rather particular way. Each tree independently begins changing color at a random time between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. Then, at a random later time for each tree — between when that tree’s leaves began changing color and the winter solstice — the leaves of that tree will all fall off at once. At a certain time of year, the fraction of trees with changing leaves will peak. What is this maximal fraction?

My solution:
[Show Solution]

Another way to solve the problem, courtesy of Matthew Wallace:
[Show Solution]

## Evil twin

This week’s Riddler Classic is a pursuit problem with a twist. Here is the problem, paraphrased.

You are walking in a straight line (moving forward at all times) near a lamppost. Your evil twin begins opposite you, hidden from view by the lamppost, as illustrated in the figure below.

Assume your evil twin moves precisely twice as fast as you at all times, and they remain obscured from your view by the lamppost at all times. What is the farthest your evil twin can be from the lamppost after you’ve walked the 200 feet as shown?

Here is my solution.
[Show Solution]

## Perfect pursuit

This week’s Riddler Classic is about catching

Hames Jarrison has just intercepted a pass at one end zone of a football field, and begins running — at a constant speed of 15 miles per hour — to the other end zone, 100 yards away.

At the moment he catches the ball, you are on the very same goal line, but on the other end of the field, 50 yards away from Jarrison. Caught up in the moment, you decide you will always run directly toward Jarrison’s current position, rather than plan ahead to meet him downfield along a more strategic course.

Assuming you run at a constant speed (i.e., don’t worry about any transient acceleration), how fast must you be in order to catch Jarrison before he scores a touchdown?

Here is the solution.
[Show Solution]

For a detailed derivation (warning: calculus!) click below.
[Show Solution]

## When did the snow start?

This week’s Riddler Classic is a neat calculus problem:

One morning, it starts snowing. The snow falls at a constant rate, and it continues the rest of the day.

At noon, a snowplow begins to clear the road. The more snow there is on the ground, the slower the plow moves. In fact, the plow’s speed is inversely proportional to the depth of the snow — if you were to double the amount of snow on the ground, the plow would move half as fast.

In its first hour on the road, the plow travels 2 miles. In the second hour, the plow travels only 1 mile.

When did it start snowing?

Here is my solution:
[Show Solution]

## Cutting polygons in half

This Riddler puzzle is about cutting polygons in half. Here is the problem:

The archvillain Laser Larry threatens to imminently zap Riddler Headquarters (which, seen from above, is shaped like a regular pentagon with no courtyard or other funny business). He plans to do it with a high-powered, vertical planar ray that will slice the building exactly in half by area, as seen from above. The building is quickly evacuated, but not before in-house mathematicians move the most sensitive riddling equipment out of the places in the building that have an extra high risk of getting zapped.

Where are those places, and how much riskier are they than the safest spots? (It’s fine to describe those places qualitatively.)

Extra credit: Get quantitative! Seen from above, how many high-risk points are there? If there are infinitely many, what is their total area?

Here is my solution:
[Show Solution]

And here is a bonus interactive graphic showing the solution

## A clever integral

I was recently reminded of this problem from one of my favorite books: Problem-Solving Through Problems. The problem originally appeared in the 1980 Putnam Competition.

Evaluate the following definite integral.

$\int_0^{\pi/2} \frac{\mathrm{d}x}{1 + (\tan x)^{\sqrt{2}}}$

The solution:
[Show Solution]