By Stephen Meskin
For those who remember the puzzles I posed in my “Crossnumber Puzzles” (January/February 2019), the puzzles this time are to fill a 4 × 5 matrix in which each of the nine clues (four across and five down) is the same: a perfect square with the proviso that all nine perfect squares are different.
By Josh Feldman
All throughout my childhood, my favorite game show was “The Price Is Right.”
By Stephen Meskin
As with many mathematical concepts, “squaring the circle” has become a metaphor, in this case for something impossible to do. The ancient Greeks asked if by using a straight-edge and compass one could draw a square with the same area as a given circle in a finite number of steps.
By Josh Feldman
A couple of days ago, I talked on Zoom with some actuary friends for the first time since the pandemic started; we hoped to cheer each other up with a distracting story or two.
By Stephen Meskin
Because we are elderly, my wife feels it is important for us to downsize.
By Josh Feldman
One of the interesting things about living in a small town is that it feels like everyone knows one another.
By Stephen Meskin
When I was a kid, I delivered a daily newspaper in Levittown, a planned community on Long Island.
By Joshua Feldman
When not writing or grading puzzles for Contingencies, for the past few years I have had a second extracurricular actuarial activity take up my time: I am the president of the Central State Actuarial Forum (CSAF), a proud affiliate of the Casualty Actuarial Society.
By Josh Feldman
I never was supposed to be an actuary. Instead, once it became clear I wasn’t going to be a pro surfer, it was quietly assumed that I would follow in my dad’s footsteps and be a physicist.