H E L L O
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Dr. Shapiro's Puzzle of the Day

Today's Puzzle

Thursday, January 14
I've always been fond of the logo at left. OUSD phased it out a long time ago; their current logo can be seen here. In fact, when I went looking for the old logo online, I couldn't find any trace of it—I had to snap this picture from a maintenance van!

My favorite thing about the logo is an apt decorative/symbolic element which I've covered with a brown rectangle. What is it? (Go ahead and Google this one if you think your search skills are better than mine.)

   


     Note: Clicking "Submit" will send your response to Dr. Shapiro.

Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

Today's puzzle is courtesy of Jason, who asks: Here are the names of some objects. What are they?

4401 Aditi
1815 Beethoven
4864 Nimoy
9007 James Bond

Hint

BONUS: Send me a funny message with a number in it from the numbering system above. (Internet research is allowed, naturally, but solve the main puzzle first or it will be spoiled!)

Solution They're asteroids. Yes, discover an asteroid and you can name it whatever you like (subject to a few ground rules).

Jason shared the full list of asteroids, which a couple of you used to send me coded messages. The prize for loudest groan goes to Charlie's 183288 92891 5408 221019 24027 1658 1193. If you're feeling too lazy to look those up yourself, I built a decoder spreadsheet.

Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Charlie, Yana, Maddy, and the Greggs. Thanks to everybody who made a guess!

About This Site

Though he now teaches mathematics, Dr. (né Mr.) Shapiro's first job in a K–12 school was as a lunch monitor in Davis, CA. It was there that he originated the Puzzle of the Day, even rewarding correct answers with tickets in denominations like "15 points" (though without a clear idea of how he'd ultimately redeem these). Dr. Shapiro's favorite puzzle from this pre-professional era was "Tell me the location of the beehive on this campus."

Ten years later, Dr. Shapiro revived Puzzle of the Day at Proof School, writing each day's puzzle on a name tag. After 600 puzzles or so, he was just starting to feel normal about students reading his chest all the time when campus closed and the puzzle, like the rest of our lives, moved online. New puzzles are posted daily on school days.

Want to catch up on old PotDs? There's an archive currently containing puzzles from March to December 2020.