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Dr. Shapiro's Puzzle of the Day

Today's Puzzle

Wednesday, March 31

I guess I'm just excited about produce this week. It's spring! What do these tasty things have in common?

Hint They all have two-word names (though some of them are also known by other names). What do those two-word names have in common?

   


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Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

Sticking with a theme, what is growing in this field? I've considered planting my own—supposedly you can start a plant from the uneaten portion of one of these that you buy at the store, and if you keep it well sheltered and watered for three years, you will get a 100% return on your investment. On second thought, that doesn't sound like such an amazing deal.

Solution Those are pineapples. Here's what they look like growing on the plant (at right).

Yes, you get one fruit per plant (but I bet you can pluck off those fractal bois around the bottom of the fruit and root them, so you do get lots of free pineapples… if you have the space and the patience).

If and when I do get the hankering to grow some tropical fruit, I think I am more interested in going for pink or blue bananas.

Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Lemonade and Allie, Illia, Zoe, Ena, Trent, Jacob C., Peter M., Shelly, Graham, Mrs. Gregg, and Kate. 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.