Today's Puzzle
Monday, May 3
Your local library probably uses the Dewey Decimal System to organize books by subject. Books are numbered from 000 to 999, with the hundreds digit indicating a major area of knowledge, the tens digit a subdivision, and so on. For example, books about heredity are filed under 575.1:
- 5xx Natural sciences and mathematics 🔬
- ⨽ 57x Life sciences and biology 🧬
- ⨽ 575 Evolution and genetics 🌱
The emoji on each line above are, of course, not an original part of Melvil Dewey's system; they were created by the website LibraryThing, which gives the "Dewmoji" path to 575.1 as 🔬 > 🧬 > 🌱 > 👪.
Now, 🌱 could just as easily be botany or horticulture; there aren't enough emoji to give every subject a unique and fitting symbol. Hence this puzzle! I'll give you some Dewmoji paths—you guess the subjects. For example, if I hadn't told you what 🔬 > 🧬 > 🌱 > 👪 is, a reasonable guess might be "Science > Biology > Plants > Plant Families". To help you out, I'll give you a sample book title at the end of each path. Let's go!
| 1. |
🔬 > 🐼 > 🐚 > 🐙 |
Sample book: Inky's Amazing Escape |
| 2.* |
🔬 > 🍎 > 🌈 |
Sample book: Molecular Vibrations: The Theory of Infrared and Raman Vibrational Spectra |
| 3.* |
🙏🏽 > 📖 > 🌈 |
Sample book: Why Noah Chose the Dove |
| 4. |
💭 > 🔮 > 🤓 > 🦆 |
Sample book: Exploring Atlantis Related Through the Soul of Rev. Dr. Frank Alper |
| 5. |
💭 > 🚎 > 🙈 > ⚖ |
Sample book: Raise the Bar: Real World Solutions for a Troubled Profession |
*Tip: The rainbow is used for two unrelated subjects.
Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution
Galaktoboureko, pictured here, sounds like a dessert that's out of this world—but it's actually just from Greece. Show that it's not all Greek to you by telling me which ingredient(s) can be inferred from the name of this sweet treat.
Solution
The galakto- root is from the Greek word for milk. (See: lactose, galactose, and galaxy; our galaxy is the Milky Way, but galaxy itself also means 'milky'.)
If you've ever had bourekas/bureks/böreks, you might also guess that -boureko means pastry (and you would be correct). If you haven't had bourekas, you are missing out. This recipe (for savory cheese böreks, not galaktoboureko) only requires a trip to the store and 10 minutes of prep.
Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Anna K., Peter M., Charlie, Yana, Illllllllia, and Graham. Thanks to everybody who made a guess!
🧨🧨🧨 EXTRA 🧨🧨🧨
Remember the map from Thursday's puzzle? (See left.)
Mr. Gregg did some further detective work and determined that the map (or the data on which it was based) is likely from the late 1930s. The evidence:
- The Golden Gate Bridge, which opened in 1937, is shown.
- A railway between Sausalito and Mill Valley which shut down in 1941 is shown.
- Buchanan Field airport, built in 1942, is not shown, while the original Concord airport, which was torn down shortly after, is shown.
Good sleuthing, Mr. Gregg!
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 2020 to March 2021.