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

Today's Puzzle

Wednesday, June 2
It's the last puzzle of the school year! Thanks to all my readers!

In the Before Times, I handwrote my daily puzzle on a name tag. So it shall be again in the After Times. But the PotD website has been great for posting puzzles with images. Before this format is retired, I have four more questions for you about random photos I took on my cellphone.

From top to bottom, left to right:

  1. What is being advertised on this poster?
  2. Why did I pay $60 for this hamburger? (I don't even eat meat!)
  3. Why did I take this picture of the ground in August 2017?
  4. If you see this car, what should you be prepared for it to do?

   


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

BONUS: From the Puzzle of the Day Blooper Reel…

Occasionally my ideas for puzzles don't pan out.

I spent a lot of time lovingly crafting the psychedelic nightmare at left, posted it one night last fall with "??????" as the only text, and took it down 10 minutes later when I realized the puzzle simply didn't work.

What a pity.

▶ ok srsly what the heck was this EVER supposed to be, dr. shapiro

Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

I left home for college at 18, like some graduating Proofniks are preparing to do shortly. My household subscribed to the attentions of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, who each made 18 visits during my tenure there (canonically, at least—I cannot testify regarding the first couple of years, and I have always had certain questions about authenticity, but I suppose PotD is not the place to work out my private struggles of faith).

Who made 20 visits?

Solution The Tooth Fairy! We get 20 baby teeth (followed by 32 permanent teeth). Technically I "lost" 24 teeth before college, since I had my wisdom teeth out, but the Tooth Fairy never showed up to redeem them.

Fun fact: The scientific term for baby teeth is deciduous teeth.

Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Anna J., Anna K., Inca, Jessica, Summer, Graham, Kate, and Mr. Gregg. 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? Check out the complete archive.