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

Today's Puzzle

Wednesday, December 2
UPDATE: The monarch whose chrysalis I showed you on November 5 emerged yesterday!  ⮕ ⮕ ⮕

All right, now for today's puzzle.

"Jeremy" is an individual notable enough to have his own Wikipedia page, a portion of which is shown at left. In common parlance, what kind of critter is Jeremy?


But wait! There's more! BONUS PUZZLE! After yesterday's puzzle, I have left and right on the brain. See how you do on my left-right quiz (link goes to a Google Form; sign-in required).

   


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

Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

The words that give dictionary editors the biggest headaches are short words with fundamental meanings, like "go" and "red" and "of".

My challenge for you today: without consulting a dictionary, write a definition of "left" (the physical direction, as in "left side" or "left turn"). Avoid circular definitions (including "the opposite of right"). Bonus points if your definition would be meaningful to an extraterrestrial with no knowledge of Earth or its inhabitants... well, other than a working knowledge of English, which decades of sci-fi has taught me can be safely assumed. I will showcase your answers tomorrow.

Solution These are the (essentially different) definitions I received:
  1. adj., of or relating to the direction where the human heart is, relative to the center of the body.
  2. adj., of or relating to the direction containing the side of the road on which it is illegal to drive in America.
  3. Left is the side of the speaker that is west when they face north.
  4. The way in which an electron spins more frequently when some radioactive material decays. (Or something like that)
  5. The direction which you face if you turn 90 degrees counterclockwise
  6. Consider the xy-plane. The –x direction is leftwards.
  7. Assuming the aliens have a working knowledge of multivariable calculus and electromagnetism, which I assume they would because they have traveled to Earth somehow, I would tell them to imagine a charged particle moving straight away in front of them in a magnetic field oriented towards their feet (or tentacles, or pods, or whatever), and then I would define "left" as the direction of the resultant force applied to the particle.
If definition #4 were fully fleshed out, I think it would have to be the narrow winner over #7 for avoidance of Earth/humanoid chauvinism! (Pfft, who says the aliens have anything like feet? 🚫🦶)

If you're wondering whether dictionaries do much better... no, not really. Here's my favorite.

Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Jacob C., Anna J., Anna K., Yana, Charlie, and Kate.

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 November 2020.