Inquiry: Ian Stewart: Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities

It may seem to fly in the face of everything you have experienced in school, but mathematics CAN be fun. Really! Our guest tonight is IAN STEWART, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick. He has spent his life collecting logic puzzles, odd math problems, brainteasers and even jokes mathematicians tell each other and collected it in the miscellany PROFESSOR STEWART’S CABINET OF MATHEMATICAL CURIOSITIES. Tune in and learn about how to color maps; how large a Prime Number can get (hint: ridiculously large) and what state legislature tried to pass a law declaring the “correct” value of pi”.

In the interview, Professor Stewart states a logic problem, reproduced below. Send the correct answer to marklynch@wicn.org and we will add you the Inquiry Honor Roll listed under this description.

 
Hippopotamus Logic

I won’t eat my hat.

If hippos don’t eat acorns, then oak trees will grow in Africa.

If oak trees don’t grow in Africa, then squirrels hibernate in winter.

If hippos eat acorns and squirrels hibernate in winter, then I’ll eat my hat.

Therefore—what?  From pp.140 Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities.