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Problematical Recreations are series of mathematics problems published by Litton’s Industries in Aviation Week & Space Technology magazines during 1960s.

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Many problems there were used by examiners in the past licensure examinations for civil engineers. Some of them are the following:

1. THE ATOM SMASHER

A new kind of atom smasher is to be composed of two tangents and a circular arc which is concave towards the point of intersection of the two tangents…

2. THE ESCALATOR

Dr. Irving Weiman, who is always in a hurry, walks up an upgoing escalator at the rate of one step per second. Twenty steps bring him to the top…

3. THE BUG ON THE WALL

In a room, 40 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 20 feet high, a bug sits on an end wall at a point one foot from the other floor, midway between the sidewalls…

Ops sorry, I already killed the bug.

Fortunately, I was able to give those problems to my students during our review classes. So, I encourage the engineering students that are board exam takers to join the Steemit community to know more about the possible board examination problems that I will post here. For this day, here is one of the problematical recreations problems.

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PROBLEMATICAL RECREATIONS 1

The men, Alvin, Bob, Chris and, with their wives Ana, Bea, Cindy buy some objects. Afterwards each finds that the average cost in rupees of the article he or she has purchase is equal to the number of his or her purchases. Alvin has purchased 23 more articles than Bea, and Bob has purchased 11 more than Ana. Each husband has spent 63 rupees more than his wife. Who is the husband of whom?

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Try to solve this one if you are a mathematics enthusiast!