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Working Backwards Toward Change

NPR's Puzzlemaster Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home.

Challenge from June 26:

From Erich Friedman of Orange City, Florida: An imaginary country mints coins in three denominations. Each denomination has an integral number, 1, 2, 3, etc. The amounts, 20, 23 and 29, can each be made with exactly three coins. What are the three denominations minted?

Answer: The numbers are 6, 7 and 11 or 5, 9, 10.

Winner: Kymberly Doucette, from Foothill Ranch, Calif.

Challenge for July 3:

Take the name, Arthur Conan Doyle. If you select the first and last letters of each of the three words, A, R of Arthur, C, N of Conan, and D, E, of Doyle, they can be rearranged to spell dancer. Now, what famous American woman, with a three part name, when you select the first and last letters of each word in her name and rearrange them, makes the word, berths. Who is this woman?

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

NPR's Puzzlemaster Will Shortz has appeared on Weekend Edition Sunday since the program's start in 1987. He's also the crossword editor of The New York Times, the former editor of Games magazine, and the founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (since 1978).