by Bill Graham

Here’s a type of puzzle I first saw at a math conference. It was told to me by Irving Lubliner, a very clever and entertaining teacher from Oakland. It combines practice with percent and lots of important math facts.

1) Start with the first 50 percent of SUPERMAN. (Write down the letters S, U, P and E.)
2) If the sum of the angles of a triangle equals 180?, add the last 60 percent of TELEVISION. (Since the IF statement is true, add the letters V, I, S, I, O and N. Now you’re on your own.)
3) If five to the third power equals 75, add the first 25 percent of POLYGONS.
4) If 35 percent of 40 equals 14, subtract the first 40 percent of UPPER. ( If it’s true, take away those letters.)
5) If 5 + 4 x 2 equals 18, add the last 62.5 percent of PENTAGON.
6) If three is a factor of 411,111, add the last 28 4/7 percent of ALGEBRA.
7) If pi is exactly equal to 3.14, add the last 83 1/3 percent of SQUARE.
8) If 51 is a prime number, add the first 40 percent of ONION.
9) If the product of three negative numbers is always negative, subtract the last 33 1/3 percent of ANGLES.
10) If an octagon has exactly six sides, subtract the first 50 percent of VILE.
11) If two to the 10th power is between 1,000 and 1,050, subtract the first 16 2/3 percent of OBTUSE.
12) If 250 centimeters equals 2.5 meters, add the last 37 1/2 percent of STOPPING.
13) If there are eight cups in a quart, add the first 66 2/3 percent of TRAPEZOID.
14) If the least common multiple of six and nine is 36, subtract the first 12 1/2 percent of INTEGERS.
15) If all prime numbers are odd, add the first 37 1/2 percent of EINSTEIN.
16) If the square root of 625 is 25, subtract the first 22 2/9 percent of SNOW-FLAKE.

Rearrange the remaining letters to form the name of a state. (If you can’t get a state from the remaining letters, chances are you made a mistake on whether one of the IF statements was true or not.)