Viking Math

1. Ingvar wants to scale the wall of an Irish monastery. The wall is 20 feet high, and right in front of the wall is a moat 15 feet wide. How tall must Ingvar’s ladder be in order to reach the top of the wall?

2. Thorgils can burn 20 English huts each hour. Hastein can burn 35 English huts each hour. Working together (albeit on opposite sides of the village), how long will it take them to burn all 385 huts?

3. Siggurd is in a blood feud with Ottar. Ottar is also in another blood feud with Illugi. For each relative killed by Siggurd, Ottar kills 3 of Siggurd’s relatives. For each relative killed by Illugi, Ottar kills 4 of Illugi’s relatives. Today Ottar kills the same number of Siggurd’s relatives as Illugi’s relatives. Ottar has killed at least one person today. Siggurd and Illugi do not have any relatives in common. What is the smallest number of people Ottar may have killed today?

4. Hrafn has 5 sons. Skuli has 5 daughters. Hrafn and Skuli want all their children to marry, but they don’t care who weds whom. In how many different ways could the 5 couples be paired?

5. Svein’s longship is fleeing from Gunnar’s longship at a pace of 20 miles per hour. Gunnar’s longship is pursuing Svein’s longship at a pace of 25 miles per hour. If Svein is currently 10 miles ahead of Gunnar, how long will it take for Gunnar to catch Svein?

World Domination: Christmas Style

Christmas finds the citizens of the world unusually full of warmth, cheer, and trust in the goodness of humanity. This widespread complacency makes December the perfect opportunity for global conquest.

The first step toward absolute power involves befriending a biologist and a lumberjack.

With the aid of your new friends, find the largest supplier of Christmas trees and volunteer to help fell the pines and firs. During the ax party, secretly implant remote-controlled capsules of sleeping gas.

Wait until a sentimental holiday movie hits the airwaves, and then activate the buried devices.

Sneak into the homes of the somnolent and extract all the gifts.

Sell the purloined presents on Craigslist.

With the money garnered from the illicit goods, commission a giant candy cane. Take this candy cane to the top of a mountain and wait for lightning.

If all goes well, the giant candy cane will split into many smaller candy canes, and each of these will have been brought to life by the jolt of electricity. You now have an army of candy cane warriors.

From this point forward, you really can't go wrong (you have an army of candy cane warriors, after all), so I'll let you figure out the rest on your own. World domination is just around the corner.

Christmas Vikings

Unsure what to request as a holiday gift? Vikings are this year's hot accessory.

Thanks to your Viking, snow removal will no longer be a problem: the heat from his manly chest will cause it to flee in terror.

Boy trouble? Not after your Viking deals with him.

Slick roads? No problem! He'll pull you on his wolf-drawn sled...

Or carry you pillion on his eight-legged steed.

He'll even deal with those pesky historical accuracy snobs.

Best of all, when next year's shopping season hits, he's got you covered.

Come to think of it, why don't you ask for two Vikings? That way you can share one with me.