Problem of the Month
Set for readers of the Learn and Explore series since 1999. A problem was published each month and its answer printed the month after. Forty-seven problems were set. Forty-six answers were printed.
Problem 47 · November 2004 · answer not yet published
Find the smallest four-digit number that is equal to the cube of the sum
of its own digits.
Answers to be sent to the office by 31 December. The solution will be
printed in the next issue.
There was no next issue. The Problem of the Month was discontinued in November 2004 and this page has not been updated since. The answer to Problem 47 was set in type but never printed; the sealed proof is held with the 2004 papers.
The archive
Problem 46 · October 2004
Two ordinary dice are rolled. What is the probability that the two faces add up to seven?
Answer: one in six
Problem 45 · September 2004
Find the smallest positive whole number that has exactly twelve divisors.
Answer: 60
Problem 44 · July 2004
What is the sum of the interior angles of a convex ten-sided polygon?
Answer: 1440 degrees
Problem 43 · June 2004
How many four-digit numbers read the same forwards as backwards?
Answer: 90
Problem 42 · May 2004
What is the last digit of 3 raised to the power 1000?
Answer: 1
Problem 41 · April 2004
How many squares of all sizes can be found on a standard 8 × 8 chessboard?
Answer: 204
Problem 40 · March 2004
What is the smallest positive whole number that can be divided exactly by every whole number from 1 to 10?
Answer: 2520
Problems 1 to 39 (1999–2004) were printed in the newsletter and were not transferred to this website when it was rebuilt.