by Danny Roth

Published Sunday February 22 2026 (link)

George and Martha live in Millipede Avenue, a road with 1,000 houses numbered from 1 to 1,000. Their five daughters and their families will also shortly be buying houses along that road. “It’s quite simple,” commented Martha. “Andrea rang this afternoon. If you multiply her house number by three and square that product, you get Bertha’s. If you subtract Bertha’s number from 900, you get Caroline’s. If you subtract Andrea’s number from 20 and multiply the result by 36, you get Dorothy’s and finally Elizabeth’s is the average of Caroline’s and Dorothy’s.”

“Priceless!” retorted George. “Four pieces of information and five unknowns. Who do you think I am, Nostrodamus?”

“Oh, come, come!” replied Martha. “Even someone of your pathetic mathematical ability can work it out!”

In increasing order, which five houses will their daughters be living in?