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Math Puzzle for October 17, 2025

Posted By On In Puzzles | Comments Disabled

And they shall beat their perfect dough balls into perfect bagels

Alameda Post - An image of a spherical ball of dough next to a dough that has been shaped into a bagel. [1]
Not drawn to scale. Illustration by Alameda Post Staff.

To form a bagel, the Carbohydrate Bakeshop starts with a spherical wad of dough. The spherical wad of dough has an area of 525.8947391 square centimeters. The sphere is reformed into a perfect torus, or bagel.

Find the surface area A of the torus, given it has an outside diameter of 12.8 centimeters.

Send your answer to [email protected] [2] for the chance to win a Tucker’s gift card.

Last week’s winner [3] was Brian Donovan with W = 2 million tons.

Jeff Smith is a former Math teacher and a retired US Navy Lieutenant Commander. Reach him at [email protected] [2].