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Terence Tao’s Coin Puzzle Solves Quadratic Formula

By Drooid · Oct 26, 2026, 11:55 PM UTC · How we work

Summary

Story summary

U.S. professor Terence Tao (UCLA) introduced a puzzle linking coin totals to a quadratic.
Mother plants yield one coin and two seeds daily; regular plants yield one coin.
With a mother plants, b regular plants and c coins, total after X days equals aX² + bX + c.
When X = 10 the total is 427, solving to a = 4, b = 2, c = 7.

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Story summary

U.S. professor Terence Tao (UCLA) introduced a puzzle linking coin totals to a quadratic.
Mother plants yield one coin and two seeds daily; regular plants yield one coin.
With a mother plants, b regular plants and c coins, total after X days equals aX² + bX + c.
When X = 10 the total is 427, solving to a = 4, b = 2, c = 7.