Brain Teasers

[SOD'EM]

Each day (or when I can be bothered), I will pose a teaser on here. The first person with the correct answer will win a virtual prize, and may virtually receive it.

 

I will determine a reasonable amount of time before I release the answer. But there is bound to be some clever clogs that gets it.

 

So here is your first teaser:-

 

 

A word I know, six letters it contains.

Subtract just one, and twelve you'll find remains.

 

 

What is that word?

[Tezcatlipoca]

Dozens would seem to be the obvious answer.

[SOD'EM]

That would be correct Tez:D. Here's your prize:-

 

 

Take away the 's' and you would be left with Dozen (twelve).

 

Well done.

 

 

 

 

Here's the next one:-

 

Thaddeus Tightwad has been trying for hours to figure

out why the two sides of his checkbook ledger are not the

same. Can you determine where the missing two dollars

have gone?

 

 

Beqinninq balance for the month... $54 .00

------------------------------------------

Check #0221 $20 00 Balance $34 .00

Check #0222 $20 00 Balance $14 .00

Check #0223 $10 00 Balance $ 4 .00

Check #0224 $ 4 00 Balance $00 .00

------------------------------------------

Total $54 00 Total $52 .00

_____________________________________

Edited May 2, 2010 by SOD'EM

[lookinforinfo]

There is no $2 difference, the ledger balances. Opening balance $54 minus checks debited $54 =$00 closing balance.

The total of the running balance is a red herring. Look what happens when the opening balance is $100.

 

Beqinninq balance for the month... $100.00

------------------------------------------

Check #0221 $20 00 Balance $80 .00

Check #0222 $20 00 Balance $60 .00

Check #0223 $10 00 Balance $ 50 .00

Check #0224 $ 4 00 Balance $46 .00

------------------------------------------

Total $54 00 Total $236 .00

_________________________ ___

[SOD'EM]

That is the correct answer LFI. It is a red herring. Clever though, I thought.

 

Here's your prize:-

 

 

 

I'll try one that's not a red herring.

 

Here goes:-

 

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the Bennington girls left

the east shore of Greasy Bear River in their new tri-motor

skiff and headed for the opposite shore. At the same moment,

the Davenport brothers left the west shore of the

river in their racing shell and headed towards the opposite

shore. One of these boats was travelling much faster than

the other. The boats passed each other in the river 410 feet

from one shore. Both boats continued until they reached

the opposite shores.

Each crew spent an hour ashore, then headed back

across the river for home. Once again the boats passed

each other in their travels. This time they were 230 feet

from one of the river banks.

Using the above information, can you calculate the

width of the river?

[SteveH2508]

If we assume they both set off back at the same time we can - otherwise I don't think we can.

[Tezcatlipoca]

If we assume they both set off back at the same time we can - otherwise I don't think we can.

 

...the east shore of Greasy Bear River in their new tri-motor

skiff and headed for the opposite shore. At the same moment,

the Davenport brothers left the west shore of the

river in their racing shell and headed towards the opposite...

 

Would it be 640ft, SOD'EM..?

[Rooster-UK]

Huh! Clever-clogs! On a Sunday afternoon, as well.

[Tezcatlipoca]

It's not like a real Sunday though, is it? It's a bank holiday weekend, so it's more like an extended Saturday!

[SOD'EM]

 

Would it be 640ft, SOD'EM..?

 

 

Sorry Tez, that's not what my book says.

 

 

Well..........You don't think I am capable of making these up myself do you?

 

Keep trying.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Sorry Tez' date=' that's not what my book says.[/quote']

 

Pft. You win some, you lose some.

 

I suppose I can't redeem points by claiming the river is exactly as wide as half its width doubled..?

[SOD'EM]

LOL. You should be able to:p.

[Rooster-UK]

From the text, they didn't start back at the same time. Because of the different speeds, the racing shell would have reached the opposite bank before the tri-motor skiff. Therefore their hour on shore would have started and finished before the team in the skiff.

 

 

Each crew spent an hour ashore, then headed back

across the river for home.

[SOD'EM]

You've got me confused now:p

 

 

I can tell you though, that the time spent on shore is irelevant to the puzzle, or the answer.

[Rooster-UK]

In that case, I'll go with Tezc....

 

width = (width*2)/2

 

 

And that's all you're getting.

[napiernuts]

My attempt at being funny

Edited May 2, 2010 by napiernuts

[SOD'EM]

OK. This is what the book says:-

 

 

After the first crossing was complete,

the combined distances travelled by the two boats

was equal to twice the width of the river. When the boats

met for a second time during the homeward crossing, the

total combined distance travelled would then equal three

times the width of the river.

 

Now, when the boats first met on the river, the sum of

the distances each had travelled equaled the width of the

rjver. When they met the second time, each boat Would

have travelled three times as far as it had travelled when

they first had met. During the first meeting, the slower

boat had obviously gone 410 feet from shore. When they

met the second time, this boat would have gone three

times this distance, or 1,230 feet. At the second meeting,

the slower boat was 230 feet from the shore. If we subtract

this amount from the total distance the slower boat had

travelled, we get 1,000 feet for the width of the river.

The time spent on shore has no effect on the outcome of

this problem. In this problem the Bennington girls proved

to have the faster boat.

 

 

 

 

So now on to the next one:-

 

 

I come from a very large family. Five years ago, I was

five times as old as my youngest sister, Veronica.

Today I'm only three times as old as she is. That's all

the information you're going to get from me.

 

 

How old am I?

[pinkduchess]

30

[Rooster-UK]

Answer = A Fish.

[SOD'EM]

30

 

 

 

That is correct PD:) Well done.

 

 

Here is your prize:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for another:-

 

Below are three shelves with sacks on them numbered 1-9(you will just have to imagine they are sacks because I can't copy and paste the picture from the PDF file:p).

 

 

 

7 28_

196__

34 5_

 

While checking his supplies, Cy Corncrib noticed something

interesting about his flour sacks. The sacks were

stacked three to a shelf and numbered one through nine.

On shelves one and three, he had a single sack next to a

pair of sacks, while the middle shelf held three sacks

grouped together. Now, if he multiplied the number on the

single sack (7), by the number on the pair next to it 28,

he got 196, the number on the middle sacks. However, if he

tried multiplying the numbers on the third shelf, (34) and

(5), he got 170.

Cy then came up with this problem: How do you rearrange

the sacks, with as few moves as possible, so that

when you multiply each pair by its single neighbour, you

will come up with a product equal to the number on the

middle shelf?

[SteveH2508]

My Brain Hurts!

[SOD'EM]

I'm trying not to overtax my tiny mind SteveH.

 

It's concentrating on breathing at the moment:-|.

[Castlebest]

Cy has way too much time on his hands and should get back to making bread!!!

[SOD'EM]

Well, no takers on that one.

 

 

 

here is the answer:-

 

 

 

On the first shelf exchange

sacks (7) and (2). You now have a single sack (2) and a pair

(7) and ( 8 ). Multiplied together we get 156. We then move single

sack (5) and exchange it for sack (9) on the middle shelf.

The total number on the middle shelf is now 156. Finally,

we move sack (9) from the middle shelf down to shelf

three, where it takes the place of sack (4) in the pair. Sack

(4) is moved to the right, where it becomes the single sack.

Now on shelf three we have (39) times (4), which gives us a

product of 156. I did this by moving only five sacks.

 

 

 

Simples

 

 

 

 

OK. Here's an easy one.

 

 

What is the longest word in the English language that has

all the letters in alphabetical order?

[locutus]

As you're cheating using a book, I'll use google and say... Aegilops