How long would it take a train one-mile long traveling at 60 mph to pass through a tunnel one mile long?
What's the next number in this series?
4 16 37 58 89 145 42 20 (?)
Fill in the three missing letters in the following series:
Y Y H L Y E Y T R (?) (?) (?)
5 5 5 5
Arrange the four 5's so that they equal 56.
You may use any mathematical notation, but no other digits.
All answers end with "sting."
A sting that cures fatigue.
A sting that cures hunger.
A sting that tidies your room.
A sting that makes you laugh.
A sting that cooks your meat.
A sting that spoils your tools.
A sting that makes you read a book through.
A sting that some observe in Lent.
A sting that cooks are always using.
A sting that browns your bread.
The Mongolian Postal Service has a strict rule stating that items sent through the post must not be more than 1 meter long. Longer items must be sent by private carriers, and they are notorious for their expense, inefficiency, and high rate of loss of goods.
Boris was desperate to send his valuable and ancient flute safely through the post. Unfortunately, it was 1.4 meters long, and could not be disassembled as it was one long, hollow piece of ebony. Eventually, he hit on a way to send it through the Mongolian Postal Service. What did Boris do?
Four women -- Anna, Beth, Cass, and Dora -- and three men -- Earl, Fred, and Gene -- play bridge, a card game for four players.
[1] The men and women consist of three married couples and a widow.
[2] The members of each married couple are never partners in a bridge game.
[3] No more than one married couple ever plays in the same bridge game.
[4] One night they played four bridge games in which the partners were as follows:
| partners | partners | |
| Anna and Earl | versus | Beth and Fred |
| Anna and Gene | versus | Dora and Fred |
| Beth and Cass | versus | Fred and Gene |
| Cass and Earl | versus | Dora and Gene |
Who is the widow?
You are on your way to the river for the Memorial Day holiday. You fill the gas tank of your nice new small car, which holds 10 gallons and gives you 25 miles to the gallon. That should get you there easily, as the river is 220 miles away. Unfortunately, about 20 miles from the river, the car stops, and you discover the tank is dry - obviously a leak, because you can see drops dripping.
How many gallons of gasoline have you lost?
Villains always lie, good guys always tell the truth.
You see three men on the road and you ask the first one, "What are you, a villain or a good guy?"
You cannot make out his mumbled answer so you ask the second man, "What did he say?"
The second man responds, "He said he is a villain."
The third man says, "The second man is lying."
Is the third man a villain or a good guy?
How could you take one from nineteen and leave twenty?
The answer to a problem is 45678. You arrive at this by subtracting one number from another. The two numbers contain the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. You must use each of these digits once, but only once. What two numbers do you subtract to arrive at this answer?
After being in a coma for two weeks, Granny Smith died on May 20, 1995. Candy Care was trying to comfort Granny's grandson, Smitty. "Listen, Smitty," said Candy, "this couldn't have come as a great shock."
"No, it wasn't," said Smitty. "The big upset is Granny's will. My cousin, Sid Shady, says that according to her latest will, he's going to inherit the entire estate. Granny made a will four years ago and showed it to me at that time. It said that upon her death, I was to inherit 90% of her estate and my cousin Shady was to get the rest."
Candy examined a photocopy of the new will Shady produced. It was dated May 10, 1995, and stated that Shady was to inherit the entire estate. It was signed by Granny Smith and two witnesses. "This is a fake!" declared Candy.
Why?
Using any mathematical notation you want, can you make four 7's equal to 100?
There is a race track one mile around. If you drive the track once at 30 mph, how fast will you have to go around the second time to average 60 mph for both times around?
Well, it looks like the Andersons really mean business this time. They've hired Cedric Longnose, the toughest baby-sitter in town, to watch their brood tonight. The Andersons have a great bunch of kids, but they are hard to handle. I forget just how many kids they have, but I do know that each daughter has the same number of brothers as she has sisters. Also, each of the boys has twice as many sisters as he has brothers. Using this information, can you figure out how many Anderson children there are?
In an Algebra textbook, they wrote about Diophantus of Alexandria and the problem from his 'Arithmetica,' which is supposed to reveal parts of his life and the age at which he died. The problem goes as follows:
"Diophantus passed 1/6th of his life in childhood, 1/12th in youth, and 1/7th more as a bachelor. Five years after his marriage, there was born a son who died four years before his father, at half his father's final age."
How old was Diophantus when he died?
In the land of Woz, each person has exactly one car. The license plate of each car is different, and contains just one letter and one one-digit number including zero. How many people can live in the land of Woz under this scheme?
Substitute any of the digits 0 through 9 for the letters below to create a correct arithmetical expression. Each letter represents a different number, and the same digit must be used for each occurrence of that letter.
ABCDE
x 4
-----
EDCBA
Solution
OK, you solved last week's twins puzzle. This week's twins were also born from the same mother and same father. But they were born two days apart, in different months, different years, and a different millennium. Explain how is this possible.
(They are identical twins, and the mother did not have to endure another 24+ hours of labor after the first twin was born.)
How could this be…
Twin babies born in Texas have a weird situation. Both male brothers where born from the same mother and same father. But they where born in a different day, different month and different year. How is this possible. Medical miracle???
"I had lunch at the Club," said Sandy. "Just four of us, but you'd never believe the names of the other three guys."
Lucy smiled. "Try me. I always say they're a bunch of weirdos there anyway."
"Okay. Their names were Law, Tooth, and Painter. And they worked in the three corresponding professions, although none in the one indicated by his name," Sandy replied. "Mr. Tooth is married to the lawyer's sister, so can you figure out the dentist's name?"
Five men raced their cars on a racing strip. There were no ties. Will did not come in first. John was neither first nor last. Joe came in one place after Will. James was not second. Walt was two places below James. In what order did the men finish?
Young Austin Tightcollar was a dutiful son who visited his mother for dinner every Sunday. Austin lived in Rivergrove and his mom lived in Center City. Austin left promptly at noon after coffee hour at his church. Long ago he figured out that if he rode his unicycle at 15 miles an hour, he would get to her house an hour before dinner. But if he rode at the rate of 10 miles an hour, he would arrive an hour late for dinner.
Can you figure out at what speed Austin rode to arrive precisely at dinner time? Also, what was the distance between his home and his mother's?
Here is another series puzzle:
The numbers 1 through 10 are to be used. 2 and 3 are remaining. What order are they to appear and why?
8 5 4 9 1 7 6 10 ? ?Solution
Lost in Liars and Truthtellers Town, you are in real trouble. You need to ask directions from a Truthteller, but how can you tell who is a Truthteller? You stop a group of three women and ask if they are Truthtellers. The first says, "Two of us are Truthtellers." The second says, "Only one of us is a Truthteller." And the third one chimes in, "The last woman who spoke is telling the truth."
Who was or were Truthtellers?
Which set of numbers would most logically come next in the following sequence?
10 1 9 2 8 3 7 4 6 5 5 6 4 7 3 8 2 (a) 9 1 (b) 9 3 (c) 8 5 (d) 6 7
At the turn of the century, a dreary prison ship was anchored in the upper reaches of the East River. One night Knuckles Pommeroy swam ashore and headed for Long Island. Knuckles got a half-hour's start on his jailers. During the ensuing chase Knuckles was able to maintain a steady 3 miles per hour while the guards maintained 4 miles per hour. During the chase the warden's bloodhound raced forward until he caught up with Knuckles and then raced back to the guards. The dog went back and forth like this, all the time maintaining a steady 12 miles per hour, until Knuckles was apprehended. How far did the dog travel during the chase?
At what temperature do both Celsius and Fahrenheit thermometers display the same number?
Hyperborea is divided into three regions. Those who live in the southern region are known as Sororeans and always speak truthfully; those who live in the northern region are known as Nororeans and always speak falsely, and those who live in the middle region are known as Midroreans and make statements that are alternately true and false, but in which order is unknown.
Apollo decides to visit the Hyperboreans, his most favored people, in disguise. He approaches three inhabitants and asks which region each represents. The three respond, as follows:
A: I am a Sororean.
B: I am a Nororean.
C: 1. They are both lying.
2. I am a Midrorean.
Assuming that each represents a different region, which is the Sororean, which is the Nororean, and which is the Midrorean?
If you have a good memory and a big vocabulary, you may be able to come up with at least three words containing all five vowels, A, E, I, O, and U. The vowels don't have to appear in order (though they can be), and you don't have to include Y (though you can).
_ _ _ E R G R O _ _ _
If you use the same three letters in the same order before and after the given letters, you will get a very dirty word! What is the word?
These were popular the first time we did them (see Trap #95), so here are some more!
What are each of these numbers referring to?
Ex.: 36 = I in a Y
36 = Inches in a Yard
6 = W of H the E
212 = D at which W B
101 = D
60 = S in a M
7 = H of R
5 = F on a H
40 = T (with A B)
30 = D H S A J and N
1 = D at a T
10 = A in the B of R
435 = M of the H of R
16 = O in a P
31 = I C F at B - R
50 = C in a H D
2 = T D (and a P in a P T)
4 = H of the A
13 = C in a S
20,000 = L U the S
9 = I in a B G
Twenty-one birds are sitting in a tree. If a man shot into the tree and killed one-seventh of them, how many would remain?
A little different kind of Trap this week. See if you can figure out the magic of this little Excel program. (You may need an exorcist!)
A hotel detective was walking along the corridor of a large hotel one day. Suddenly, he heard a woman's voice cry out, "For God's sake, don't shoot me, John!" Then there was a shot.
He ran to the room from where the shot came and burst in. In one corner of the room lay a woman who had been shot through the heart. In the middle of the floor was the gun that had been used to shoot her. On the other side of the room stood a postman, a lawyer, and an accountant. The detective looked at them for a moment and then went up to the postman, grabbed him, and said, "I am arresting you for the murder of that woman."
It was, in fact, the postman who had murdered the woman, but how did the hotel detective know? Never before had he seen any of the people in the room.
Clark, Jones, Morgan, and Smith are four men whose occupation are butcher, druggist, grocer, and policeman, though not necessarily in that order.
What is each man's occupation?
Why?
The versatile dance team could, in a _ _ _ _ _ _, switch from a waltz to a _ _ _ _ _ _.
Three suspects have been identified, and one of them is guilty. The three are A, the winning candidate's husband; B, the losing candidate's wife; and C, a local character. They make statements, as follows:
| A: | 1. | B had a motive to commit the crime. |
| 2. | C's first statement is true. | |
| 3. | B is guilty. | |
| B: | 1. | My husband was the one hurt by the results; I had no incentive to commit the crime. |
| 2. | C did it. | |
| 3. | My husband and I planned to spend several lunar periods on a region-wide tour. We would have had to cancel the trip if he had won the election; I had a motive. | |
| C: | 1. | I was not near the voting booth on election day. |
| 2. | I am innocent. | |
| 3. | B did it. | |
Considering that each suspect makes only one true statement, can you identify the guilty one?
For simplicity, only aces are used from each suit, with a joker included occasionally.
| First Card | Second Card | Third Card | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jack | Heart | Spade | Club |
| Queenie | Heart | Diamond | Club |
| King | Diamond | Spade | Heart |
What are the three cards ?
1. A mass of concentrated earthly material perennially rotating on its axis will not accumulate an accretion of bryophytic vegetation.
2. Individuals who perforce are constrained to be domiciled in vitreous structures of patent frangibility should on no account employ petrous formations as projectiles.
3. That prudent avis which matutinally deserts the coziness of its abode will ensnare a vermiculate creature.
4. Everything that coruscates with effulgence is not ipso facto aurous.
5. An addlepate and his specie divaricate with startling prematurity.
Gabe was having a terrible time lining up his tin soldiers. He didn't have all that many, fewer than one hundred, but he couldn't seem to arrange them on parade properly. He kept having odd numbers left over. He tried rows of five and there were four left over; he tried rows of six - four left over; rows of 7 - one left over. He finally decided to have a very narrow parade and arranged them four abreast. That worked. What's the smallest number of toy soldiers he could have had?
With one straight line, turn the following three numbers into 445.
l5 l0 5
Which number comes next?
1-3, 2-3, 3-5, 4-4, 5-4, 6-3, 7-5, 8-?
A famous magician stood on a concrete floor and held a raw egg in his out-stretched hand. Without the aid of any other object, he dropped it 2 meters without breaking its shell. How?
A man's age at death was 1/30 of the year of his birth. How old was he in 1979?
The multiplication problem below contains letters that have been substituted for digits. Each letter represents the same digit wherever it occurs. The digits are all odd.
E A C A D
x D
-----------
A E E A D B
Identify the digit represented by each letter.
Grandma looked up from her rocking chair and said, "As far as I can determine, there is only one anagram of the word TRINKET."
What is it?
Say you have traveled to a desert island known for its ancient, 150-foot lighthouse. The island is five miles long, five miles wide, and five people live on it: Joe, who always tells the truth; Jim, who always lies; Jack, who tells the truth one time and then lies the next; Jason, who tells the truth one day and then lies the next; and Jacob, who doesn't talk to anyone at all.
When you get there, you find three people waiting, but you don't know their names. What is the minimum number of questions you will need to ask to locate the lighthouse?
The manager of the local See's Candy Store had hired extra workers to prepare boxes of chocolates for Valentines Day. He really didn't know quite how many workers he would need, so he watched his new workers for a while. He found that six workers could prepare eighteen boxes in half an hour. How many boxes could twelve workers prepare in ninety minutes?