Conundrums IV


91. A man goes to visit his friend thirty miles away. He doesn't mind speeding, so he travels at 60 miles per hour and arrives in half an hour. On the way back, however, he has a little trouble with his car, and it takes him an hour to reach home. What was his average speed for the round trip?

 

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92. Player A and Player B both played poker in Las Vegas on the same two day weekend. Although they didn't play against each other, they did play the same number of hands. On the first day, Player A won a higher percentage of his hands than Player B did. On the second day, Player A also won a higher percentage of his hands than B did. Paradoxically, over the two day weekend, Player B won a higher percentage of his hands than Player A did. How can that be?

 

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93. Sarah and Catherine, with money in their pockets, ran down to the corner shop to buy some chocolate bars. Sarah, however, discovered that she was 24 pence short of the price of a bar, while Catherine was two pence short. In a flash of inspiration, they decided to pool their money and make do with a single bar between them, but they were still short of the required price. How much, then, was a bar of chocolate?

 

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94. Sarah and Catherine made another trip to the same shop the next day in a further attempt to buy some of the same chocolate bars at 25 pence each. Upon arrival, Sarah said, "If I add half my money to yours, it will be just enough to buy four chocolate bars." Obviously doubtful, Catherine responded, "If I add half my money to yours, how many can we buy?" "We'll have just enough for a bar each," replied Sarah.
How much money did Sarah have today?

 

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95. Dealing 52 cards for a game of bridge, player A deals the cards one by one, in a simple and mechanical sequence, to 5 packets, in a regular way. After the deal, each packet goes entirely to one of the players, and everybody gets 13 cards.
How?

 

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96. If I have twice as many brothers as sisters, and one of those has the same number of brothers as sisters, what gender am I?

 

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97. Thom and Mike were brothers. Thom married Katie. Mike married Christina. Thom and Christina shared the same wedding anniversary but Mike's anniversary was six months before this date and Katie's was three months after it. None of them got divorced or remarried, so how is this possible?

 

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98. Of these ten statements, only one is true. Which one?

1. Only one sentence is false.
2. Only two sentences are false.
3. Only three sentences are false.
4. Only four sentences are false.
5. Only five sentences are false.
6. Only six sentences are false.
7. Only seven sentences are false.
8. Only eight sentences are false.
9. Only nine sentences are false.
10. Ten sentences are false.

 

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99. First person 1 says: Bob must have more than a million dollars.
Then person 2 says : No, Bob has less than that.
Then person 3 says : Well, surely Bob has at least a dollar!

If only one person is telling the truth, how much does Bob have?

 

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100. Tom was sharing out a bag of sweets between himself and his three mates. 'Look - if I keep one for myself,' he said, slipping a sweet into his pocket, 'I can split the rest between us equally.' But at that moment Harry arrived, demanding his share.

So Tom slipped another sweet into his pocket, saying, 'Now we can share equally between the five of us'. But even as he spoke, Dick and Les appeared, so Tom took one of the sweets out of his pocket again saying, 'We can share equally now'.

Suddenly the rest of the gang, suspecting something was up, all appeared demanding their share of the loot. 'Ah well,' said Tom sorrowfully, 'I suppose I'll have to put back the other one too.' So he did, and they all had three sweets each.

How many boys were in the gang?

 

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101. Sarah and Catherine, in their never-ending quest to get enough cash to buy these bars of chocolate, have set up a shoe-shine stand outside the local bus station, and are doing quite well too. They can now apply the polish to a pair of shoes in one minute, and give them a splendid shine in another three minutes. They have strict orders to catch their bus home which leaves at 6 o'clock prompt, so they were dismayed when three customers approached them at seven minutes to six. Did they have to disappoint the customers, or is there a way they could finish the job in the time to the total satisfaction of the trio of customers?

 

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102. A flower whose 1st (letter) is in PAY, but not in CLAY,
2nd is in PEOPLE, but not in PRAY,
3rd is in ORANGE, but not in GRAIN,
4th is in CANVAS, but not in SAME,
5th is in YELLOW, but not in GREEN.
So the flower is?

 

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103. Today it is zero degrees, tomorrow it will be twice as cold.
How cold will it be?

 

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104. Suppose two people decide to have a somewhat unorthodox duel. They start 20 yards apart, each with a gun containing one bullet. They slowly walk towards each other, each at the same speed. A person can shoot at any time while walking. If one hits the other person, he wins. If he misses, he MUST keep walking. In essence, if he misses, he and the other person will keep walking closer and closer towards each other, until the other person is able to kill him with no chance of missing. Assuming that the two are equally skilled in using a gun, is there a point along the 20 yards where it is optimal to shoot?

 

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105. At my local DIY centre, I was quoted R12 for one, R24 for 50 & R36 for 144. I wanted six. What was I buying & how much did it cost me?

 

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106. A farmer sells 100 animals for $100.00. The cows for $5.00 each, sheep for $1.00 each and pigs for $0.05 each. How many of each animal were sold?

 

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107. A man has three sons. He looked at his watch and then he gave one son 10 cents, and the other two sons 5 cents each. What time was it when he gave it to them?

 

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108. Lazy Larry agreed to work on a job for his brother-in-law for thirty hours at eight dollars an hour, on the condition that he would forfeit ten dollars per hour for every hour that he idled. At the end of the thirty hours Larry wasn't owed any money and didn't owe his brother-in-law any money either. How many hours did Larry work and how many hours did he idle?

 

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109. A man without eyes
Sees pears on a tree
He neither takes the pears
Nor leaves the pears
How could this be?

 

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110. John likes orange, but not purple. He likes torches, but not chandeliers. He likes berries, but not fruits. Does he like Keats or Byron?

 

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111. What is something that we see every day, kings and queens rarely see, and God never sees?

 

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112. a) It is not the case that 2 consecutive sentences are both false.
b) There are fewer false than true sentences.
c) It is not the case that 3 consecutive sentences are all false.
d) It is not the case that 2 consecutive sentences are both true.
e) There are exactly 3 false sentences.

 

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113. Of six barrels of capacity 15,16,18,19,20 and 31 litres, respectively, five are filled with wine and only one with beer. A customer bought two barrels of wine, and then a second customer also bought wine, but of a quantity twice as much as the first. Which is the beer barrel?

 

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114. Suppose there is an electric train travelling at 100km/h.
a) Which parts of the train are stationary to an observer?
b) Which parts are moving backwards?
c) Which parts are moving twice as fast as the train?

 

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115. Sarah and Catherine, still in search of the wherewithal to buy a 25-pence chocolate bar, have been joined by Sarah's sister Emily, only 8, but possibly the sharpest of the three. As they walked along, they came upon a purse containing some money lying on the ground. Emily said, 'If I can have that purse, I will be twice as rich as you two put together.' Sarah said, 'If I have it, I shall become three times as rich.' Catherine topped this by saying, 'If I have it, I shall be five times as rich!' But, disconsolately, they all agreed that in any case none of them would be able to purchase a bar of chocolate.
How much did each girl have to start, and how much was in the purse?

 

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116. If it were two hours later, it would be half as long until midnight as it would be if it were an hour later. What time is it now?

 

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117. A puzzle store has 3000 puzzles in stock. The store is moving to the other side of the country, 1000 miles away. The store owner asks a puzzle collector to transport unsolved puzzles to the new store. The puzzle collector may keep every puzzle he didn't solve at the end of the trip. But he has to solve one puzzle for every mile he travels, and he can only carry 1000 puzzles at a time. The honest puzzle collector, being very smart, wants to get as many unsolved puzzles as he can.

 

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118. You have a box, a lock, a key, and a diamond. A friend of yours has a box, a lock, and a key. Your key will open your lock, his key will open his lock, but yours won't open his and his won't open yours. The locks are standard key-operated padlocks, and the boxes have big loops in the lid and the base through which locks may be threaded. Your only means of communication is through a dishonest courier who will steal anything that's not a box or inside a locked box. How can you get the diamond to your friend? No "destructive" solutions are allowed... that is, "lock the diamond in the box, send it to my friend, and have him smash the box" doesn't work.

 

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119. It is said that King Harold's army at the Battle of Hastings could be formed into 13 equal solid squares of men, and by adding Harold himself to the mix, a single massive square could be formed. How many men were there in Harold's army?

 

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120. There was a baseball game, between the Seattle Mariners and the Boston Red Sox. At the end of the game--nine complete innings--the total score was Red Sox - 6, Mariners - 7. BUT... not a single player touched the home plate. How could this be?

 

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