Conundrums X

271. Four brothers each owned a number of sheep. It was calculated that Claude had ten more sheep than Dan. If Claude gave a quarter of his sheep to Ben, then the total of Claude and Adam's sheep would be the same as the total of Ben and Dan's sheep. If, then, Adam gave one-third of his sheep to Ben, and Ben then gave a quarter of his sheep to Claude, who then passed on one-fifth of his sheep to Dan, and Ben then divided one-quarter of the number that he then possessed equally amongst Adam, Claude and Dan, they would all have the same number of sheep. How many sheep does each son own?	Answer 19
272. Create the shortest sequence of letters which meets the following requirements: Each letter of the alphabet has to appear at least once in either the first or last letter of an animal name found in the sequence. The names may overlap. For example, the partial sequence "antigerbilamb" contains the animal names "ant", "tiger", "gerbil", and "lamb", and would include the letters a, b, g, l, r, and t. The full sequence has to include all 26 letters. The best sequence is the one with the fewest letters.	Answer 19
273. Silly old Harry caught Annabel having tea one afternoon. How did he scale the heights?	Answer 19
274. If I was to say : 'May I have a drink, alcoholic of course, what would I be eating with it? And do you know any more?'	Answer 19
274. Puzzletown square is exactly square and is paved with identical cubical stones fitted closely together. Due to a miscalculation there were as many stones left over as went into the square. The council decided to make a memorial cube out of the cubelets left over - this cube would have a side one third the side of the square on which it rested. How many stones were used altogether?	Answer 19
275. Bill had been busy quite a while figuring out something. "At the next exact hour," the boy declared suddenly, "we'll have three times as many minutes remaining this month as there will have been hours in the past part of the month." His father smiled. "I guess you're right," he said. This happened in 1962, but what was the date?	Answer 19
276. I have doubloons and doubloons only in my doublet. Doubling their number and reversing the order of the two digits in the number you get gives the number I would have if you were to add two more doubloons to the number of doubloons I already have. How many is that?	Answer 19
277. I draw something on a piece of paper and I look at it through a magnifying glass but it is not magnified. What might I have drawn?	Answer 19
278. I was launching a ship. But instead of the ship having a name, it bore on its stern the words: NAME FOR SHIP. There were no other letters to be found. What should I call the ship?	Answer 19
279. I draw something on a piece of paper and I look at it through a magnifying glass and it is 'not' magnified. What might I have drawn?	Answer 19
280. Exactly on the same moment when someone throws a pebble 5 meters in the air, somebody else fires a gun on a height of 10 meters, straight ahead. Which will land on the ground first the bullet or the pebble?	Answer 19
281. With one dart the lowest score that is impossible to get is 23 i.e. you can't get a double, or triple to get a 23 with one dart. What is the lowest impossible score with 2 and 3 darts?	Answer 19
282. Dr. Frankenstein needs more energy to bring the monster to life He sends Igor to town to buy some batteries. He has a battery holder which needs two batteries, no more no less. Igor knows that for every combination of two batteries he can get two different voltages, the sum of the two or the difference of the two batteries. Example: a 7 volt and an 11 volt battery make 18 volts or 4 volts. Dr. Frankenstein needs voltages ranging from 1,2,3 and up. Igor has just enough money to buy 4 batteries. Which voltages should he buy to get as wide a range as possible, and what are the combinations?	Answer 19
283. A man gave his three sons and a nephew money totaling $1,320.00. If he had given his first son the share that he gave his nephew (in addition to the amount he did give his first son), that son would have received as much as the other two sons together. If he had given the nephew’s share to his second son, that son would have received twice as much as the other two sons together. If he had given the money to his third son, instead of the nephew, the third son would have received then three times as much as the first son and second son together. Find the amount of each gift.	Answer 19
284. The forest is a halfplane (infinite). That is, all the surface of the flat land is divided by a straight line onto a forest and a steppe. You are in the forest, 1km from its boundary, and you don't know the direction to it. a) You should suggest an algorithm, how to get to the boundary, and not travel more than 7 km. b) You should suggest an algorithm, how to get to the boundary, and not travel less than 6.65 km.	Answer
285. John's pay packet was not very fat that week, but he could find no mistake on his pay slip. He had worked an exact whole number of hours, and his hourly rate in cents was also a whole number. If he had worked 7 hours longer, but at 19 cents per hour less than what his rate would have been if he'd actually earned $2.40 more than he did, he'd have earned $3.06 less than Bill earned working just the same hours as John had worked but at 9 cents an hour more than John's actual rate. John's hourly rate was nearly a dollar, so what must it have been exactly?	Answer 19
286. You have a football field 100 yards by 80 yards. Halfway along one of the shorter sides you drive a stake into the ground and tie a sheep to it with a peice of rope. The question is, how long would you have to make that rope if you wanted the sheep to graze half the area of the field?	Answer 19
287. A man is in a room with several other people, yet he can clearly see things that the others cannot. The things that he sees are real, they have mass and a definite shape, and it is not some kind of delusion, hallucination or trick of the mind. The other people have perfect vision and are free to move about the room, in fact, everything in the room is normal. What does the man see?	Answer 19
288. I have something in my hand, something easily visible to anyone who would care to look. Instantly, it vanishes from sight, one second it was there, and the next it was gone. No one knows exactly where it went. It disappeared with no help from me, did not change from solid to a gas, and it was not a magic trick. This is a description of a real event that has been witnessed by millions of people. What did I have in my hand?	Answer 19
289. Given is a square 10x10 grid with the numbers from 1 to 100 filled in rowwise from top left to bottom right corner. Place 50 "+" and 50 "-" signs, one before each number, such that in each row and in each column are exactly 5 of each of the two signs. Can you find highest total sum of all 100 numbers that is possible. [01][02][03][04][05][06][07][08][09][10] [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60] [61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70] [71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80] [81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90] [91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100]	Answer 19
290. In a town there are 100 men. 85 are married. 70 have a cell phone. 75 own a car. 80 own their own home. What is the least possible number who are married, have a cell phone, own a car, and own their own home?	Answer 19
291. There are several people at a doctor's office who all suffer an affliction or condition, but curiously enough, each patient name can be found in his or her condition! Given each patient's name, can you identify his or her associated condition? Example: Mark = birthMARK 1. Ron = 2. Ted = 3. Rose = 4. Alan = 5. Ada = 6. Pat = 7. Cleo = 8. Nancy =	Answer 19
292. Nick tells he's is downloading some files. I know it is stupid of me to be downloading three files at once, because I have a slow modem, so the more files I download at once the slower they get. I started downloading the three files simultaniously. However all three downloads are going smoothly. At present, the progress reports give the times to completion as: 10.00 minutes 8.00 minutes 4.00 minutes When can I expect them all to have finished?	Answer 19
293. Two neighbours go on holiday 15,000 km away from their home. Assume a circumference of The Earth of 40,000 km. How far is the maximum distance the two can get apart measured on de surface?	Answer 19
294. What is the property shared by the twelve letters A C D E G I L N O R S T U W Y Z and no other?	Answer 19
295. Joe works with five women: Ada, Betty, Carol, Deb, and Eve. 1. The women are in two age brackets: three women are under thirty and two are over thirty. 2. Two women are teachers. The other three women are doctors. 3. Ada and Carol are in the same age bracket. 4. Deb and Eve are in different age brackets. 5. Betty and Eve have the same occupation. 6. Carol and Deb have different occupations. 7. Of the five women, Joe will marry the teacher over thirty. Whom will Joe marry?	Answer 19
296. 100kg of apples are divided between 100 members of a community with each adult receiving 3kg, each teenager receiving 2kg and each child receiving 0.5kg. How many adults, teens and children were there and what was the distribution?	Answer 19
297. A fortress contains rations for 700 people for two-weeks. After two days, another 500 people come in and all are put on two-thirds of the original rations. How long will the food last at this rate?	Answer 19
298. How many combinations are there if you start with all numbers from 0000 to 9999, but combinations with the same digits but in different order are counted as one? example: 1122 has the same digits as 1212 1112, 1222, 2112, 2121, 2211, 2221, etc. So how do you calculate this?	Answer 19
299. Grip a ca. 50cm long stick at both ends like you normally should grip a straight bicycle handlebar. Hold the stick in front of you. Now bring it behind you without releasing it with either hand. In doing so you should not step over it or otherwise manoeuvre your legs or feet through the constantly closed loop that your arms must form with the stick. In the resulting posture the orientation of your hands on the stick should remain the same. That is, the back of your hands and your front should face the same direction. Your thumbs should fall towards the centre of the stick and your little fingers towards the ends of it, all the time. You may not start this act with any pre-twisted body joints. Similarly, no body joints should be twisted upon completion.	Answer 19
300. There are two flag poles. One pole is 50 feet tall, the other 40 feet tall. A 70 foot rope is tied to the top of the two flag poles, one end of the rope to the top of each pole. The rope hangs down such that it comes within 10 feet of the ground. How far apart are the two flag poles?	Answer 19

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