Cathy has six pairs of black gloves and six
pairs of brown gloves in her drawer. In
complete darkness, how many gloves
must she take from the drawer in order to
be sure to get a pair that match? Think
carefully!!
She could possibly take out 6 black left
hand gloves and then 6 brown left hand
gloves, the next one would have to be
either the right hand or left hand match.
_____________
Two Strings
You have two strings whose only known
property is that when you light one end of
either string it takes exactly one hour to
burn. The rate at which the strings will burn
is completely random and each string is
different.
How do you measure 45 minutes?
Answer: Light both the ends of the first
string and one end of the second string. 30
minutes will have passed when the first
string is fully burned, which means 30
minutes have burned off the second string.
Light the end of the second string and when
it is fully burned, 45 minutes will have
passed.
Some people have difficulty grasping that
when you light both ends of the first fuse, it
will take 30 minutes to burn. Because the
burning rate is random and unknown to you,
you have no idea where the 30 minute mark
is on the fuse. If you had an exact duplicate,
then the 30 minute mark would be in the
same place. It is probably not in the middle,
but it is somewhere. If you burn both ends of
a fuse it will not stop burning until it has
reached this mark, which means 30 minutes
is up.
Farmers problem
A farmer is standing on one side of the river
and with him are a wolf, a goat and a box
with cabbages. In the river there is a small
boat. The farmer wants to cross the river
with all the three items who are with him.
There are no bridges and in the boat there is
only room for the farmer and one item. But
if he leaves the goat with the cabbages alone
on one side of the river the goat will eat the
cabbages. If he leaves the wolf and the goat
on one side the wolf will eat the goat. Only
the farmer can seperate the wolf from the
goat and the goat from the cabbage.
How can the farmer cross the river with all
three items, without one eating the other ?
First the farmer takes the goat across the
river. He goes back to pick up the wolf.
When he is across he leaves the wolf and
takes back the goat. Back on the other side
he leaves the goat and takes the cabbages
with him. Then he picks up the goat and all
three items are on the other side.
West Wessex Marathon Race (by Martin
Hollis)
With a field of five for the west wessex
marathon race, there was littleto interest the
bettors. So, Peter Piper opened one of his
ingeneousbooks where he accepts multiple
bets at high odds. To place a multiplebet,
you must bet on two propositions, and you
will win only if you arewholly successful.
Peter Piper is now on an extended vacation
because ofthe bettors who lost these bets:
1) A will not win the gold, nor B the silver.
2) C will win a medal, and D will not.
3) D and E will both win medals.
4) D will not win the silver, nor E the
bronze.
5) A will win a medal, and C will not.
Who won which of the medals?
A wins Gold
D wins Silver
C wins Bronze
A snail is at the bottom of a well and
wants to get out. He manages to crawl up
the wall 3 feet each day, but at night he
must rest ( after all that work during the
day ) and so he slips back down 2 feet. If
the well is 30 feet deep, How long will it
take him to get out?
28 days.....the snail averages 1 foot each
day, so after 27 days he has reached 27
feet. On the 28th day he crawls up 3 feet
during the day, but since he is now at 30
feet and out of the well he no longer slips
back 2 feet.
An Old friend of the family left $666,666
to 2 fathers and 2 sons to be split equally.
After careful consideration they each
happily received $222,222. Why and how
was this possible?
Although it seems there are four people,
there are only 3. They encompass 3
generations...a grandfather, his son ( who
is also a father), and his son. Thus there
are 2 fathers and 2 sons, but only 3 people
to split the money!
Can you tell what we are: Half of Four of
us are Two of us, Twice Two of us are Six
of us, Twice Eight of us are Ten of us, and
Twice Five of us are Eight of us?
The letters that comprise the number
words. The word two has 3 letters;
therefore doubled it would be 6 letters,
the word eight has 5 letters and doubled it
would have 10 letters, etc.
Two planes take off at the same exact
moment. They are flying across the
Atlantic. One leaves New York and is
flying to Paris at 500 miles per hour. The
other leaves Paris and is flying to New
York at only 450 miles per hour ( because
of a strong head wind ). Which one will be
closer to Paris when they meet?
They will both be the same distance from
Paris when they meet!!
On a certain passenger train three
passengers and the conductor engaged in a
conversation. The following facts were
given:
1. The names of the passengers were
Smith, Jones and Robinson.
2. The conductor said that these were
the names of his crew, which
consisted of an engineer, a fireman,
and a brakeman.
3. Mr. Robinson (the passenger) said
that he lived in Detroit.
4. The conductor said that his engineer
lived halfway between Chicago and
Detroit.
5. Mr. Jones (passenger) said he earned
exactly $20,000 a year.
6. The conductor said that his fireman
always lost at billiards to Smith, one
of the crewmembers.
7. One of the passengers lived next to
the engineer and received exactly 3
times as much salary as the
brakeman.
8. The engineer had the same name as
the passenger living in Chicago.
What are the names of the brakeman, the
fireman, and the engineer?
PLAYING CARDS:
There are three playing cards lying face up,
side by side. A five is just to the right of a
two. A five is just to the left of a two. A
spade is just to the left of a club, and a spade
is just to the right of a spade.
What are the three cards?
OR
THREE BOXES:
There are three boxes, one contains only
apples, one contains only oranges, and one
contains both apples and oranges. The
boxes have been incorrectly labeled such
that no label identifies the actual contents of
the box it labels. Opening just one box, and
without looking in the box, you take out one
piece of fruit. By looking at the fruit, how
can you immediately label all of the boxes
correctly.
Which box did you open and how can you
be sure to label all boxes correctly?
The box that must be opened is the one
labeled "apples and oranges." By definition,
whichever fruit is inside, is the only fruit
type that that box contains. Let's say that
you found an apple in that box that was
labeled with both apples and oranges;
because you know it must therefore only
contain apples, then you conclude that the
box that is labeled "oranges" cannot contain
only oranges, as all boxes have been said to
be mislabeled. Thus, the box labeled
"oranges" must contain both apples and
oranges, leaving the box labeled "apples" to
contain only oranges.
WHAT'S MY ADDRESS?:
I live on Sunset Boulevard, where there are
6 houses on my side of the block. The
house numbers are consecutive even
numbers. The sum of all 6 house numbers is
8790. You don't know which block I live
on, and it's a long street, but I will tell you
that I live in the lowest number on my side
of the block. What's my address?
My address is 1460 Sunset Boulevard. First,
you know that the house numbers are even
and consecutive, so they must be
approximately 1/6th the value of the sum
(8790). In fact, the number that is 1/6th the
total is the mean (average) for all 6 houses!
This number, 1465 (8790 / 6), is how you
come to the conclusion. There must be 3
house numbers greater than that number,
and 3 house numbers less than that number,
all being even and consecutive.
Therefore, the 6 house numbers are 1460,
1462, 1464, 1466, 1468, 1470. The lowest
house number, as per the question, is the
answer: 1460.
AVOIDING THE TRAIN:
A man was walking along a railway track
when he spotted an express train speeding
towards him. To avoid it, he jumped off the
track, but before he jumped he ran ten feet
towards the train.
 • The lamp that is currently on is
Why? controlled by Switch 2.
The man was walking through a train tunnel • The lamp that is off and cold is
and was almost at the end when he heard a controlled by Switch 3.
whistle and spotted the train coming towards • How Old Are Mary's Kids?
him. He therefore had to move forward, • Tom is from the census bureau and
towards the train, so that he could jump greets Mary at her door. The have
clear safely. the following conversation:
• Tom: I need to know how old your
WHAT AM I?: three kids are.
• Mary: The product of their ages is
If you look, you can't see me. 36.
If you see me, you cannot see anything else. • Tom: I still don't know their ages.
I can make you walk if you can't. • Mary: The sum of their ages is the
Sometimes I speak the truth. same as my house number.
And sometimes I lie. • Tom: I still don't know their ages.
• Mary: The younger two are twins.
What am I? • Tom: Now I know their ages!
Thanks!
A Dream. • How old are Mary's kids and what is
Mary's house number?
The Three Switches • From the statement "the product of
their ages is 36" the possibilities of
In your basement are three light switches, all the three individual ages are:
of them currently in the OFF position. Each 1,
switch controls one of three different lamps 1,
on the floor above. You would like to find 3
out which light switch corresponds to which 6
lamp. 1,
2,
1, 6, 6
You may move turn on any of the switches 1
2, 2, 9
any number of times, but you may only go 8
2, 3, 6
upstairs to inspect the lamps just once. 1,
3, 3, 4
3,
How can you determine the switch for each 1
lamp with just one trip upstairs? 2
1,
Turn Switch 1 on and leave it on for a little 4,
while... about five minutes or more... and 9
then turn it off. • From the statement "the sum of their
ages is the same as my house
Turn Switch 2 on and go upstairs to inspect number," it is possible to eliminate
the lamps. all but two possibilities. The sums of
these answers we can eliminate are
• The lamp with the bulb that is off but "unique" and if any of them were the
warm is controlled by Switch 1.
 house number, then Tom would have
then known the ages of the kids! This is one of my all-time favorites:
• For example if Mary's house number
were 38 he would know that the ages Census Taker: How many children
must be 1, 1, and 36! do you have?
If her house number were 21, he Woman: Two.
would know that the ages must be 1, Census Taker: And their ages?
2, and 18. Woman: One is five, one is two.
If her house number were 10, Tom Census Taker: Is one of them a girl?
would know that the ages of her kids Woman: Yes.
must be 3, 3, 4
• etc. What is the probability that her other child is
• a girl? (Assume every pregnancy has a
• So, because of this, these six 50/50 chance to be a boy or a girl.)
possibilities can all be eliminated:
1, 1, The surprising answer is 1/3.
36 =
38
1, 2,
18 =
21
1, 3,
12 =
16
1, 4, 9
= 14
2, 3, 6
= 11
3, 3, 4
= 10
•
• The only two remaining possibilities
are 1, 6, 6, and 2, 2, 9. (Mary's house
number is therefore 13 which is why
at this point Tom says, "I still don't
know their ages.")
• After the clue "the younger two are
twins" you can obviously eliminate
1, 6, 6. The only remaining
possibility is then 2, 2, 9!
• Of course if Mary had said "the
older two are twins" then the answer
would indeed be 1, 6, 6!!

The Woman With Two Children