|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
In the square on the left the numbers started off in a chain from 1 to 9. The chain passed from one number to the next by going up, down, across or diagonally to the next box. Then I swapped two numbers. Which two did I swap? |
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
No. 3: "As Easy
As Pi"
No. 3: "As Easy As Pi"
|
|
Cut up the Greek letter Pi on the left into five pieces as shown. Re-arrange the five pieces to make a square.
Is there more than one way? |
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
No. 4: "Five Card Trick"
No. 4: "Five Card Trick"
I am thinking of one of the five cards in the picture above. You have to try to find out which one I am thinking of. Here are some clues:
i) The value of my card is a prime number.
ii) The values of my two neighbours add up to a multiple of 3.
iii) My card is next to a card which is next to the 2 of hearts.
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
No. 5: "Horace
On The Bus"
No. 5: "Horace On The Bus"
Hungry Horace wanted to visit his friend Freda Fishface who lives in Ilfood. As he is too young to drive, he decided to go by bus.
Horace knew that the bus fare to Ilfood was going to be somewhere between 5p and £1, and that it would end in a 5 or a 0. He also knew that the bus driver would only accept EXACTLY the right money.
What is the smallest number of coins (and what coins are they) that Horace needs in order to pay any bus fare between 5p and £1.00?
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
No. 6: "Mirror, Mirror"
No. 6: "Mirror, Mirror"
|
|
If the shading of the squares is continued so that the two dotted lines become lines of symmetry (mirror lines) of the completed diagram, how many squares will be left unshaded?
You have a choice of answers:
A) 5 B) 7 C) 9 D) 11 E) 17 |
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
No. 7: "Sides
Reversed Is"
No. 7: "Sides Reversed Is"
Hungry Horace was copying down his Maths Homework the other day, but because he was in a rush (he wanted to be first in the dinner queue) he copied it down incorrectly.
They had been learning about multiplication and had five of them to do at home. Horace, however, copied every number down backwards:
Instead of writing 12 x 42 Horace wrote 21 x 24
Instead of writing 12 x 84 Horace wrote 21 x 48
Fortunately for Horace, all his answers were still correct!
What were the other three questions?
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
No. 8:
"Sum-Things Missing"
No. 8: "Sum-Things Missing"
 |
An old Maths book contained this addition sum which had been marked correct by the teacher. The three squares in the diagram are in the three places where the numbers were so faint that I couldn't read them. What were the three missing numbers? |
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
No. 9: "Extra
Terrestrial"
No. 9: "Extra Terrestrial"
Remember the film? Well this puzzle has got nothing to do with it.
On the planet Glogg, the inhabitants are similar to human beings, however they differ in one respect -
they either have 3 heads and the normal amount of arms and legs (known as HEADERS) OR
they have one head and 3 legs and 3 arms (known as LEGGERS).
Last week, I was talking to a group of friends from the planet and between them they had 15 heads and 48 limbs. How many headers and how many leggers were there?
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
No. 10:
"Overlapping Squares"
No. 10: "Overlapping Squares"
 |
This picture was made up from four squares stuck one upon another. I am sure you can see how it was made. In the diagrams below are some more pictures made from overlapping squares. Can you work out how they were made? |
Hand in your answers as actual ready-made pictures! |
|
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
No. 11: "The
Dual Cabbage Way"
No. 11: "The Dual Cabbage Way"
 |
Using three straight lines, divide the cabbage patch up into six sections with two cabbages in each section. |
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
No. 12: "Easter
Eggs - Eggsactly"
No. 12: "Easter Eggs - Eggsactly"
This: 
is Hungry Horace's favourite type of Easter Egg.
He went to the shop to buy one but found that the Easter Eggs had been packed up in boxes of three as shown above.
"How much does this one egg cost?" Horace asked the shopkeeper."That's easy", he replied "It's just ....."
Then the telephone rang and he had to answer it.
HOW MUCH DOES HORACE'S FAVOURITE EGG COST?
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
Answers
No. 1 : "Horace's Holiday
Headscratcher"
The reasoning runs as follows:
Today is Sunday.So seven days ago was Sunday too. That means that NINE days ago was Friday.
On Friday, the day before yesterday was Wednesday.
Three weeks later is Wednesday again.
That is the second day of term.
So the term began on Tuesday. Wasn't that easy?
Return to
Top
No. 2: "All Aboard The Number
Chain"
Return to
Top
No. 3: "As Easy As Pi"
I have only found one solution excluding reflections and rotations:
I was thinking of one of the five cards in the picture. You had to try to find out which one I was thinking of. It was the TWO OF HEARTS.
This is how to find out from the clues:
i) The value of my card is a prime number.
So it could have been 7C or 7D or 2H.
ii) The values of my two neighbours add up to a multiple of 3.
So it could have been 7D or 2H.
iii) My card is next to a card which is next to the 2 of hearts.
So it could only have been 2H.
Return to
Top
No. 5: "Horace On The
Bus"
Hungry Horace wanted to visit his friend Freda Fishface who lives in Ilfood.
He wanted enough money to pay any bus fare from 5p to £1 (going up in 5s) using the smallest number of coins.What is the smallest number of coins (and what coins are they) that Horace needs in order to pay any bus fare between 5p and £1.00?
One coin (£1) is obviously no good because it won't pay for, say, a 50p fare.Two coins (50p, 50p) are no good because they won't pay for, say, a 20p fare. Three coins? Not possible! Continuing in this way we come to SIX COINS : 50p, 20p, 10p, 10p, 5p, 5p. This is the smallest number of coins that Horace can take.
 |
If the shading of the squares is continued, with the two lines acting as mirror lines, we see the pattern on the left. (I have shaded the new squares differently just so that you can see where they go.) The number of squares left is then:
A) 5 B) 7 C) 9 D) 11 E) 1 |
Instead of writing 12 x 42, Horace wrote 21 x 24
Both give the answer 504 because 1 x 4 is the same as 2 x 2.
Instead of writing 12 x 84, Horace wrote 21 x 48
Both give the answer 1008 because 1 x 8 is the same as 2 x 4.
We also know that
1 x 8 is the same as 4 x 2,1 x 6 is the same as 3 x 2,
and 1 x 6 is the same as 2 x 3.
So the other three questions were 14 x 82, 13 x 62 and 12 x 63.
 |
The most obvious place to start was the 0 on the bottom (don't forget to carry the 1!). Working towards the left, the next one has to be 9 to make the total 16 (+1 = 17) so we carry another 1. That means the top left digit "isn't", in other words it's a zero. |
Return to
Top
No. 9: "Extra
Terrestrial"
Headers have 3 heads, 2 arms and 2 legs.
Leggers have 1 head, 3 arms and 3 legs.
Between all my Glogg friends there were 15 heads and 48 limbs (arms & legs).
So there were 3 Headers (9 heads + 12 limbs) and 6 Leggers (6 heads + 36 limbs).
 |
The numbers in the diagrams show the order of the squares, from the top (1) down to the bottom. |
No. 11: "The Dual Cabbage
Way"
 |
The most popular solution: The three lines divide up the cabbage patch into six sections, each with two cabbages. |
No. 12: "Easter Eggs -
Eggsactly"
Stephen Froggatt February 2000