A ship like the one above (but not much) has a rope ladder hanging over its side. The rungs are 230 mm apart (23 cm). How many rungs will be underwater when the tide has risen one metre?
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
Jack and Jill did not have much success when they went up the hill to fetch a pail of water from the well. However, once they had both tumbled down the other side they found the pond and decided to get the water from there instead.
The problem was that they wanted 7 litres exactly. Jack's bucket held 5 litres and Jill's bucket held 3 litres. How did they bring back 7 litres? No guessing!
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
A pencil and a rubber together cost 28p. The pencil costs 20p more than the rubber. How much is the rubber?
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
Only one of these nets will make a dice correctly. Which one?
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
This week you have to solve a puzzle which involves matching boxes correctly to their contents and their value (sorry about the title!) using the clues provided.
Your answers should be in this form:
Box A contains the ....... and is worth .....
Box B contains the ....... and is worth .....
Box C contains the ....... and is worth .....
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
"Hey, Horace, can you change a pound coin for me please?"
"Let me see. I've got no pound coins on me, but I do have quite a lot of change. Now then - no, sorry, Bertha, I can't change a pound."
What is the largest amount of change Hungry Horace could have had in his pocket without being able to give change for a pound?
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
I have £5 to spend on yellow ribbon. Should I buy it in yards or metres?
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
At the Pet Show recently I noticed that all except two of the entries were cats, all except two were dogs, and all except two were fish.
How many of each animal were at the Pet Show?
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
Following the success of last week's Pet Show, two girls went to the Pet Shop to buy a puppy each. Freda went in first, put £10 down on the counter and asked for "a puppy". The assistant asked her whether she wanted a poodle, a labrador or an alsatian. She chose a poodle. Mildred went in later, put £10 on the counter, and also asked for "a puppy". The assistant did not say anything, but correctly gave Mildred the labrador she wanted. How did the assistant know what Mildred wanted? They had not met before.
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
Here's a newspaper made of 8 large sheets of paper folded in half. The newspaper has 32 pages altogether.
The first sheet contains pages 1, 2, 31 and 32.
I pick up a sheet containing page 25. What are the other pages that this sheet contains?
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
Professor Frantic set these three problems to her class of maniacs at Clueless University. Three replies are given below:
If everybody got one question wrong, what are the correct answers to Professor Frantic's questions?
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
Hungry Horace was feeling hungry, so he went to the fish and chip shop to get something to eat.
"I'll have plaice & large chips, please" said Horace."Certainly, Guv. That will be......" How much?
Don't forget to leave room for the tomato ketchup!
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
Hungry Horace had just finished another term at Greedy High School. To celebrate, he invited some of his friends round to his house for a Pizza Party. They agreed to split the costs between them, according to how much they ate.
Horace had fifteen pizzas, for which he paid £22.50. Bertha paid £7.50 for her share. Merrilie had twice as many as Bertha, and Boris had two thirds of Horace's amount, leaving six pound's worth for the cat.
How many pizzas did they order?
1) Answer
2) Return to Top
No. 1 : "Two Rungs Make One
Write"
None of the rungs go underwater.
It doesn't matter how far apart the rungs are, or even how much the tide rises, because as the water level goes up, so does the ship, taking the rope ladder with it....
Return to Top
No. 2: "3 And 5 make 7"
One
possible method follows:
1. Fill up the 5 litre bucket
2. Pour the 5 litre bucket into the 3 litre bucket until the 3 litre bucket is full.
3. Empty the 3 litre bucket.
4. Pour the remaining 2 litres from the 5 litre bucket into the 3 litre bucket.
5. Fill up the 5 litre bucket again.
Return to Top
No. 3: "Stationery Plus"
Together they cost 28p.
The pencil costs 20p more than the rubber.
Therefore the pencil costs 24p and the rubber costs 4p.
Return to Top
No. 5: "Boxing Match"
No. 6: "Change For The Better"
The best I could do was £1. 39, made up as shown below:
With these coins it is impossible to give change for a pound, and this is the largest amount of money for which this is true.
The first thing to do was to look at the conversion chart:
I metre = 1.0936 yards.
Then you had to decide which was better -
50p for 1 yard, or
60p for 1.0936 yards.
Well, if 50p buys 1 yard, then 60p buys 1.2 yards.
Buying in metres, 60p would have bought only 1.0936 yards.
So buying in yards is cheaper than buying in metres.
All except two were dogs and all except two were cats. So two animals were not dogs and two animals were not cats. One of the "not dogs" could have been a cat, and one of the "not cats" could have been a dog. Combine this with the fact that all except two of the pets were fish and we have the result:
One dog, one cat, one fish - three animals at the Pet Show!
Return to
Top
No. 9: "In The Pet Shop"
 |
Didn't I tell you about the sign inside the shop? How remiss of me! When Freda went in she put a £10 note on the counter. The shopkeeper had to ask her which puppy she wanted because Freda may have only had a £10 note, nothing smaller. Mildred, on the other hand put down a £5 note and five £1 coins. This told the shopkeeper everything he needed to know. |
First of all you had to work out that page 26 was on the back of page 25. Then you had to notice that the numbers were arranged in pairs, with the first pair adding up to 32 and the second pair adding up to 34.
Then it's easy:
32 - 25 = 734 - 26 = 8
So the four pages on this sheet are 7, 8, 25 and 26.
It may seem obvious, but if everybody got one question wrong, then everybody got two questions right! Have another look at the answers:
If the first person got Qu.1 wrong, then so did the second person.
That gives two completely different sets of "correct" answers for Qu. 2 and Qu. 3!
So Person 1 Qu. 1 must be right - "TWO". The same working gives the other answers, ie. Q1 Two, Q2 Three, Q3 Two as the correct answers.
Horace 15 pizzas = £22.50
1 pizza = £1.50
Bertha £7.50 = 5 pizzas
Merrilie 10 pizzas = £15
Boris 10 pizzas = £15
Cat £6 = 4 pizzas (don't ask how the cat pays!)
Total 15 + 5 + 10 + 4 = 34 pizzas
Stephen Froggatt February 2000