Post away.
If someone gets the answer I'll post it after the question in red along with the name of who got it first. (As a spoiler of course)
Numbers 28 , 49 , 52 , 53 , and 54 are not currently solved.
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Set 1
1. Sally likes 225 but not 224; she likes 900 but not 800; she likes 144 but not 145. Which does she like:
1600 or 1700? Why?
2. If two typists can type two pages in two minutes, how many typists will it take to type 18 pages in six minutes?
3. 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?
4. Which of the following proverbs is closest in meaning to the saying, "Birds of a feather, flock together."?
"One swallow doesn"t make a summer."
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
"A man is known by the company he keeps."
"Fine feathers make fine birds."
"Don"t judge a book by its cover."
5. What is the number that is one half of one quarter of one tenth of 400?
6. If you count from 1 to 100, how many 7"s will you pass on the way?
7. Each number shown below follows a certain rule. Figure out the rule and fill in the missing number.
January 20
April 10
May 5
November 15
July ?
8. Two men, starting at the same point, walk in opposite directions for 4 meters, turn left and walk another 3 meters. What is the distance between them?
9. If a circle is one, how many is an octagon?
10. Which of the following sentences given below means approximately the same as the proverb: "Don"t count your chickens until they are hatched?"
-Some eggs have double yolks, so you can"t really count eggs and chickens.
-You can"t walk around the henhouse to count the eggs because it will disturb the hens and they won"t lay eggs.
-It is not really sensible to rely on something that has not yet happened and may not ever happen.
-Since eggs break so easily, you may not be accurate in your count of future chickens.
11. There are 1200 elephants in a herd. Some have pink and green stripes, some are all pink and some are all blue. One third are pure pink. Is it true that 400 elephants are definitely blue?
12. Which word of four letters can be added to the front of the following words to create other English words?
CARD BOX CODE BAG HASTE
13. Following the pattern shown in the number sequence below, what is the missing number?
1 8 27 ? 125 216
14. What is the following word when it is unscrambled?
H C P R A A T E U
15. The same three-letter word can be placed in front of the following words to make a new word:
LIGHT BREAK TIME
16. The same word can be added to the end of GRASS and the beginning of SCAPE to form two other English words?
17. What is the word coiled inside this circle?
N G
O E
R R
T S
18. Only one other word can be made from all the letters of INSATIABLE. Can you find it?
19. Which vowel comes midway between J and T?
20. Pear is to apple as potato is to?
Banana Radish Strawberry Peach Lettuce
21. Which of the following is least like the others?
Poem Novel Painting Statue Flower
22. Which of these is the odd one out?
Cat Dog Hamster Rabbit Elk
23. Continue the following number series with the group of numbers below which best continues the series?
1 10 3 9 5 8 7 7 9 6 ? ?
24. Which number comes next in this series of numbers?
2 3 5 7 11 13 ?
25. Which letter comes next in this series of letters?
B A C B D C E D F ?
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Set 2
26. We are given three brothers named John, James, and William. John and James (the two J's) always lie, but William always tells the truth. The three are indistinguishable in appearance. You meet one of the three brothers on the street one day and you want to find out whether he is John. You are allowed to ask him one question answerable by yes or no, but the question cannot contain more than three words! What question would you ask?
27. Suppose we change the above conditions by making John and James both truthfull and William a liar. Again you meet one of the three and wish to find out if he is John. You are allowed to ask him one question answerable by yes or no, but the question cannot contain more than three words! What question would you ask?
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Set 3
28. Using all of the letters A to Z, each once only, complete these words:
*e*er
**eue
**o
ma*
*p*a*e*
*erso*
***k*am*on
*ouse
*a*
*ur*
***igent
29. This is a famous one but still one of my favorites.
As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives.
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits.
Kits, cats, sacks and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?
30. Another old one.
A man rode into town on his horse. He arrived on Monday, spent six days in town and left on Friday. How is that possible?
31. Assume that penguins live with a density of 1,000 penguins per square mile and can run at an average speed of 7 miles per hour on land and swim at 20 miles per hour. Also assume that a polar bear has a territory of 10 square miles, can run at 25 miles per hour and swim at 10 miles per hour, how many penguins will an average polar bear eat in any given month, remembering that a polar bear could, as a maximum, only eat one penguin per hour and 7% of the land is next to the sea.
32. How can you throw a ball so that it goes a short distance, comes to a total stop, reverses its motion, and then goes the opposite way. You are not allowed to bounce it against anything, hit it with anything, or tie it to anything.
33. Yet another famous one.
Three people check into a hotel. They pay $30 to the manager and go to their room. The manager suddenly remembers that the room rate is $25 and gives $5 to the bellboy to return to the people. On the way to the room the bellboy reasons that $5 would be difficult to share among three people so he pockets $2 and gives $1 to each person. Now each person paid $10 and got back $1. So they paid $9 each, totalling $27. The bellboy has $2, totalling $29. Where is the missing $1?
34. Everything Mr Red owns is red, he lives in a red bungalow and his chairs are red, his tables are red. His ceiling, walls and floor are all red. All of his clothes are red, his shoes are red, even his carpet, television and phone are red. What color are his stairs?
35. According to the American Constitution, in order to became President of the United States there are only five pre-requisites. The candidate must:
1. be at least 35 years old.
2. be a citizen of the United States.
3. have resided in the United States for at least 14 years.
4. have been born in the United States.
What is the fifth requirement?
36. A group of Englishmen are travelling on a German plane, piloted by an Norgwegian, bound for Finland. If the plane was to crash in Sweden, where would the survivors be buried?
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Set 4
37. The class only had nine pupils.
Three girls sat in the front row, three boys sat in the back row, while in the middle row the sexes sat alternately.
Altogether, including the teacher, the sexes were equally divided.
When their homework was returned and marks were compared and the children were suprised to discover that the total marks gained by those in each row were the same, as were also those for each column from front to back and for each diagonal of the square in which they sat.
Exitedly they pointed out that fact to the teacher who replied that, when checking theur work, which had been marked out of ten, he noticed that every digit had been used once and only once.
Three was the lowest mark given to a girl.
What was the highest mark given to a boy?
Spoiler for :
Detailed answer by Lominisio: As the sexes are equally divided and the teacher is a man, the middle row is girl, boy, girl. Every digit is used pmce amd sp the scores were 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. These numbers have the sum of 54 and will form a Magic Square with a row sum of 18. The central digit must be 6. (For the sum of the cental row, central column, and two diagonals is 72 and this must be 54 plus three tumes the centre.) Now 2 cannot be in a corner because there are insufficient large numbers to make up its three rows etc. to 18. Also, obviously, 4 cannot be in a line with 2 so the four corners are 3, 5, 7, and 9. Mirror images (left to right) are not relevant to this puzzle, so below are the four relevant possibilities, with the top row being the front of the class. A B C D 9 2 7 5 4 9 3 10 5 7 8 3 4 6 8 10 6 2 8 6 4 2 6 10 5 10 3 3 8 7 7 2 9 9 4 5 As no girl gets less than three marks, A, B and D are ruled out. In C the highes mark awarded to a boy is 9.
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Set 5
38. If 8-22-5-22-13 equates to seven, and 7-4-12 makes two, how would you write ten?
39.The following word square makes a fractured proverb. If you start at the corrent letter and proceed in any direction, one letter at a time, using each letter only once, you will find the fractured proverb.
40. Back in the day where there were maidens around who could see unicorns, two of the young ladies passed a field in which some unicorns and some rams were prancing about. One young lady remarked that she could see a total of fourty-four horns. The other young lady remarked that there were twice as many unicorns as rams. How many unicorns and how many rams were there?
41. The same five letters, if rearranged, can be used to fill in both sets of blanks in the following sentence, to make a sensible sentance:
Each bank _ _ _ _ _ that is has the very best plan for each _ _ _ _ _.
42. What comes next in the following series? Why?
J-31 A-31 S-30 O-31 N-30 _-__
43. What is the next letter in the following sequence? Why?
A D G K O T _
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Set 6
44. Tony has just bought a new car. On his way home from work on Friday evening he is so excited at the prospect of showing off his car to his girlfriend that he isn't paying attention. He goes past a red light without stopping, bumps into somebody in front of him and then turns into a "No Entry" road. A police officer observes his actions but makes no attempt to stop him. Why?
45. On hiliday in the Pyrennees, Stuart and Matt are skiing fown the mountainside when suddenly an avalanche strikes. Stuart is nearly saved, but Matt is nearly buried under the snow. Who is more grateful?
46. In which month are fewest daily newspapers sold?
47. A building that was constructed in 30BC was destroyed by a fire three-quarters of a century later. In which year was it destroyed?
48. The wife of a dead man was explaining to the doctor that her husband had been watching a programme on the evening of his death about the Beast of Bodmin Moor. Afterwards, she explained, he had a nightmare in which he was being chase down a hill by a huge black panther-like creature. The husband was tossing about so violently in his sleep, she said, that he rolled off the edge of the bed and died instantly from a concussion. Why was the doctor not convinced by the widow's account?
49. A vinyl record measures 32cm across. There is a 1cm margin around the edge and a centre label, which mesures 10cm across. There are 30 grooves per cm. How far does the needle travel if the record is played from start to finish?
50. In five years, I will be three times as old as I was three years ago. How old am I now?
51. Can you guess the next lettter in this series? "CYGTNLIT"
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Set 7
52. Five girls entered the Village Beauty Contest. Each of the five judges had to put them into a definite order and then allot fifteen marks between them. The aggregate marks for eachgirl decided the issue. The judges each gave a different maximum mark and also chose a different girl to be top. No girl had two identical marks in her score.
Joe gave the maximum possible to Rose and he placed Gwen above Linda. Tom gave Ann one more than Sam did. Pam had no zeros in her score and although she finished ahead of Rose she didn't win. Ann scored the only 5 that was allotted. Dan placed the girls as closely together as he could.
The judge who put Gwen first put Rose last. Brian succeeded in putting them all in their corrent final order.
Who won, and what were her individual marks from each judge?
UNSOLVED 53. Decode the following to find out where the Rajah's jewels have dissapeared to:
UNSOLVED 54. Here's a magic square for you to solve along with a few hints to get you started. You must complete it by putting 8 different
prime numbers in the eight empty squares, so that the lines, the columns and the diagonals add up to the same total; and it must be the smallest possible total under the conditions.
The number in the middle square is the average of the two numbers directly above it and below it. The third largest number is NOT in the right-hand column. Every square contains one or two digits. Can you solve the magic square?
UNSOLVED ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Set 8
55.
NYI