Brainteasers for a lazy Saturday afternoon
[UPDATED: Comments have the answers now!]
Ok geniuses, it’s time for a little bit of brain teasing fun. I was browsing a cool thread over at SomethingAwful about riddles and a few of them were really cleaver. I solved exactly none of them, which nearly drove me to shameful suicide, so I’m hoping you are all equally feeble of mind so I can feel better.
I’ll post the answers in a comment a bit later on, so you can mull over them for a while. They are all solvable, and not in the stupid “a duck is hypodeterimus thus only lays eggs in the spring, idiot” type way.
A man walks into a bar and after a few drinks has the following conversation with the bartender:
Man: Try to guess the ages of my three daughters.
Bartender: Well, I won't guess but if you give me clues, I'll try to figure it out.
Man: Ok, the sum of their ages is eighteen.
Bartender: That's not enough, I need more information.
Man: Well, the age of one of them is the address above the door outside.
Bartender: (After returning from looking at the door) That helps, but I still don't know all of their ages.
Man: Alright then, my youngest girl's favorite flavor of ice cream is strawberry.
At this point, the bartender promptly told the man the ages of all three of his daughters. What were they?
You're locked in a room with a lighter and two ropes and no way to tell the time. When lit, each of the ropes burn for exactly one hour. However, the speed with which they burn is not uniformly distributed over their lengths. For example, The first half of a rope may burn up in 50 minutes, the third quarter in a minute and the last quarter in 9 minutes. There's no way to tell. How do you use the ropes and the lighter to measure exactly 45 minutes?
You have a set of justice-type scales (two platforms etc) and 26 rocks. One of them is heavier than the others. In three weighings, how can you determine which one is the heavy one?
Have fun!
Ok geniuses, it’s time for a little bit of brain teasing fun. I was browsing a cool thread over at SomethingAwful about riddles and a few of them were really cleaver. I solved exactly none of them, which nearly drove me to shameful suicide, so I’m hoping you are all equally feeble of mind so I can feel better.
I’ll post the answers in a comment a bit later on, so you can mull over them for a while. They are all solvable, and not in the stupid “a duck is hypodeterimus thus only lays eggs in the spring, idiot” type way.
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How quickly can you find out what's unusual about this paragraph? It looks so ordinary you'd think nothing was wrong with it at all--and, in fact, nothing is. But it is unusual. Why? Study it, think about it, and you may find out. But you must do it without coaching: I'm not going to assist you in any way. No doubt, if you work at it for a bit, it will dawn on you. Who knows until you try? So hop to it, try your skill and pray for luck. Par is about half an hour.-----------------------------------------------
A man walks into a bar and after a few drinks has the following conversation with the bartender:
Man: Try to guess the ages of my three daughters.
Bartender: Well, I won't guess but if you give me clues, I'll try to figure it out.
Man: Ok, the sum of their ages is eighteen.
Bartender: That's not enough, I need more information.
Man: Well, the age of one of them is the address above the door outside.
Bartender: (After returning from looking at the door) That helps, but I still don't know all of their ages.
Man: Alright then, my youngest girl's favorite flavor of ice cream is strawberry.
At this point, the bartender promptly told the man the ages of all three of his daughters. What were they?
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You're locked in a room with a lighter and two ropes and no way to tell the time. When lit, each of the ropes burn for exactly one hour. However, the speed with which they burn is not uniformly distributed over their lengths. For example, The first half of a rope may burn up in 50 minutes, the third quarter in a minute and the last quarter in 9 minutes. There's no way to tell. How do you use the ropes and the lighter to measure exactly 45 minutes?
-----------------------------------------------
You have a set of justice-type scales (two platforms etc) and 26 rocks. One of them is heavier than the others. In three weighings, how can you determine which one is the heavy one?
-----------------------------------------------
Have fun!
posted by Sam Cox at
11:32
7 Comments:
man these brainteasers are harder than everything I do at work...it's a saturday dammit! give my brain a break will ya?! :P
By
Ray, At
27 October 2007 12:17
i think i got the first one in about 10 seconds .. i havent read the rest - quit while you're ahead and all that ..
By
tanyah, At
27 October 2007 15:19
While admitting my stupidity for not getting that first one (I was driving hard and fast down the wrong track) you will have my respect if you get a couple of the next ones. No googling now.
By
Sam Cox, At
28 October 2007 19:41
Got the first one...working on the rocks now. Should make that next 12-hour bus journey just fly...
By
Tom, At
28 October 2007 23:39
No letter ‘e’.
The number over the door has to be 16 or less, a 18 and 17 are impossible to have 3 numbers sum. Can't be 16, as the bartender wouldn't need the ice cream hint since 16+1+1=18. Can't be 15 for the same reason as it'd be 15+1+2. 14 and 13 both have 2 possibilities per. 12 and lower are 3 possibilities per, so those are out since we only have enough information for a 2 possibility answer. 14 is 1+3 or 2+2. 13 is 4+1 or 2+3. Since the ice cream clue defines no twins (youngest, oldest are given) that means the bartenders knows 3 facts. He does not have enough information to solve for 13, but he can say it's 14. Since our information is based off the bartender solving it, it has to be 14, 3 and 1.
You light both ends of the rope, it should burn in 30 minutes. So you light both ends of one rope and light only one end of the other rope. Once the first rope completely burns up you light the other end of the second rope.
Take two groups of 9 rocks and weigh them. If they weigh the same, the heavier one is in the remaining 8. Otherwise, you know which group of 9 has the heavy one. Then take 6 stones out of the group with the heavy stone and split that into two groups of 3, with either 2 or 3 stones left over. Weigh the two sets of 3. Now you have either 2 or 3 stones, one of which is the heavier one. Weigh 2 of them. If you only have 2 stones in that group, bingo. If one stone is heavier than the other, bingo. If you had 3 stones and the two on the scales weigh the same, the one you didn't weigh is the heavy one.
By
Sam Cox, At
29 October 2007 19:39
The first one, there a no 'e's in any of the words... took me about 30s :-p
Take that alcohol!
By
matware, At
1 November 2007 21:03
you are far too into this quiz stuff. its hard.
By
Anonymous, At
2 November 2007 22:30
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