JAI SRI RAM

PUZZLES & RIDDLES

Compiled by
S.Geethapriya

Price – Rs. 22.00

Published by
Sri Aanjineyaa Pathippagam

1849, P.K.N ROAD, MUTHU CYCLE COMPLEX,

BYE PASS ROAD, SIVAKASI-626 189
CELL : 90034 - 58722
 CONTENTS CONTENTS

PUZZLES ANSWERS

1. Math Puzzles 5 1. Math Puzzles 46

2. Riddles 52
2. Riddles 11 3. Lateral Thinking Puzzles 57
4. Logical Puzzles 66
3. Lateral Thinking 20
5. Word Puzzles 78
Puzzles
4. Logical Puzzles 33
Bonus :
5. Word Puzzles 42
6 Fun Facts 81
.
5 6

1. Adding Up To 100
16,17,23,24,39,40
Adding together each of these numbers as
many times as you want, how do you reach a
sum of exactly 100?

MATH PUZZLES 2. Animal Math Puzzle

A small zoo had just mammals and birds.
When asked how many of each they had, the
zoo keeper said he had a total of 54 animals
with a 140 feet total between them all.
Assuming all the animals had all the feet they
should have, how many birds and how many
mammals were there?
7 8

3. Adding Up To 1000 How many years ago was her mother three

Using the digit "8" 8 times (and no other times the age of her daughter Mary?

digits), add numbers together to reach a sum

of 1000 6. How Many Flowers
In a bouquet of flowers, all but two are roses,
all but two are tulips, and all but two are
4. Add numbers from 1 to 9 to get
daisies. How many flowers are in the bouquet?
100
Look at the following:
7. 24 from Spare Parts
1 + 23 - 4 + 5 - 6 + 78 + 9 = 106
Using only and all the numbers 3, 3, 7, 7,
Notice that the digits 1 through 9 are used in
along with the arithmetic operations +,-,*, and
order to arrive at 106. Using 1 through 9 in
/, can you come up with a calculation that
order, and using only addition or subtraction,
gives the number 24? No decimal points
create an equation that equals 100.
allowed.
[For example, to get the number 14, we could
5. Age Problem
do 3 * (7 - (7 / 3))]
Mary is 54 years old, and her mother is 80.
9 10

8. 100 Meter Race 10. Find the number

Andy, Barry, and Carl race each other in a 100-
meter dash. They each run at a constant speed
throughout the sprint. Andy beats Barry by 20
meters, and Barry beats Carl by 20 meters.
How many meters does Andy beat Carl by?
A certain number consists of two digits. The
number is equal to five times the sum of its
digits. If you add 9 to the number, the order of
its digits is reversed. What is the number?

9. Average Salary
11. How many Cigarettes ?
Five coworkers want to know what the average
A man collects cigarette stubs and makes one
of all their salaries is, but refuse to reveal ANY
full cigarette with every 8 stubs. If he gets 64
information about their own salaries to their
stubs how many full cigarettes can he smoke?
coworkers. How can they calculate the
average?
11 12

1. Can you name five days of the week

without saying (or writing) Sunday,
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday or Saturday?

2. Read this aloud right now:

The cow ate the
RIDDLES
the green grass.
Did you get it right?

3. What number, when added to the

number three or multiplied by it, gives
the same result?
13
4. Count every " F" in the following
sentence (What could be easier than
that?):
Finished files are the result of years of
scientific study combined with the
experience of years.
How many did you find? Check at the
end of the newsletter to see if you found
them all.
5. I have three letters, and I read the same
forward and backwards. I rhyme with a
word that is important to everyone. What
word am I?
6. How can you cut a cake into eight parts
with just three cuts?
14
7. This is a most unusual paragraph. How
quickly can you find out what is so
unusual about it? It looks so ordinary,
you'd think nothing was wrong with it.
Actually, nothing IS wrong with it. But it
is not as ordinary as you might think. If
you think about it for a bit, you will find
out why it is truly so unusual. So what is
it? What is so unordinary about this
paragraph?
8. Peter picked one pepper more than Paul.
Pat picked one pepper more than Pam.
Peter and Paul picked 10 more peppers
than Pat and Pam. Peter, Paul, Pat and
Pam picked 60 peppers. How many
peppers did Peter pick?
15 16

9. If you call me by name, I am no more. 14. I'm as small as an ant, as big as a whale.
Who am I? I'll approach like a breeze, but can come
like a gale. By some I get hit, but all
10. The maker doesn't want it, the buyer have shown fear. I'll dance to the music,
doesn't use it, and the user doesn't see though I can't hear. Of names I have
it. What is it? many, of names I have one. I'm as slow
as a snail, but from me you can't run.
11. What occurs once in a minute, twice What am I?
in a moment, but never in a
thousand years? 15. Here on Earth it's almost always true,
that tomorrow will follow today. Yet there
12. Take 2 apples from 3 apples and is a place where yesterday always follows
what have you got? today. Where is this place?

13. Break it and it is better, immediately set

and harder to break again. What is it?
17 18

16. What goes up and down, but doesn't
move?
17. What is the beginning of eternity, the
end of time and space; the beginning of
every end and the end of every place?
20. My host thinks I'm an irritation, a bother,
a pain. But he can't evict me, so here I
will remain. Then one day I'm taken and
ranked among my peers. Can you guess
just what I am? Then you might call me
dear.

18. What word starts with an "e", ends with 21. A mile from end to end, yet as close to
an "e" and contains only one letter? you as a friend. A precious commodity,
freely given, seen on the dead and on
19. My thunder rolls beneath me, my the living. Found on the rich, poor, short
lightning flares above. I dust the crust, or tall, but shared among children most
and when I bust, all I touch will I shove. of all. What is it?
What am I?

22. What is it that you must give before you

can keep it?
19 20

23. What is too much for one, enough for

two, and nothing at all for three ?

24. I can not be seen only heard and I will

not speak unless spoken to. What am I?
LATERAL THINKING
PUZZLES
25. Often held but never touched, always
wet but never rusts, often bites but
seldom bit, to use me well you must
have wit. What am I?
21
1. Hanging above water
A man is found hanging in a room 30 feet off
the ground. There is nothing else in the room
except for a large puddle of water on the
ground. The police can't see any way the man
could have climbed the walls to get to where
he is hanging. How did this man hang himself?
2. Doctor can’t operate
A father and his son are in a car accident. The
father dies instantly, and the son is taken to
the nearest hospital. The doctor comes in and
exclaims "I can't operate on this boy." "Why
not?" the nurse asks. "Because he's my son,"
the doctor responds.
How is this possible?
22
3.Towards the sunset
A man and woman run through a field holding
hands. They bound toward the sunset, happy
as can be. Suddenly, the man moves off of his
straight-line course and starts veering to his
left. At the same time, the woman begins
running off to her right.
They continue this for a full minute, but never
let go of each others' hands. How is this
possible?
4. Defending the Bridge
Two soldiers, William and Ethan, are assigned
to guard a bridge, which connects the West
and East sides of the Great Kingdom. Each
soldier is ordered to stand at an end of the
bridge to make sure no criminals cross. On one
side of the bridge
23
stands William, watching over the West side of
the kingdom, and making sure no shady
characters try to cross the bridge. Ethan stands
on the other side of the bridge, facing the East
side of the kingdom with his rifle at the ready
in case any criminals try to pass across. "Any
criminals today?" William asks. Ethan rolls his
eyes. "What do you think?" he asks. "You roll
your eyes too much," William says. How could
William tell that Ethan was rolling his eyes?
5. The Two Barbers
There is a small town in the Midwest with
exactly 2 barbershops, one on each side of
town. The barbershop on the west side of town
is pristine. Its floors are spotless, the
windows are always perfectly clear, and the
24
air always smells fresh. The barber has a
friendly smile, shined shoes, a well-groomed
head of hair, and a fancy shirt. The barbershop
on the east side of town is a mess. Its floors
and windows are dirty, and the air smells of
garbage. The barber always has a grimace on
his face. His skin is oily, his hair is short and
ragged, and he has food on his clothes all the
time.
A man travelling through the town realizes he
needs a haircut. Knowing the stories of the two
barbers, the man decides to go to the dirty
barbershop on the east side of town. Why does
he do this?
6. Blind in a Hardware Store
A blind man walks into a hardware store to buy
a hammer. There are hammers hanging
25
behind the front desk, but obviously the blind
man isn't able to see them. And yet a few
minutes later, he happily walks out of the
store, having just purchased a new hammer.
How did he do it?
7. Moochers
What belongs to you, but other people use it
more than you do?
8. Truck Crossing a Bridge
A truck stops at a weigh station at the entrance
to a bridge and is shown to weigh exactly 2000
lbs. The operator of the weigh station notes
that the bridge can hold exactly 2000 lbs, but
would crumble if it were subjected to even a
fraction of an ounce more. But he says that no
other
26
vehicles ever cross over the bridge and so it's
fine if the truck crosses. The truck continues
on. Once the truck is halfway across the 10-
mile long bridge, a sparrow flies over to the
truck and lands on the hood. The truck driver
sees the bird lands and his heart drops as he
realizes the bridge is about to collapse, but
even after the bird lands, the bridge doesn't
crumble.
How was the bridge able to hold up despite the
extra weight from the bird?
9. Dead in Water and Glass
Romeo and Juliet are found dead in a small
puddle of water, surrounded by broken glass.
The apartment building they are found in is
located next to the city's main train station.
How did they die?
27
10. Rainy Day Elevators
A man lives on the 44th floor of his building.
On rainy days, when he gets home from work,
he takes the elevator all the way up to his
floor. But on sunny days, he goes up to floor
20 and walks the rest of the way. Why does he
do this?
11. Men in Black
A man is wearing black. Black shoes, socks,
trousers, jumper, gloves and balaclava. He is
walking down a black street with all the street
lamps off. A black car is coming towards him
with its light off too but somehow manages to
stop in time. How did the driver see the man?
12. Poison in the punch
A man went to a friend’s party and drank
28
some of the punch. He then left early. A while
later, everyone else at the party drank the
punch and subsequently died of poisoning.
Nobody had added anything to the punch after
the man had drank the punch and the man is
not Superman, either!! Why didn’t the man
die?
13. A Gun for Water, Anyone?
A man walks into a bar and asks the barman
for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a
gun and points it at the man.
The man says, “Thank you.” and walks out.
14. The Blind Beggar
A blind beggar had a brother who died. What
relation was the blind beggar to the brother
who died? (Brother is not the answer)
29 30

15. Three Switches and Three Bulbs unconscious. Why?

Three switches outside a windowless room are

connected to three light bulbs inside the room. 18. Last Goodbye
How can you determine which switch is Every morning a man kisses his wife good bye,
connected to which bulb if you may enter the and takes the lift to the ground floor to leave
room only once? for work. One morning, as he's taking the lift,
he suddenly realizes that his wife has died.

16. Nutty Problem How did he know ?

A man is replacing a wheel on his car, when he

accidentally drops the four nuts used to hold
the wheel on the car, and they fall into a deep
drain, irretrievably lost. A passing girl offers
him a solution which enables him to
drive home. What is it?
17. Bar Problem
A man walked into a bar, and before he could
say a word, he was knocked
19.Friday
A man rode into town on Friday. He stayed
for three nights and then left on Friday. How
come?
20.Jason’s Death
Jason is lying dead, he has an iron bar across
his back and some food in front of him. Why
did he die?
31 32
himself in any way. How was this possible?
21. Stuck under the bridge
Dingleberry Dave was driving his semi under
an overpass when suddenly he came to a
23. Professor Bumble’s Fumble ?
screeching halt. Dave wasn't paying enough
Professor Bumble, who is getting on in years, is
attention and inadvertently drove under the
growing absent minded. On the way to a
overpass that was just barely as high as his
lecture one day, he went through a red light
truck. The semi was wedged so tightly that he
and turned down a one-way street in the
could not go forward or backward. A fellow
wrong direction. A policeman observed the
trucker came by and told him how he could
entire scene but did nothing about it. How
easily get the semi out from under the bridge.
could Professor Bumble get away with such
What did he suggest?
behavior?

22. Ladder
24. Penguin’s Egg
Hardy Pyle was washing windows on a high-
Even if they are starving, natives living in the
rise office building when he slipped and fell off
Arctic will never eat a penguin's egg. Why not?
a sixty foot ladder onto the concrete sidewalk
below. Incredibly, he did not injure
33 34
1. Mr. and Mrs. Aye and Mr. and Mrs. Bee
competed in a chess tournament. Of the
three games played:
a)In only the first game were the two players
married to each other.
b)The men won two games and the women
won one game.
c)The Ayes won more games than the Bees.

LOGICAL PUZZLES d)Anyone who lost game did not play the
subsequent game. Who did not lose a game?

2. Five boys were climbing a hill. J was

following H. R was just ahead of G. K was
between G & H. They were climbing up in a
column. Who was the second?

3. If a grasshopper halves the distance to a wall

on every jump, how many jumps will
35
he need to reach the wall if he starts from
ten feet away?
4. You have a basket containing ten apples. You
have ten friends, who each desire an apple.
You give each of your friends one apple.
After a few minutes each of your friends has
one apple each, yet there is an apple
remaining in the basket. How?
5. You have three bags, each containing two
marbles. Bag A contains two white marbles,
Bag B contains two black marbles, and Bag C
contains one white marble and one black
marble. You pick a random bag and take out
one marble. It is a white marble. What is the
probability that the remaining marble from
the same bag is also white?
36
6. A man is stranded on an island covered in
forest. One day, when the wind is blowing
from the west, lightning strikes the west end
of the island and sets fire to the forest. The
fire is very violent, burning everything in its
path, and without intervention the fire will
burn the whole island, killing the man in the
process. There are cliffs around the island,
so he cannot jump off.
How can the man survive the fire? (There are
no buckets or any other means to put out
the fire)
7. A solid, four-inch cube of wood is coated with
blue paint on all six sides. Then the cube is
cut into smaller one-inch cubes. These new
one-inch cubes will have either three
blue sides, two blue sides, one blue side, or
no blue sides.
37
How many of each will there be?
8. Matthew leaves home in the morning to go
to school. At the moment he leaves the
house he looks at the clock in the mirror.
The clock has no number indication and for
this reason the boy makes a mistake in
interpreting the time (mirror-image). Just
assuming the clock must be out of order,
Matthew cycles to school, where he arrives
after twenty minutes. At that moment the
clock at school shows a time that is two and
a half hours later than the time that Matthew
saw on the clock at home. At what time did
he reach school?
38
9. A peasant is convicted in China. He gets the
death penalty. The judge allows him to say a
last sentence in order to determine the way
the penalty will be carried out. If the peasant
lies, he will be hanged, if he speaks the truth
he will be beheaded. The peasant speaks a
last sentence and to everybody surprise
some minutes later he is set free because
the judge cannot determine his penalty.
What did the peasant said?
10. You've got two jars, one of them fits exactly
5 liters, the other one fits exactly 3 liters.
How could you get exactly 4 liters with these
two jars? It is allowed to spoil some water.
39
11. At a nice sun shiny day, a man rowed with
his boat to an island in the middle of a big
lake. On the island he caught some fish.
Then he decides to return with his rowing
boat. After 10 meters of rowing he looks
behind him, but to his big surprise there is
no island anymore. What happened to the
island?
12. Suppose you have five bags filled with the
same type of coins and a weighting machine.
One of this bags is completely filled with fake
coins, the other bags contain only real ones.
A real coin weights 10 gram and a fake one
11 gram.
What is the minimal number of times you
need to use the weighting machine in order
to find the bag with the fake coins?
40
13. Two fathers and two of their sons are going
to fish. In total they catch three fishes. All of
them take one complete fish at home. How is
this possible?
14. Nine billiard-balls are lying in front of you.
Except for one they all have the same
weight. The exception is a little bit heavier
than the others. What is the minimal number
of times you have to use a balance in order
to find the wrong billiard ball?
15. A bookworm eats a straight way through a
encyclopedia consisting of ten parts. Each
part has 1000 pages. The bookworm starts
on the front cover of the first part and ends
on the back cover of the last part. From how
many pages did the bookworm eat?
41 42
16. A man would like to take a new health
insurance. An officer taking care of these
matters says to the man: "Please tell me
how many children you have." The man
answers: "I have three of them." The officer:
"What are the ages of your children?". The
man answers: "The product of the ages is
equal to 36." The officer replies: "This is not
enough information Sir!". "Sorry that I was a WORD PUZZLES
little bit unclear, but the sum of the ages is
equal to the number of shops in front of your
office," says the man. The officer: "This still
isn't enough information Sir!". The man
replies: "My oldest child loves chocolate."
The officer: "Thanks for your cooperation, I
now know the ages." Are you as smart as
the officer? Then give the ages of the
children.
43 44
1. Name the only English word that ends in 7. What is the longest English word that can
the letters "mt"? be spelled without repeating a letter?

2. What are the only four words in the 8. Can you find an English word that has
English language that end in "dous."? the six vowels, A, E, I, O, U and Y, in
their alphabetical order? For example,
3. Find at least two English words that have
there is the word "facetiously." What is
"uu" in them.
another one?
4. What is black when you buy it, red when
you use it, and gray when you throw it 9. Take the letters ERGRO. Put three

away? letters in front of it, and the same three

letters behind to form a common English
5. Name a word that has all five vowels in word.
it, in the same order they are found in
the alphabet. 10. Rearrange these letters to form the name
of a famous writer:
6. Which sound occurs in the English I AM A WEAKISH SPELLER
language but has no letter to represent
it?
45 46

47 48
1. Adding Up To 100 5. Age Problem
16 + 16 + 17 + 17 + 17 + 17 = 100 41 years ago, when Mary was 13 and her mother
was 39.
ANSWERS
2. Animal Math Puzzle MATH PUZZLES- ANSWERS
6. How Many Flowers
38 birds (76 legs) and 16 mammals (64 legs)
There are 3 flowers (1 rose, 1 tulip, and 1 daisy).

3. Adding Up To 1000 7. 24 from Spare Parts

8 + 8 + 8 + 88 + 888 = 1000 7 * ((3 / 7) + 3) = 24

8. 100 Meter Race

4. Add numbers from 1 to 9 to get 100
Andy beats Carl by 36 meters.
We can multiple solutions for this problem. Some
It is tempting to guess that Andy beats Carl by
of them are
40 meters, but when Andy finishes and is 20
12+3-4+5+67+8+9 = 100.
meters ahead of Barry, Barry is NOT 20 meters
1+2+3-4+5+6+78+9=100
ahead of Carl (he's only 16 meters ahead), and it
1+2+34-5+67-8+9=100
will take a couple more seconds before Barry
1+23-4+5+6+78-9=100
increases his lead over Carl to 20 meters.
1+23-4+56+7+8+9=100
Try yourself to get more solutions.
49
To figure out the answer, we let Andy's speed be
A meter/second. So it takes him 100/A seconds
to finish the race. At this point, we know that
Barry has run 80 meters (since Andy beats him
by 20 meters). So Barry runs 80 meters in 100/A
seconds, meaning that he is running at a speed
of (80/(100/A)) meters/second, or (8A/10)
meters per second.
So we then know that it takes Barry 100/(8A/10)
seconds to finish the race, or 125/A seconds. At
this point, we know that Carl has run 80 meters
(since Barry beats him by 20 meters). So Carl
runs 80 meters in 125/A seconds, meaning that
he is running at a speed of (80/(125/A))
meters/second, or 80A/125 meters per second.
Now that we know Carl's speed, we just need to
figure out how far he had run when Andy finished
the race. Since Andy finished in 100/A
50
seconds, we can determine that Carl had run
(100/A) * (80A/125) = 8000/125 = 64 meters
when Andy finished the race.
And so Andy beat him by (100 -64) = 36 meters.
9. Average Salary
Let's call the workers: Worker 1, Worker 2,
Worker 3, Worker 4 and Worker 5.
Worker 1 picks a random positive number N
(which he doesn't tell anybody), add his salary to
it, and writes this number on a piece of paper
which he hands to Worker 2.
Worker 2 adds his salary to this number, writes
the new number on a different piece of paper,
and hands it to Worker 3.
Worker 3 does the same and hands a new paper
to Worker 4, who does the same and hands a
new paper to Worker 5, who does the
51 52
same and hands a new paper to Worker 4, who
does the same and hands a new paper to Worker
5, who does the same and hands a new paper
back to Worker 1.
The number written on this final piece of paper
will be (N + the-sum-of-everybodys-salary).
So Worker 1 simply subtracts N from this number
and divides this final number by 5, which is the
average salary. At no point did any worker gain
RIDDLES - ANSWERS
any information about anyone else's salary.

10. Find the number

45

11. How many Cigarettes ?

8+1=9
53 54
1. The day before yesterday, yesterday, today, 5. Eye (rhymes with "I".)
tomorrow, the day after tomorrow.
6. Cut it as you normally cut a cake, in half with one

2. Most people read "The cow ate the grass" cut, and again with another, resulting in four pieces.

when they first try this. However, "the" Then cut it horizontally in half. This third cut creates
eight pieces total.
actually appears twice in the sentence, which is
easily missed due to the way our brains look
7. It does not contain the letter "e", which is the most
for and find familiar patterns - even when they
common letter in the English language.
are not there.

8. 18 Peppers
3. 1.5

9. Silence
4. The letter F appears six times in that
sentence. Most people think there are only four 10. Coffin
(although those who speak English as a second
language seem to do better at this). For some 11. The letter ‘M’
reason the brain doesn't identify the Fs in "of".
55 56

12. Two Apples 21. Smile

13. Record 22. Promise

14. Shadow 23. Secret

15. In a Dictionary 24. An Echo

16. The temperature 25. Tongue

17. The letter ‘e’

18. Envelope

19. Volcano

20. Pearl
57 58

1. Hanging above water

He stood on a tall block of ice and put the
noose around his neck. Once the ice melted, he
was hung, and all that was left was a puddle of
water on the ground.

2. Doctor can’t operate

LATERAL THINKING The doctor is the boy's mother.

PUZZLES 3. Towards the sunset

The man was facing forward, but the woman
ANSWERS
was running backwards. The man's right hand
was holding the woman's right hand. They both
veered in the same geographic direction, but it
was the man's left and the woman's right
because the woman was running backwards.
59
4. Defending the Bridge
William is on the east side of the bridge, facing
the West side of the kingdom, while Ethan is
on the west side of the bridge, facing the East
side of the kingdom. So William and Ethan are
facing each other, and can see each other's
faces.
5. The Two Barbers
Because there are only two barbers in the
town, the barbers must cut each-other's hair.
The barber on the west side of town has a nice
haircut, so the east-side barber must be a
good barber. On the other hand, the barber on
the east side of town has ragged hair, meaning
the west-side barber must not be very good.
So the man goes to the east-side barber to get
a better haircut.
60
6. Blind in a Hardware Store
He walks up the front desk where the clerk is
working and says "I'd like to buy a hammer."
7. Moochers
Your name.
8. Truck Crossing a Bridge
During the first 5 miles across the bridge, the
truck burned enough gas to account for the
weight of the sparrow, and thus it was not over
weight on the bridge.
61 62

9. Dead in Water and Glass 12. Poison in the punch

Romeo and Juliet are fish. A passing train The poison in the punch came from the ice
rattled the shelf their tank was sitting on and cubes. When the man drank the punch, the ice
knocked it off of the shelf. The tank broke and was fully frozen. Gradually it melted, poisoning
the fish died from being out of the water. the punch.

10. Rainy Day Elevators 13. A Gun for Water, Anyone?

The man is very short and cannot reach button The man had hiccups. The barman recognized
"44" in the elevator on sunny days. On rainy this from his speech and drew the gun in order
days he has his umbrella with him and is able to give him a shock.. It worked and cured the
to use it to press the button. hiccups, so the man thanked the barman.

11. Men in Black 14. The Blind Beggar

It was day time The blind beggar was the sister of her brother
who died.
63
15. Three Switches and Three Bulbs
Switch one light on for a minute; turn it off and
turn another on. Go into the room and feel the
off-bulbs. The warm one is connected to the
first switch, the on-bulb is connected to the
second.
16. Nutty Problem
Use one nut from each of the other three
wheels.
17. Bar Problem
The bar in question was an iron bar.
64
18. Last Goodbye
His wife was on a life support machine in his
apartment. When he was taking the lift, the
electricity went out, and he realized that his
wife would then die.
19.Friday
The man’s horse was called Friday.
20.Jason’s Death
Jason is a mouse, in a mouse trap.
65 66

21. Stuck under the bridge

He told Dingleberry Dave to let some air out of
his tires. This would make the truck lower and
allow him to pass through.

22. Ladder
He was standing on the bottom rung.
LOGICAL PUZZLES
23. Professor Bumble’s Fumble ? ANSWERS
He was on foot.

24. Penguin’s Egg

The natives are penguins
67 68

1. Mrs.Bee did not lose a game 5. 2/3 (not 1/2)

2. G. The order in which they are You know that you do not have Bag B
climbing is (two black marbles) so there are three
R–G–K–H–J possibilities

3. He will never reach the wall. If each You chose Bag A, first white marble. The
jump only goes half the distance, the other marble will be white
grasshopper will get closer and closer to You chose Bag A, second white marble.
the wall but never actually get there. The other marble will be white
You chose Bag C, the white marble. The
4. You give an apple each to your first nine other marble will be black
friends, and a basket with an apple to
your tenth friend. So 2 out of 3 possibilities are white.
Each friend has an apple, and one of Why not 1/2? You are selecting marbles,
them has it in a basket. not bags.
69
6. The man picks up a piece of wood and
lights it from the fire on the west end of
the island.
He then quickly carries it near the east
end of he island and starts a new fire.
The wind will cause that fire to burn out
the eastern end and he can then shelter
in the burnt area.
The man survives the fire, but dies of
starvation, with all the food in the forest
burnt.
7. There are 24 with one side colored, 8
with three sides colored, 24 with two
sides colored, and 8 with no sides
colored.
70
8. The difference between the real time and
the time of the mirror image is two hours
and ten minutes (two and a half hours,
minus the twenty minutes of
cycling).Therefore, the original time on
the clock at home that morning could
only have been five minutes past seven:
7:05 and 4:55
The difference between these clocks is
exactly 2 hours and ten minutes (note
that also five minutes past one can be
mirrored in a similar way, but this is not
in the morning!).
Conclusion: The boy reaches school at
five minutes past seven plus twenty
minutes of cycling, which is twenty-five
minutes past seven!.
71
9. The peasant said: "I shall be hanged!"
If the peasant was lying, he would be
hanged. But that's what the peasant was
saying. So he speaks the truth. But if he
speaks the truth, he would be beheaded,
so then he was not speaking the truth.
So it is impossible for the judge to
determine whether the peasant speaks
the truth or not. So therefore the judge
cannot determine the penalty and sets
the peasant free.
10. Fill the 5 liter jar completely. Then fill the
3 liter jar using the 5 liter
completely. Now there are 2 liters left in
the 5 liter jar. Now you empty the 3 liter
jar and put the 2 liters
72
from the 5 liter jar in the 3 liter jar. Then
fill the five liter jar again completely.
Finally fill the 3 liter jar completely using
the 5 liter jar. One liter still fits, since
there were already 2 liters in that jar. So
then 4 liters remain in the 5 liter jar.
You'll get exactly 4 liters in this way.
11. Of course the island is still there. The
man is just looking in the wrong
direction. When you are rowing, you are
always going backwards.
one 12. Take 1 coin from the first bag, 2 from the
second, 3 out of the third, 4 from the
fourth and 5 coins from the fifth bag.
Now weigh all these coins
73 74

together at once. If the fake coins are in 14. Only two times!
the first bag, the result of the weighting
will be 11 + 20 + 30 + 40 + 50 = 151 Divide all nine billiard-balls in groups of
gram. Likewise, if the fake coins are in three balls. Put two of these groups on
respectively the second, the third, the the balance. Now there are two
fourth and the fifth bag, the result of the possibilities. Either the balance indicates
weighting will be 152, 153, 154 and 155 a difference or it is indicates that both
gram. Hence in this way it is possible to groups have equal weight. In both cases
find the bag with the fake coins with you can find the heavy group, in the first
weighting only once. case it is one the balance, in the second
case it is not.
13. The people which went for fishing, are From the heavy group you select two
grandfather, father and son. Then there balls, and you put one ball apart. Put
are two fathers and two sons. these two selected balls on the balance.
If the balance indicates an equality, the
heavy ball lies
75 76
apart, if it does not the balance points 16. The product of the ages is 36. Using this
you to the heavy ball. one can make the following combination
of ages:
15. Assuming that the encyclopedia is
ordered in the usual way, the row of 1,36, 1 sum = 38
books starts with the back side of part 1,18, 2 sum = 22
one and ends at the front side of part 1,12, 3 sum = 16
ten. If the bookworm starts at the front 1, 9, 4 sum = 14
cover of part one it does not has to go 1, 6, 6 sum = 13
through part one anymore, but starts 2, 9, 2 sum = 13
immediately in part two. The worm 2, 6, 3 sum = 11
follows the red way until part nine. Then 3, 3, 4 sum = 10
the worm is on the back side of part ten.
After the man had said that the product
So the the bookworm eated from 8000 of the ages is equal to 36, the officer
pages. didn't have enough information. Then he
was told that the sum is equal
77 78

to number of shops in front of the office.

He replied by saying that this still isn't
enough information. So the sum of the
ages should be 13, because otherwise he
would have known the ages immediately.
The last statement is that that the oldest
child loves chocolate. So there is an
WORD PUZZLES
oldest child. Hence the officer concludes
that the ages of the children are 2, 2 and ANSWERS
9 years.
79 80

1. Dreamt. 7. Uncopyrightable (15 letters).

2. Tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and 8. Abstemiously (let me know if you find others).
hazardous.

9. UND(ERGRO)UND
3. There are at least four words: Muumuu, vacuum,
continuum, and residuum. 10. William Shakespeare

4. Charcoal.

5. There are at least two: facetious and abstemious.

6. The sound found in the following words: vision,

version, treasure, pleasure.
81 82

• The hardness of ice is similar to that of

concrete.
• Most lipstick is partially made of fish
scales.
• Your right lung takes in more air than
your left one does.
• The human brain is 80% water.

FUN FACTS • Cockroaches can live for 9 days after

their head has been cut off.
• By partially filling saucers with vinegar
and distributing the saucers around a
room, you can eliminate odors.
• Business.com is currently the most
expensive domain name sold for $7.5
million.
• Babies start dreaming even before
they’re born
83
• Every time you lick a stamp you gain
1/10 of a calorie.
• Did You Know, Donald Duck comics were
banned from Finland because he doesn't
wear pants.
• Did You Know, Butterflies taste with their
feet.
• Did You know, If you yelled for 8 years, 7
months and 6 days, you would have
produced enough sound energy to heat
one cup of coffee.
• Did You Know? Coca-Cola was originally
green.
• Did You Know? It is impossible to lick
your elbow.
84
• Did You Know? Intelligent people have
more zinc and copper in their hair.
• Did You Know? 25% of your bones are
located in your feet.
• Did You Know? 40% of all indigestion
remedies sold in the world are bought by
Americans.
• Other than fruit, honey is the only
natural food that is made without
destroying any kind of life.
• All the platinum ever mined would fit into
an average-sized living-room!
• All the gold ever mined could be molded
into a cube 60 feet high and 60 feet
wide.
85 86
• The average human body contains
• Mosquitoes have 47 teeth. enough:
• The best time for a person to buy shoes Sulfur to kill all the fleas on an average
is in the afternoon. This is because the dog.
foot tends to swell a bit around this time. Iron to make a 3 inch nail.
• The average office desk has 400 times Fat to make 7 bars of soap.
more bacteria than a toilet. Carbon to make 900 pencils.
• The first product that Sony came out Phosphorous to make 2,200 match
with was the rice cooker. heads.
• The first domain name ever registered Potassium to fire a toy cannon.
was Symbolics.com. Water to fill a 38 litre/10 gallon tank.

• The search engine Google got its name • The most commonly found blood-type in

from the word ëgoogolí, which refers to the world is O positive while the rarest is
the number one with a hundred zeros AB negative.
after it. • In some food products, and even

• The bark of an older redwood tree is shampoos, the reddish coloring is

fireproof. produced by the crushing of the tropical

Cochineal beetle.
87 88
• Snails can sleep for 3 years without
• 10% of your bodyweight consists of eating
bacteria. • 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 =
• The human heart creates enough 12,345,678,987,654,321
pressure when it pumps out to the body • Men can read smaller print than women;
to squirt blood 30 feet. women can hear better than men.
• A person cannot taste food unless it is • Bullet proof vests, fire escapes,
mixed with saliva. windshield wipers, and laser printers
• The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, were all invented by women.
can pull 30 times its own weight and • Studies show that if a cat falls off the
always falls over on its right side when seventh floor of a building, it has about
intoxicated. thirty percent less chance of surviving
• The fingerprints of koala bears are than a cat that falls off the twentieth
virtually indistinguishable from those of floor. It supposedly takes about eight
humans, so much so that they could be floors for the cat to realize what is
confused at a crime scene. occurring, relax and correct itself.
• Porcupines float in water.
89 90
• Honey is the only food that doesn't spoil.
• To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, • The pupil of the eye expands as much as

push your thumbs into its eyeballs - it 45 percent when a person looks at

will let you go instantly. something pleasing.

• Leonardo da Vinci could write with one • The average person who stops smoking

hand and draw with the other at the requires one hour less sleep a night.

same time • Laughing lowers levels of stress

• If you stop getting thirsty, you need to hormones and strengthens the immune

drink more water. For when a human system. Six-year-olds laugh an average

body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15

shuts off. to 100 times a day.

• Chewing gum while peeling onions will • The roar that we hear when we place a

keep you from crying seashell next to our ear is not the ocean,

• Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. but rather the sound of blood surging

If it is white there is a thin film of through the veins in the ear.

bacteria on it.
• The Titanic was the first ship to use the
SOS signal.
91
• Dalmatians are born without spots.
• Bats always turn left when exiting a
cave.
93
• Men’s shirts have the buttons on the
right, but women’s shirts have the
• Human hair and fingernails continue to
buttons on the left.
grow after death.
• The owl is the only bird to drop its upper
• It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood
eyelid to wink. All other birds raise their
cell to circle the whole body.
lower eyelids.
• The plastic things on the end of
• The reason honey is so easy to digest is
shoelaces are called aglets.
that it’s already been digested by a bee.
• The only part of the body that has no
• Roosters cannot crow if they cannot
blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It
extend their necks.
takes in oxygen directly from the air.
• The color blue has a calming effect. It
• In most watch advertisements the time
causes the brain to release calming
displayed on the watch is 10:10 because
hormones.
then the arms frame the brand of the
watch (and make it look like it is
smiling).
92
• Every time you sneeze some of your
brain cells die.
• Your left lung is smaller than your right
94
lung to make room for your heart.
• When you blush, the lining of your
• Colgate faced big obstacle marketing
stomach also turns red.
toothpaste in Spanish speaking
• It cost 7 million dollars to build the
countries. Colgate translates into the
Titanic and 200 million to make a film
command “go hang yourself.”
about it.
• The only 2 animals that can see behind
• The attachment of the human skin to
itself without turning its head are the
muscles is what causes dimples.
rabbit and the parrot.
• The sound you hear when you crack your
• Intelligent people have more zinc and
knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen
copper in their hair.
gas bubbles bursting.
• Whip makes a cracking sound because its
• When hippos are upset, their sweat turns
tip moves faster than the speed of
red.
sound.
• The human heart creates enough
pressure while pumping to squirt blood
30 feet
95 96

Did You know that...

• There where no plastic bags in India before

1985?
• The longest station name on the Indian
Railways is Venkatanarasimharajuvariapeta?
• India is the world's largest mango producer?
• The biggest ant in India is about an inch?
• India used sugar before any other country?
• Before 1896 India was the only diamonds
----END----
producing country in the world?
• The first bathrooms is said to have been
built in India about 4500 years ago?
• India is a home of 200 million cows ?