Brainteasers

tia travels's Avatar
I found these on this site:
MSU Gifted & Talented Education
They aren't so much funny, but a tad difficult for a blonde like me.
I don't feel like straining my brain to figure them out + I dislike math.
Can anyone else do so? If you agree with someone's answer, say so as I won't know if someone's answer is right unless a majority think so.
Instead of requoting the whole post again, just put your answer like this:

ORANGE--(answer)
or
BLUE--(answer)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three people check into a hotel. They pay $30 at the desk and go to the room. The manager remembers that the room is $25 and decides to return the $5. On the way to the room he reasons that $5 would be hard to share among three people so he keeps $2 and gives $1 to each person. Each person paid $10 and got back $1. So they paid $9 each, totaling $27. The bellboy has $2, totaling $29. Where is the missing $1?


Over the last few hundred years there have been thousands of reported incidents of horses jumping over towers and landing on clergy and small men, forcing their removal. These incidents are well documented and there is great evidence that they all happened. How can this be explained?


There are three switches downstairs. Each corresponds to one of the three incandescent light bulbs in the attic. You can turn the switches on and off and leave them in any position. How would you identify which switch corresponds to which light bulb if you are only allowed one trip upstairs?


Which is the number when multiplied by 3, then increased by three fourths of the product, divided by 7,diminished by 1/3 of the quotient, multiplied by itself, diminished by 52, the square root found, addition of 8, division by 10 gives the number 2? If you think it through, it's not too hard.


A king died and left to his three sons his 17 race horses. His last wish was his children divide the horse such that the 1st prince has 1/2 of the horses, the 2nd have 1/3, and 3rd can have 1/9 of the total. They were confused and did not know how to proceed. Soon a man came riding on a horse and they spoke to him. Soon that man divided the horses and went away on his horse. How can this be?


There is a truth teller, a liar, and one that sometimes answers truthfully and sometimes lies. Each individual knows who is who. You may ask three yes or no question to determine who is who. You may ask the same question more than once, but of course it will count towards your total. What are your questions and to whom will you ask them?



A man runs a mile south, a mile west, and a mile north and ends up back where he started! He cannot apparate, fly, or anything else, he just walks. How can this be?
abdclub's Avatar
I've seen most of these before. The last one, however, I hadn't seen. He has to be at the N. Pole, right?
  • beady
  • 05-23-2011, 04:31 AM
Purple = 28
  • beady
  • 05-23-2011, 04:33 AM
Green = each person has only laid out $9, so 3 x $9 = $27 = £25 for the bill and %2 for the manager
Yellow- I would ask each one if they are awake.

I would also ask the female, if there is a female in the group, if she is a woman. I would ask the males if they are a male.
O'Mike's Avatar
A king died and left to his three sons his 17 race horses. His last wish was his children divide the horse such that the 1st prince has 1/2 of the horses, the 2nd have 1/3, and 3rd can have 1/9 of the total. They were confused and did not know how to proceed. Soon a man came riding on a horse and they spoke to him. Soon that man divided the horses and went away on his horse. How can this be?
The man who came riding up on a horse, made the total 18 horses in the group.

The first prince then got half of the 18 horses or 9 horses.
The second prince got 1/3 of the 18 horses or 6 horses.
The third prince got 1/9 of the 18 horses, or 2 horses.

9+6+2=17
The man who rode up got to keep his own horse, and was able to ride away.
O'Mike's Avatar
There are three switches downstairs. Each corresponds to one of the three incandescent light bulbs in the attic. You can turn the switches on and off and leave them in any position. How would you identify which switch corresponds to which light bulb if you are only allowed one trip upstairs?
Turn the first switch to on and wait a few minutes, then turn it off.
Turn the second switch on, and go up stairs.
The bulb that is on belongs to the second switch.
The bulb that is off, but still hot, belongs to the first switch.
The bulb that is off, and cold, belongs to the third switch.
Green- The three men gave the manager 30 dollars. So the manager has 30 dollars. The manager took 5 dollars and handed it to the bellboy. The bellboy handed 3 dollars to the three men, and kept 2 dollars for himself. 25 (held by the manager)+3(held by the three men) +2(held by the bellboy) =30 dollars, therefore there is no missing dollar.
O'Mike's Avatar
Over the last few hundred years there have been thousands of reported incidents of horses jumping over towers and landing on clergy and small men, forcing their removal. These incidents are well documented and there is great evidence that they all happened. How can this be explained?
It happens all the time in the game of chess. The Knight (aka the horse) can jump over the Rook (aka Castle, represented as a tower.) and take a Bishop or Pawn.
O'Mike's Avatar
Yellow- I would ask each one if they are awake.

I would also ask the female, if there is a female in the group, if she is a woman. I would ask the males if they are a male.
You will have used up your three question and still not have the answer.

Not sure if this one can be solved. Would like to see the correct answer if anyone figured it out.
Macgregor's Avatar
Orange: Line up the three individuals, front to back, and number them #1, #2,
and #3. I'll abbreviate, T for truth-teller, L for liar, and
R for random answerer.

(Question 1) Ask #1, "Is R immediately behind L?" If he answers yes,
then either he is T and the order is TLR, or he is L and the order is
LTR, or he is R and the order can be either RTL or RLT. Thus we have
divided the 6 states like this:

Q1 yes Q1 no
------ -----
TLR TRL
LTR LRT
RLT RLT
RTL RTL

Notice that if the answer was yes, then #2 cannot be R. So (Q2y) ask
#2, "Are you R?" If the answer is yes, you know this is a lie, so #2
must be L. This leaves two possible states: TLR or RLT. To distinguish
between these states, (Q3yy) ask #2, "Is #3 T?" You know he will lie,
so an answer of yes means TLR, and an answer of no means RLT.

If the answer to Q2y was no, then you know this is the truth, and #2
must be T, leaving two possible states: LTR or RTL. To distinguish
between these states, (Q3yn) ask #2, "Is #3 L?" You know he will tell
the truth, so an answer of yes means RTL, and an answer of no means
LTR.

If the answer to Q1 was no, then #3 cannot be R (see the table above).
You can follow exactly the same procedure as above, except that you
switch #2 and #3. In summary, here is a flow chart of the questions you
ask:

(Q1) #1, Is R immediately behind L?
Yes --> (Q2y) #2, Are you R?
Yes --> (Q3yy) #2, Is #3 T?
Yes --> TLR
No --> RLT
No --> (Q3yn) #2, Is #3 L?
Yes --> RTL
No --> LTR
No --> (Q2n) #3, Are you R?
Yes --> (Q3ny) #3, Is #2 T?
Yes --> TRL
No --> RTL
No --> (Q3nn) #3, Is #2 L?
Yes --> RLT
No --> LRT

After three questions, we know who is who. Does this solution work for
you?
tia travels's Avatar
Wow...you really went to town on that one. You definitely put some time into it. I'm going to look at that answer of yours with stuffed animals with nametags so I don't get lost with who's who. LOL

I'm also working on locating the site again and bringing up the answers that they've received already. Whether they are right or not, I am not sure. They didn't have answers for all of them, but.....give me a week or less.

Here's a NEW one I just saw (We'll color this one SIENNA):

Feed, good, and kiss are 3 examples of words with double letters. Use the clues and fill in the blanks to find words with consecutive double letters. Remember, these words have 2 sets of double letters in a row!

1. It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a...
B _ _ _ _ _ N

2. Body modification.
T _ _ _ _ O

3. A Group of people.
C _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E

4. Acuteness or acumen.
K _ _ _ _ _ _ S

On the MAROON one, I don't know why the question had to even include the comment about the guy rode UP on a horse and left on his horse. It wasn't that well hidden in the sentence. Did they think we would not see that and include it or something? LOL I mean, why couldn't we have done the math the same way, only with the number 17 instead of 18? Would it have worked still? If the horse the man rode up on was not one of the King's horses, why include it in the count?

The BLACK one about chess sounds good to me.
chicagoboy's Avatar
Sienna

1. Balloon
2. Tattoo
3. Committee
4. Keenness
tia travels's Avatar
chicagoboy...how long did it take you to do that...like 58 seconds or something??