Geekery

Test your logic

Posted on 10. Dec, 2009 by Jake.

This week I’ve got logic puzzles that I think you may find interesting to solve. I only got 1 of the 2 correct but maybe you’ll manage to ace them all.

• Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones?
• You have an old-fashioned refrigerator with a small freezer compartment capable of holding seven ice cube trays stacked vertically. But there are no shelves to separate the trays, and if you stack one tray on top of another before the ice cubes in the bottom tray are fully frozen, the top tray will nestle into it, and you won’t get full cubes in the bottom tray. You have an unlimited supply of trays, each of which can make a dozen cubes. What’s the fastest way to make full-sized ice cubes?

Get the solutions next week.

Last week’s solutions:

Problem A: First fill the 5-litre bowl, overspill water from it to fill the 4-litre bowl, which you empty afterwards. Overspill the remaining 1 litre to the 4-litre bowl. Refill the 5-litre bowl and overspill water from it to fill the 4-litre bowl (where there is already 1 litre). Thus you are left with 2 litres in the 5-litre bowl.

Second, the same principle – this time from the other end. Fill the 3-litre bowl and overspill all of the water to the 4-litre bowl. Refill the 3-litre bowl and fill the 4-litre bowl to the top. And there you have 2 litres in the 3-litre bowl.

Problem B: Turn both sand-glasses. After 4 minutes turn upside down the 4-min sand-glass. When the 7-min sand-glass spills the last grain, turn the 7-min upside down. Then you have 1 minute in the 4-min sand-glass left and after spilling everything, in the 7-min sand-glass there will be 1 minute of sand down (already spilt). Turn the 7-min sand-glass upside down and let the 1 minute go back. And that’s it. 4 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 9

You can find more water and weighing puzzles at http://brainden.com/weighing-puzzles.htm

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Riddle me this…

Posted on 01. Dec, 2009 by Jake.

This week’s riddles are actually quite easy so go on, have a stab at the following.

Problem A

How would you measure 2 litres of water if you had:

1. 4 and 5-liter bowls
2. 4 and 3-liter bowls?

Problem B

If you have 2 sandglasses: one 7-minute and the second one 4-minute, how can you correctly time 9 minutes?

Answer to last week’s riddle:

The Empty Triangle

Which figure should be placed in the empty triangle?

The top number minus the bottom left-hand number is multiplied by the bottom right-hand number to give the number inside the triangle.

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The Empty Triangle

Posted on 16. Nov, 2009 by Jake.

This week’s brain teaser is just for the ubergeeks. I’m taking it up a notch to see if you can reveal your true geekery or if you’re just a plain novice in a Think Geek t-shirt. FYI -This puzzle happened to be found in a Mensa publication.

Question:

Which figure should be placed in the empty triangle?

Catch the solution to this brain teaser right here next Mon, 23 Nov 2009.

Answers to last week’s riddle:

Question 1:
What do the following numbers have in common?
3    7    10    11    12
Answer:
The only vowel they contain when written out fully is the letter E.

Question 2:
What is the next number in this series?
5   25   61   113   181   ..
Answer:
265. The series consists of the sums of the squares of 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, etc

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Riddles: Your Number’s Up

Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by Jake.

Things are getting trickier as the year comes to it’s inevitable and less than graceful close. Ain’t it feel good that in this crazy world some things – maybe not the weather in Jo’burg, but some things – always make sense. That is, if you can figure ‘em out

Riddle 1 for the week

What do the following numbers have in common? (tricky one, this…)
3    7    10    11    12

Riddle 2 for the week

What is the next number in this series?
5   25   61   113   181   ..

Answers to be put up on the 16th of November.

Answers to last week’s riddles:

Problem 1:
Take the letters ERGRO. Put three letters in front of it, and the same three letters behind to form a common English word.
UND(ERGRO)UND

Problem 2:
Which of the following words is the
odd-one-out?
IBIS IBEX ORYX SIKA ZEBU
Ibis is a bird the rest are mammals

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Riddles: Word Up

Posted on 27. Oct, 2009 by Jake.

Today’s riddles are all simple, short and to the point…. the point being, they’re word problems!

Problem 1:

Take the letters ERGRO. Put three letters in front of it, and the same three letters behind to form a common English word.

Problem 2:

Which of the following words is the odd-one-out?

IBIS IBEX ORYX SIKA ZEBU

Answers to Palindrome’s and Maths:

A car”s odometer shows 72927 miles a palindromic number. What are the minimum miles you would need to travel to form another?”
Answer
110 miles. (73037)

Question
There is a clothing store in Bartlesville. The owner has devised his own method of pricing items. A vest costs $20 socks cost $25 a tie costs $15 and a blouse costs $30. Using the method how much would a pair of underwear cost?
Answer
$45. The pricing method consists of charging $5 for each letter required to spell the item.

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