Mary Jane, the confectioner with two first names, looked up her fellow candy maker in the phone book. “Cracker, Jack” was the listing, and during the ensuing phone conversation they decided to market their products jointly in a single multi-pack. They quickly discovered that the normal rules of economics applied, as when they reduced their […]
Maxwell Smart (Agent 86) was trying to get a coded message to his girlfriend (Agent 99). He had to type into his shoe phone, her agent number 99 as the sum of two prime numbers. How many different ways could Max do this? AnswerJust one way. As all prime numbers except 2 are odd, and
A fool wants to tie a rope around the earth. So he buys a rope of 40,000 km and ties it around the world. His neighbour, also a fool, wants to do the same. Only he wants the rope on sticks 1 metre above the ground.How much more rope does he need?And how much more
Last week, seven gerbils, four budgies, three iguanas, a parrot and five goldfish escaped from the pet store.On each of the two following days, half of the loose pets were recaptured.How many animals were still free at the end of the second day? AnswerFive animals were still free at the end of the second day.
Tina has a large collection of pets. 1/3 of them are cats, 1/4 of them are dogs, 1/5 are hamsters and the rest are goldfish. If Tina has 39 goldfish, how many pets in total does she have? AnswerShe has 180 pets in total.Cats + Dogs + Hamsters = 1/3 + 1/4 + 1/5 =
You are a 3rd grader. You have been victorious during the food fight today in school. As you walk home, a 5th grader suddenly jumps up behind you, with some mouldy food from last week in his hand. He threatens to splat you unless you answer the following question correctly in 10 seconds:What is the
Sabrina gave Samantha as many dollars as Samantha started out with. Samantha then gave Sabrina back as much as Sabrina had left. Sabrina then gave Samantha back as many dollars as Samantha had left, which left Sabrina broke and gave Samantha a total of $80.00. How much did Sabrina and Samantha have at the beginning
Each son in the Hubbard family has just as many brothers as sisters, but each daughter has twice as many brothers as sisters.How many boys and girls are there in the family? AnswerThere are 4 boys and 3 girls in the family.(Each boy has 3 brothers and 3 sisters, but each girl has 4 brothers
Mikey was looking through his drawer where he was saving all of his packages of gummy fruit- candy. He found a dozen packages of candies altogether. He kept a chart listing how many pieces of candy there were in each package and figured out that he had 81 pieces of candy in all. His chart
Justin Time was on a gruelling trip from his hometown of Neutron to the town of Proton. Justin and his bicycle were able to hitch a ride to the town of Electron, which was exactly halfway to Proton. The ride lasted one hour, and was ten times faster than if Justin had cycled the same
It was vacation time, and so I decided to visit my cousin’s home. What a grand time we had! In the mornings, we both would go for a jog. The evenings were spent on the tennis court. Tiring as these activities were, we could manage only one per day, i.e. either we went for a
It is May 2003 and today three planets and a central star are in a straight line (this isn’t necessarily our solar system). The farthest planet takes 18 years to complete an orbit around the central star; the second farthest takes 9 years to orbit around the star; and the nearest takes 4 years 6
A man ordered a length of rope by telephone from his nearest hardware shop. But when he went to collect the rope, he found that the assistant had wrongly written the order by interchanging feet and inches. As a result of this, the rope was only 30 per cent of the length that the man
A painting job can be completed by 7 painters in 17 days. If 7 more painters join the team 7 days after starting work on the job, then how many more days are required to complete the job? AnswerTotal effort required by 7 painters for 17 days = 7 x 17 = 119 man-days.Initial effort
Three boys went to their neighbour’s tree to steal apples. Only one of them could climb so that the boy might start to pick apples.The neighbour woke up and he came outside to investigate. The other two boys who couldn’t climb got scared and ran away. The boy up in the tree waited patiently until