A rich man left home, with only a gold chain with 123 links. He decides to stay at an inn. The owner of the inn wants one link for the first week, two links for the second week, three links for the third week, etc. What is the minimum amount of cuts? AnswerThe minimum number […]

You have two pots which fit the same lid. The large pot is 12 ounces without the lid. With the lid it weighs twice as much as the small pot on its own. The small pot with the lid is one-third more than the large pot on its own.(1) How much does the lid weigh?(2)

My dad has a miniature pyramid of Egypt. It is 5 inches in height. Dad was invited to display it at an exhibition. Dad felt it was too small and decided to build a scaled-up model of the pyramid out of material whose density is (1/ 5) times the density of the material used for

Joe and Bob can build a house together in 45 days. Bob works exactly half the speed that Joe does. How many days can Joe and Bob each build a house on their own? AnswerSince it takes them 45 days together to build one house, they can build 1/45 of a house in one day.

Six men have 6 bags each. In each bag, there are 6 cats; each cat has 6 kittens. How many legs are there in all? Answer6,060Here is how you get the answer:You go 62 for the men’s legs, so it is 12. Put that number off to the side. Then you go 66 for the

In our business, my two partners and I usually cut a lot of cake. However, when we get a last- minute cancellation, we sometimes look for new and unusual ways to cut small amounts of cake.On one such occasion, we tried to find a cake with an unusual set of attributes.First, it had to be

Joe bought a bag of oranges on Monday, and ate a third of them. On Tuesday he ate half of the remaining oranges. On Wednesday he looked in the bag to find he only had two oranges left. How many oranges were originally in the bag? AnswerHe had 6 oranges to start with, and ate

A man smokes and drinks coffee lightened with cream. He is absolutely consistent in his habits. Every day, except every four years when he abstains on Leap Day, he smokes the same number of cigarettes, brews the same amount of coffee grinds, and uses the same amount of cream in his coffee. Every day, he

The Chompem Cannibals of Drybone Island have the annoying habit of eating one another. In fact, Grandpa Chompem went missing only last week, and it was thought he’d lost his way home until his bits and pieces were found on the beach. One evening, the Chompems threw a dinner party, one of those bring-a-friend get-togethers.

The other day, I took an online survey in which there were two choices: “True” and “False”. I made my selection and was surprised to see the results:33% of people had selected “True”68% of people had selected “False”.My biggest surprise was that most people didn’t agree with me. The answer was obviously “True”. How could

In a singles tennis tournament, 111 players participated. They used a new ball for each new match. When a player lost one match, he was eliminated from the tournament. How many balls did they need? AnswerThere was only one winner, so the remaining 110 players were defeated in 110 matches. Therefore, they used 110 balls.

Some students are standing in a square. Counting from any of the eight directions, Victor is the fifth. How many students are there?HintIt is not 100.AnswerSince Victor is the fifth counting from any direction, there are 5+5-1=9 students on each row and each column, and there are 9*9=81 students.The students stand like this: V is

If seven people meet one another and each shakes hands only once with each of the others, how many handshakes will there have been? Answer21.

Takashi took part in a marathon race.At half-time, he is 6th last. After that, he is overtaken by three more contestants, but then he struggled and overtook 10 in a row, getting himself the bronze prize (3rd place).How many contestants were there in total? Answer15.

Gus and Joe are raising pigs. Gus said that they would have an equal number if Joe would give him two pigs. But if Gus gave Joe two of his, Joe would have twice as many as Gus. How many pigs did they each have? AnswerGus had 10Joe had 14