A fruit vendor had a basket of oranges. A customer approached him and purchased one half of the oranges plus half an orange. A second customer came and purchased one half of what he had left plus half an orange. A third customer bought one half of what was left plus half an orange, leaving […]

Three co-workers would like to know their average salaries.However, they are self-conscious and don’t want to tell one another their own salaries, for fear of either being ridiculed or getting their houses robbed. How can they find their average salaries, without disclosing their own salaries? AnswerGuy 1 adds a constant to his salary and tells

“I’ve always been 45 years older than your Dad,” said Grandma to young Trickle, “But now the two digits in my age, both prime, are the reverse of the two in your Dad’s age.” How old is Grandma? AnswerGrandma was 72 years old. Let the two digits be A and B. Then 10A+B-10B-A=45 so 9(A-B)=45.

Jen, Paula and Sarah had spent the week decorating an elderly neighbour’s house, for which they earned £500 among them. When it came to dividing up the money Paula claimed she had worked three times harder than Jen, and Sarah had worked twice as hard as Paula. If the money was divided fairly, how much

A man goes into a hardware store to purchase some knobs. To purchase one knob you must pay a minimum of 4 U.S. coins. Two knobs can be purchased with a minimum of 6 U.S. coins. 3 knobs require a minimum of 2 U.S. coins. How much does one knob cost? U.S. coins include: a

Tom’s birthday is exactly 4 weeks later, and today is his birthday with month and day reversed.What is Tom’s birthday? AnswerIt’s easy to say that the month and day must differ by 1.Furthermore, if their difference is 1 then the previous month must have 1 day more than 28, which is February in a leap

There is a racehorse that has won so many prestigious races; many fans come to admire him each day. One day, the owners of the horse were interviewed by a newscaster. The interviewer asked how many people there were today to admire the horse. The owner’s reply was as follows: “Twelve times the amount of

At one time, the Canadian and US dollars were discounted by 10 cents on each side of the border (i.e. a Canadian dollar was worth 90 US cents in the US, and a US dollar was worth 90 Canadian cents in Canada). A man walks into a bar on the US side of the border,

Pretend you have two faucets for your shower, one that releases hot water and one that releases cold water, but at varying pressures. If the hot water is 105 degrees Fahrenheit and the cold water is 45 degrees Fahrenheit, and you could rotate the faucet at most 360 degrees, how much would you have to

When I add 6 times my age 6 years from now to 7 times my age 7 years from now, I get 14 times my current age. How old will I be 3 years from now? Answer88

Matthew walks up and down a hill which is three kilometres each way. His dog, being slower, walks at half the speed. When Matthew reaches the top of the hill, he turns around and walks down to meet his dog part way. Matthew continues walking to the bottom of the hill maintaining his speed. The

Grandpa Jones says:“My son Adam is 24 years younger than I and 35 years older than my grandson, Joey. Together our total ages add up to 100.”Can you figure out the age of each one of them? AnswerGrandpa Jones was 24 when Adam was born and Joey was born 35 years later, so Grandpa has

Sally and Anna took turns multiplying numbers. Sally picked the number four. Anna multiplied that by 4 to get 16. Sally multiplied that by 4 to get 64. Anna multiplied that by 4 to get 256.After going back and forth several times, one of them got the number 1,048,576. Who came up with that number—Sally

You are at a birthday party and the cake is brought in. The birthday candles on the cake are in a pattern: red, yellow, red, yellow, blue, red, yellow, blue, green. The pattern continues, adding pink, orange, purple and white candles.How many candles are on the cake in all? Answer The Pattern: red, yellow,red, yellow,

Mr. and Mrs. Crazy recently had their concert, and they wanted to know how much their total income was. After calculating that they earned $95, they figured out that 100 people attended their concert. If each child paid 50 cents, each pensioner paid $2.50, and adults paid $10 each, how many children, pensioners, and adults