About 2000 B.C. there lived Ahmes, a royal secretary and mathematician of the Pharaoh Amenemhat III. In 1853, an Englishman Rhind found one of Ahmes’s papyruses near the temple of Ramses II in Thebes. The papyrus is a rectangle 33 cm wide and about 5 m long. There is the following Mathematical brain teaser on […]

Outside the lost city of Xaitec, archaeologists have noticed three rings of large stones, each with a straight line of stones beside it. Twins Sari and Devon have been asked by the chief archaeologist to see whether there may be a connection between the rings and the lines. The twins decide to determine the diameters

There is a certain club which is for men only. There are 600 men who belong to this club and 5% of these men wear one ear-ring. Of the other 95% membership, half wear two ear-rings and the other half wear none. How many ear-rings are being worn in this club? AnswerSix hundred. We know

Josh is writing a book. He starts on page 1. When he finished, he used a total of 228 digits. How many pages does he have? Answer112 pages.

A priest sent a courier from Rome to Venice to reach Venice in 7 days. At the same time, the Mayor of Venice sent a courier to Rome to reach Rome in 9 days. The distance was 250 miles. In how many days will they meet?HintThe speeds of the couriers are 250/7 and 250/9 AnswerThe

A girl is twice as old as her brother and half as old as her father. In 22 years, her brother will be half as old as his father. How old is the daughter now? AnswerShe is 22. Her brother is 11 and her father is 44. In 22 years, her brother would be 33

Michael has five bags of candies to give out. Four of the bags have a total of 84 candies. The fifth contains four candies less than the average of the five bags. How many candies are in the fifth bag? AnswerSixteen

Professor X has managed to create a simple programme that can multiply any two whole numbers and calculate the answer correctly.But, a problem has arisen; it seems the programme will not correctly multiply a number by itself (such as 4 X 4).Fortunately, the professor knows a way to get around this glitch.Keeping in mind that

Rob and Bob played a challenging game several times, betting one pebble on the outcome every time. Rob won seven pebbles, while Bob won seven times. There were no ties.How many times did they play? AnswerIf Rob is up seven pebbles, that means he has won seven more times that he has lost. He lost

Grandpa says, “My grandson is about as many days as my son is in weeks, and my grandson is as many months as I am in years. My grandson, my son and I together are 100 years. Can you tell me my age in years?” AnswerThis problem is conveniently solved by writing down the necessary

Quentin is a man who writes puzzle books. His editor gives him a task for his next book. He must produce 500 puzzles in the space of 80 days. He has created 300 puzzles already. However, he has been working slower than normal, producing an average of 15 puzzles for every 4 days. How fast

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.