Larry Campbell Brain Teasers

March ’16 Brain Teasers

  1. Judo and karate contests take place on square mats.  The karate mat is 8 meters on a side, while the judo mat has 4 times the area of the karate mat.  What is the length of each side of a judo mat?
  2. Using the digits 1 – 6 once each, what is the largest proper fraction (less than 1) that you can form? (E.g. 234/516 is bigger than 1/3, but one can do better.)
  3.  Jack had a bag of 128 apples.  He sold 25 percent of them to Jill.  Next he sold 25 percent of those remaining to June.  Finally, he gave the shiniest one of those remaining to his teacher.  After that, how many did he have?
  4.  I have twice as many nickels as dimes.  If the value of my nickels is $5.00, what is the value of my dimes?
  5.  What do shredded wheat, aspirin, zipper, yo-yo, and cellophane have in common? (Possibly more than one answer?)
  6. Given an 8×8 checker/chess board, how many squares of any size (not just 1 x 1) are there?
  7. There is a pole in a pond. One-half of the pole is in the ground (under the pond), another one-third of it is covered by water, and 8 ft is out of the water. What is the total length of the pole in ft, and how deep is the pond at that point?
  8. My neighbor has four daughters and each daughter has a brother.  How many children does my neighbor have?

5 thoughts on “March ’16 Brain Teasers”

  1. 1. area of judo mat is 256 sq. meters, therefore each side is 16 meters
    2. 463/512 is a little more than 9/10

  2. #3 Apples: Answer is 71. 75% of 128 = 96; 75% of 96 = 72; 72-1 = 71.
    #4 Nickles and dimes: Answer is $5.00. there are 100 nickles 100 X 5 = 500/100 = 5.00; There are 50 dimes, 10 X50 = 500; 500/100 = 5.00.
    5. A list in common. Answer #1 – All of them were used in the same sentence. Answer #2 – Larry used, ate, or consumed all of these as a little boy.

  3. 3. 71 apples left (unless there was a trick in the wording that I missed)
    4. $5.00 in dimes

  4. 8. The neighbor has 5 children – 4 girls and 1 boy (who is the same brother to each
    daughter).
    7. I’m giving this one a try, but I don’t feel extremely confident about it.
    total length of pole: 48 ft.
    depth of pond: 16 ft.

  5. 1. 16 meters
    3. 71 apples
    4. $5.00
    6. 204 squares
    8. 5 Children, 4 daughters and one son

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