Larry Campbell Brain Teasers

SUMMARY: Solutions and Solvers, May/Jun 22

REMINDERS:  Answers in red.  Solvers (submitted/correct) in blue. (Forgive any omissions, but feel free to inform.) Comments in green. For further elaboration on solutions, please feel free to ask! 

Not AS many solvers this time.  No, crying doesn't release toxins, though it might make you feel better... if that's what you believe

  1. 6 + 5 – 4 x 3 ÷ 2 = ? 5   Anita Dixon, Frank Green, Amy Ragsdale.
  2. Pure Trivia, no math 😊 What’s the only word in the English language that uses all five vowels, once each, and in order?!   (Update:  Apparently, there are at least two (indeed, 31!?) such words!) Facetious and abstemious both work (as do the adverbs formed by adding -ly to each word. 🙂 And these words include the ‘y’, which is nice.) Anita Dixon, Frank Green, Don Hayes, Amy Ragsdale
  3. What’s the volume of a tank whose measurements are 80 cm x 1 meter x 600 mm?  .48 cubic meters or 480,000 cubic cm or LOTS of cubic mm. 🙂 [48,000,000 to be exact.] Anita Dixon, Frank Green, Amy Ragsdale
  4. There are 3 separate boxes. Inside each box are two smaller boxes.  Inside each smaller box are 3 dice (number cubes).  What’s the sum of all the pips on all the dice?  (For those of you old enough, you can’t ask Gladys Knight. 😊)  378  (3*2*3*21) Anita Dixon, Frank Green, Amy Ragsdale
  5.  Match the correct building tops below to the building foundations to correctly complete all buildings 1c,2d,3a,4b Anita Dixon, Frank Green,JimWaterman,Amy Ragsdalemind teaser
  6.  Funny joke? (Saw this online.)  What’s the difference between a violin and a fiddle?  (Lots of answers here I suspect.) A violin had strings, but a fiddle has STRAAANGS. 🙂  (If you google this, as I had to do, since I forgot ‘the answer’ :-(, there are several jokes along this line.  Also interesting facts, as well.  In reality, there’s technically no difference.) No [independent] ‘answers, but two factual responses submitted. 🙂
  7.  A rectangle with sides x + 2 and 3x – 1 has perimeter of 18 units.  Find the value of x.  x = 2. Anita Dixon, Frank Green, Amy Ragsdale
  8. If the radius of a circle is tripled, how much does the area of the circle increase? Increases by a factor of 9.  Anita Dixon, Frank Green, Amy Ragsdale
  9. If 3y = 8.5, then what exactly is 6y + 5? 22 Anita Dixon, Amy Ragsdale
  10. What are the next three letters in the following sequence? J, F, M, A, M, J, J, A, __, __, __ S, O, N (months of the year. 🙂 ) Anita Dixon, Amy Ragsdale.
  11. An elevator is on the ground floor. There are four people in the elevator, including me. When the elevator reaches the first floor,  three people get in. The elevator goes up to the second floor. Two people get out and six people get in.  Halfway up to the next floor, the cable snaps, and the elevator crashes to the floor. Everyone else in the elevator suffered injuries. How did I remain unscathed?  I was one of the two who got off on the second floor.  Anita Dixon, Amy Ragsdale
  12. How many even integers are there between -100 and 100, inclusive  101.  Anita Dixon, Amy Ragsdale
  13. Place one or more plus signs (+) between the numerals to make a true statement:  3  9  2  5  1  7  8 = 242 = 39 + 25 +178
  14. Find one fraction and one decimal between 1/98 and 1/99.  If this is not possible, tell why. Literally, an infinite number of correct answers in each case.  Examples: 2/197 and .01015  Anita Dixon, Amy Ragsdale
  15. In what month of the year do people generally sleep the least? February. 🙂  Anita Dixon, Amy Ragsdale
  16. How many squares are on a 3 x 3 mini-checkerboard? 14 (Should I have said squares of any size ?  There are  nine 1 x 1’s, four 2 x 2’s and one 3 x 3.)  Anita Dixon, Amy Ragsdale

BONUS 1:  How many sets of two initials (like LC, as in first/last name) would you need to have to BE SURE there were at least two sets of initials that are duplicates?  There are 676 different sets of initials (26 x 26), so once you have 677, you can be sure there’s at least one duplicate set.  Anita Dixon
BONUS 2:  Are there any non-negative integers x where  2x < x2 ?  Only one.  When x = 3, the statement is true.  Don Hayes, Amy Ragsdale

BONUS 3:  If (1/x) + (1/y) = 1/5, then what is the ratio of (x + y) to xy ?  1:5, or 1/5.  (there’s a beautiful [and simple] shortcut here [where you don’t have to find x or y], if you notice it.  Holler if you’d like more details.)  Anita Dixon, Amy Ragsdale