NEW! Pesky Puzzler 24.9: Who’s On First?
Harvey owes Sam $27.00. Sam owes Fred $6.00 and Albert $15.30. If, with Sam’s permission, Harvey pays off Sam’s debt to Albert, how much does he still owe Sam?
Previous Puzzlers (Some are omitted for logistical reasons.)
PP 24.8 A couple of (hopefully) easier ones.
- What is the value of this fraction? (6 – 9 x 7) / (6 + 4 x 3) -57/18. Or -19/6
- A palindrome is a number (of more than one digit) that reads the same forwards and backwards. How many palindromes are there between 1 & 100? 9 (Optional extra: Between 1 & 1000?) 99
PP 24.7 THE INHERITANCE PROBLEM
A man divides his cattle among his four sons so that the oldest son gets 1/2 the herd, the next son 1/4, the next 1/5, and the youngest son the remaining 20 cows. How many cattle are in the herd? The man has 400 cattle in his herd. (Trial and error, a little fraction work, or simple algebra will yield the solution.)
PP 24.5 THE MILK JUGS
A milkman has 2 empty jugs: a 3-gallon jug and a 5-gallon jug. How can he measure exactly ONE gallon of milk without wasting any mile? 1. Fill the 3-gallon jug and pour it into the 5-gallon jug. 2. Re-fill the 3-gallon jug and pour it into the partially-filled 5-gallon jug. 3. When that jug is full, what remains in the 3-gallon jug will be one gallon.
PP 24.4 NUMBER PUZZLES
1. How many natural numbers are between the square roots of 8 & 80? Six. (SQRT 8 is just less than 3, and SQRT 80 is not quite 9. So the natural #s between them would be 3,4,5,6,7, & 8.)
2. What’s the largest three-digit number divisible by both 7 & 9? 945
BONUS: How many nonzero perfect squares can be displayed on an eight-digit calculator? 9999
PP 24.3 HOPEFULLY-EASY RIDDLES?
1. If two’s company and three’s a crowd, what are four and five? Nine.
2. A man shaves several times a day, but still has a beard. How can that be? He is a barber.
3. What can you hold in your left hand, but not your right? Your right elbow (or arm, etc).
4. If you throw a White rock into the Red Sea, what would it become? Wet
BONUS: What is so delicate that saying its name breaks it? Silence
