Larry N. Campbell

Pesky Puzzlers 2025

PP 25.6: Do any or all:

  1. What starts today, can’t be found at noon, and is required to end sunset?
  2. (A variation on an earlier Puzzler.) What’s the most money you can have and not be able to make exact change for a dollar?
  3. A can of tennis balls is exactly the right shape to hold 3 tennis balls stacked one upon another. Which is greater – the can’s height or its circumference? (Bonus points for explaining why.)
  4. A wooden cube is dropped into red paint. After drying, it is cut into 27 equally sized smaller cubes (like a Rubik’s cube). How many of those cubes are found to have red paint on . . . 4 faces? 3 faces? 2 faces? 1 face? no faces?

Some Previous Puzzlers – and Solutions

PP 25.5: Do any or all:

  1. If 50 kids fit in a school bus, how many buses are needed to get 125 kids to a special event? Three buses.
  2. What’s the largest number of coins you can have and not be able to make exact change for a dollar? 99 – all pennies. (See another variation of this problem above.)
  3. On a certain day, I ate lunch at Tommy’s Cafe, took out 2 books from the library, visited the museum, and had a cavity filled. Tommy’s is closed on Wednesday, the library is closed on weekends, the museum is only open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and my dentist has office hours Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. On which day of the week did I do all these things? Friday
  4. Each of the Bubba brothers has as many sisters as he has brothers, but each of the Bubba sisters has twice as many brothers as sisters. How many siblings are in the Bubba family? Seven siblings; 4 boys, three girls.

PP 25.4: Do any or all:

  1. Pi Day (3/14) Trivia: Pi Day is closely connected to two very famous physicists. One of them had a birthday on Pi Day, and the other died on Pi Day. Who were the two physicists? (Heavens, yes – feel free to use Google.) Albert Einstein was born on Pi Day (1879) and Stephen Hawking died on Pi Day (2018).
  2. Last week we celebrated Twin Primes Day on Mar 5. (3/5) When two odd primes are only two apart (like 3 & 5) they are called twin primes. There are only 3 twin prime days each year. What are the next two? May 7 (5/7) and Nov 13 (11/13).
  3. What word becomes plural when an ‘s’ is added, BUT becomes singular again when another ‘s’ is added? (Hint: Think royalty.) Prince. (Princes and Princess). I also took others that were very close.
  4. (An OLD classic!) A bottle and a cork together cost $1.10, and the bottle costs $1 more than the cork. How much does each item cost separately? Cork – $.05, Bottle – $1.05

PP 25.3: Do any or all:

  1. Their is six errers in this sentance. What are they? Their should be There. Is should be are. Sentance should be Sentence. Six should be five. (There are only 5 errors.)
  2. History time: There are three 2- or 3-generation sets of US Presidents. Can you name at least two of the pairs? The Adams (John, father; John Q, son); the Bushes (George, father; George W, son) and the Harrisons (William H, grandfather; Benjamin, grandson)
  3. The sum is 12, and the same digit is used 3 times to create that sum. But that digit is NOT a 4. What is it? 1. (11 + 1)
  4. (An easy repeat?) Homer’s mother has 4 children. Three of them are named Spring, Summer, and Autumn. What is the fourth child’s name? Homer

PP 25.2: Do any or all:

  1.  Ralph drives 60 miles at the speed of 30 mph. Then he returns on the same route, driving 60 mph. What was his average speed for the round trip? 40 mph. (120 miles in 3 hours.) (NOT 45 mph. You can’t average averages!)
  2. What number is 10 more than twice the number that is 10 more than 15 times (one-half of 10)? 180
  3. Guess The Next Three Letters In The Sequence GTNTL. ITS
  4. During which month do people sleep the least? February

PP 25.1: Do any or all:

  1.  The largest hailstone known to have fallen in the US fell in Coffeyville, KS, in Sept 1970.  It was 17.5 inches in circumference and weighed 1.67 pounds.  What was the approximate diameter of the hailstone? Approximately 5.57 inches.
  2. What is the smallest positive integer which is itself divisible by each of the integers from 1 to 12? 27720
  3. Your unorganized sock drawer contains 8 white socks, 8 blue socks, and 8 black socks. How many times do you need to reach inside the drawer and take out a sock at random to guarantee you have A)  a sock of each color? B) a pair of socks of the same color? A) 17 B) 4
  4. What was special about Jan 9 this year? (If you’re alert, you just might find this answer elsewhere in the Mailing. 🙂 ) Writing out the date – 1/9/25 – gives you the squares of the first 3 odd positive integers.
  5. The string of letters abcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz could be said to represent a particular time of the year. What would that time be? Christmas. There is no letter l. (Noel)