Puzzles

[kford_academy]

TRICK(-ISH) PUZZLES – PART 2
(Disclaimer: None of these puzzles, or the previous ones I posted, are based on true events. So don’t start looking for a wholly red bungalow!)

First, a quick update on my previous puzzles (at time of posting, ≈8am on 23/10/2023): there have been some good responses! No-one has presented a correct solution to Q5 (with explanation) that does not involve the bear crossing the North Pole, but people have come close (in particular @f6exb_the_frenchy). All other puzzles have had correct responses (although only one correct solution has been proposed for Q3). Well done all!

Now my next set of puzzles:

7) Three hens lay three eggs in three days. Assuming all hens lay eggs at the same constant rate, how long would it take for seven hens to lay seven eggs?

8) I live in a red bungalow. By that, I mean that everything is red: I have a red floor, red walls, red chairs, red doors. So what colour are the stairs?

9) Alice, Bob, Charlie and Dylan sit around a circular table going clockwise. Alice has a (shuffled) deck of 52 playing cards, and starts dealing each card sequentially, going clockwise from herself. (So the order of people who receive cards is Alice, Bob, Charlie, Dylan, Alice,…) Unfortunately, Alice is interrupted, and so she doesn’t know who the last person she dealt to was. Nevertheless, she finishes dealing the deck successfully without anyone counting the number of cards in anyone’s pile nor the pile of cards left. How come?

10) Solve the following (trick) crossword. All clues fit into a 4×4 grid with no gaps.

ACROSS
Row 1: (e.g.) Vigenère.
Row 2: Fish plus one letter.
Row 3: What you (hopefully) signed up to this competition to solve.
Row 4: One letter plus a poem.

DOWN
Column 1: Four bodies of water?
Column 2: Sign of interest.
Column 3: Four rivers?
Column 4: Sign of (mild) pain.

11) The set of numbers {1,3,8,120} has the property that the product of any two (distinct) numbers in the set is one below a square. (e.g. 3*8=5²-1) Add one number to this set whilst retaining this property.

12) It was reported that Pento the Penguin waddled 1km South, then 1km East, then 1km North, without crossing the South Pole, and ended where it started. Given that no penguin has ever reached the Arctic Circle, can the story be true? (Use the same assumptions as in Q5.)

[Luke-Chesters]

@f6exb_the_frenchy

Yes! Turning off the lights meant that there was no light to reflect (no visible light, anyway).

Here’s another riddle.

There are two identical twins, one called Michael, and the other called John. Both went to the same bar and had the same drink.
Apart from that, though, they were completely different. John was kind and caring, while Michael was cruel. Michael had ruined the bartender’s life, in various different ways for his own enjoyment. As such, the bartender decided to poison Michael.

Now, the bartender had a predicament. Both John and Michael had the same exact drink, even down to the glass; Lemon margaritas with ice. There was no way to force one of them to drink one drink, as either could be given to Michael and John. The only thing that the bartender noticed was that John drank quickly, while Michael didn’t. And so, he figured out a way to kill Michael but not John.

How is this possible?

[sdv_x]

@kford_academy

Answer to No.8 = no stairs, the house is a bungalow

[f6exb_the_frenchy]

#91486
I think the poison is in the middle of the ice and the two glasses are poisoned in the same way.

[f6exb_the_frenchy]

#91683 3)
I can use my thermometer as a lumberjack’s cross. (In french: “la croix du bûcheron.)

[f6exb_the_frenchy]

#91853 3)
When she is interrupted, Alice put the pile of cards left in front of the last person she dealt to.

[kford_academy]

@f6exb_the_frenchy
Response to Q3: I will take your word for it!
Response to Q9: Nice idea, but… a solution exists even if Alice failed to do this. What is it?

@sdv_x
Response to Q8: Correct answer, well done.

—-

Another solution for Q3: On a sunny day, measure the ratio of the thermometer’s length to its shadow’s length. Use this to estimate the building’s height based on its shadow’s length.

P.S. So far, at time of posting (≈8:45am on 27/10/2023), correct solutions have been posted for Questions 1,2,3,4,6,8 and maybe 5 & 9. Keep up the good work!

[ChinmayiK]

The poison is in the ice, and both drinks have been poisoned. But because John drinks quickly, the ice does not have time to melt, therefore John is not poisoned. The poisoned ice in Michael’s drink will have melted as he doesn’t drink quickly, so he ends up drinking the poisoned drink.

[f6exb_the_frenchy]

#91853 7)
Three days.

[sdv_x]

@Luke-Chesters

Is the poison contained in the ice? John drinks quickly so he finishes the margarita while the ice is still frozen, so the poison is not released. Michael drinks slowly, so the ice has time to melt and the poison to mix with the alcohol.

[kford_academy]

@f6exb_the_frenchy
Correct answer to Q7, well done!

[sdv_x]

@kford_academy

is the answer to No.11 the number 0?

thx

[kford_academy]

@sdv_x
Response to Q11: Correct!

P.S. It is an open question in maths to determine if there exist five distinct positive integers with the property described in Q11. I leave it to the discussion of the Cipher Challenge community…

[sdv_x]

@kford_academy

I’m not sure if there are five distinct positive integers…at least up between 1 to 1000000 there aren’t I don’t think (I wrote some code to solve the problem between the range (0, 1000000) and the only numbers that came up were 0, 3, 8, 24 and 120

[f6exb_the_frenchy]

#91683 3)
The temperature drops of one Celsius degree every 500 feet. So, by measuring the temperature of the building at the bottom, then at the top, I can calculate its height.
My answer #91896 is not correct in english, but correct in french. It uses Thales.

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