Puzzle Answers

Arithmetic
1. Possible answers: 4 - 4 + 4/4 = 1; 4/4 + 4/4 = 2 ; (4 + 4 + 4) / 4 = 3 ; 4 * (4 - 4) + 4 = 4 ;
(4 * 4 + 4) / 4 = 5 ; (4 + 4) / 4 + 4 = 6 ; 44 / 4 - 4 = 7 ; (4 + 4) * (4/4) = 8 ; 4 + 4 + 4/4 = 9;
(44 - 4) / 4 = 10.

Now try the same thing using exactly five 1's. (you will need to change bases for one of the numbers)

2. Fill the 7 gal with water, use it to fill the 5 gal leaving 2 in the 7 gal. Dump the 2 into the 5, then
refill the 7. Fill the 5 gal the rest of the way with the 7 gal, leaving four left over.

Now try getting 7 gallons using a 4 gallon and a 9 gallon bucket.

3. The error here is that the equation explaining the situation is wrong. While it is true that 9(3) + 2 is not
equal to 30, it is true that 9(3) - 2 = 25, which is the correct way of looking at things.

4. The best way to think about this is that there are 30 cheap oranges and 30 expensive oranges. The
problem with the manager's plan is that he runs out of cheap oranges after 10 batches of 5 oranges. The last
two batches of five are made entirely of expensive oranges.

5. Each rider should have 3 and a half gallons of water. The first gets one full canteen, one empty, and 5
half full. The second and third riders get 3 full canteens, 3 empty canteens, and 1 half full. There is a
second possible answer, can you find it?

6. An easy example of ratiocinitis. The obvious answer is 90 miles per hour until you realize that to
average 60 miles per hour you have to finish both laps in two minutes, which you used up during the first
lap going 30 miles per hour. It is impossible.

7. An often forgotten step in solving word problems is the last step. You should always ask yourself: Does
your answer fit the question? If you simply divided 9 by 2, you get 4 and a half, meaning that the man is
standing in the middle of the parking lot with a gallon of paint. The answer is 5.

8. Another error in doing word problems is identifying what you are looking for. The question can be
restated What is the distance when the distance is 0?
9. The first step of any word problem is to draw a picture. Notice where page 1 and the last page are when
two volumes are put together. The book worm only eats through 1/4 inch of cover.

Geometry Answers

1. If you flatten the box into a flat plane you end up with a 12 by 5 rectangle, and if the spider walks
a beeline diagonally across this rectangle, then using the Pythagorean Theorem, he only walks 13
inches. Nice and even right? Well, dozens of people have written in saying the answer is wrong.
The flattened box could also create an 11 by 6 triangle which has a hypotenuse of 12.53 inches.
Note the following illustration:

2. The spider is walking on a ball. On a flat plane a triangle can only have 180 degrees, but on a curved
surface, it can have more. Think of a plane flying over the Earth from the north pole to the Equator then
turns right and follows the equator to 90 degrees longitude, then turns right again and heads to the north
pole, you have circumscribed a triangle with 270 degrees total.
 3. The first two figures are so complicated, most miss the obvious answer:

4. Continue line DE until it intersects AB. This means the angle adjacent to angle BED= 110° and
the third angle of the triangle 30°, then by the theorem that when a parallel line is cut by a
traversal the corresponding angles are congruent, and by the vertical angle theorem, angle EDC
has to be 30° also. Can you prove that angle ABE and angle CDE always add up to BED?

5. Angle BED=30° See below for one explanation.

Draw BG at 20° to BC, cutting CA in G.

Then  GBD=60° and  BGC and  BCG are 80°. So BC=BG.
Also  BCD =  BDC = 50 so BD = BG and triangle BDG is equilateral.
But  GBE = 40° =  BEG so BG=GE=GD.
And  DGE = 40° hence CED = 70° and BED = 30°.
This is a puzzle from Adventitious Geometry

6. The two triangles have close, but not quite the same slope. The 5x2 triangle has a rise of 0.4 while the
8x3 triangle has a rise of 0.375, a fact cleverly hidden by the fact that the lines are all bold in the figure.
The result is that the hypotenuse of the full 13x5 triangle (slope 0.385) is not perfectly straight. On the top
figure it is slightly concave, on the bottom it is slightly convex, just to enough to free up one square.

7. Bobby's solution is a square pasture, 250m per side, with a pasture area of 62,500sq. m. Cindy's solution
is to make a round pasture with a circumfrence of 1000m resulting in a pasture area of 79577.47sq. m.

8. 11 see below
Algebra

1. Figuring out ZERO to TWELVE gives you 13 equations and 16 unknowns. There are an infinite number
of solutions. For simplicity sake E+N=0, lets say E=-2 and N=2. From ONE (O+N+E=1) and TEN, O=1
and T=10. From TWO, W=-9. From ELEVEN, V=7. From TWELVE, L=0. From THREE, H+R=-11, lets
arbitrarily set H=-3 and R=-8. From FIVE, F=-15. From SEVEN, S=-4. From EIGHT, G=-12. From
FOUR, U=26. From SIX, X=-1. And finally from ZERO, Z=5. I purposely picked E, N, H, and R so that no
two letters share the same number. For fun, try Spanish: S+E+R+O=0, U+N+O=1 etc. (In case you don't
know the rest is dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez)

2. The secret here is to dump off 2000 cobs somewhere in the desert, then 1000, the go the rest of the
distance without looking back. Load up the Camel, go for 200 miles and drop 600 cobs off and go
back for more (remember you need cobs for the return trip, one per mile.) Repeat the same
procedure. On your third trip, you do not have to go back. You are now 200 miles in with 2000
cobs. Now go 334 miles, drop 333 cobs off, and return, then pick up the rest and come back. You
are now 534 miles in with 1000 cobs left. Hightail it straight to the end of the desert for 467 miles,
you are left with 534 cobs of corn.

3. .

Since the infinite series = 3, we can substitute giving 9 = x + 3, therefore x=6.

4. The infinity can be eliminated by dividing both sides by two and substituting, giving us x = 1/2 + 1/2x.
solving for x: 1/2x = 1/2, therefore x = 1.

4. Eliminating the infinity by substitution gives us x = 2 + 15/x. Multiplying both sides by x gives us
x2 = 2x + 15, or x2 - 2x - 15 = 0, or (x - 5)(x + 3) = 0, or x = 5 or -3, but since x has to be positive,
x = 5.
Logic

1. The gold is in the first box. The message on the second and third boxes are contradictory, which means
one of those is telling the truth and one is false. Since only one message can tell the truth it means that the
message on the first box must be false, also. Since the message on the first box is false, the gold must be
there.

2. They are Knight, Knight and Knave. The most basic rule of Knight and Knave island is that no one ever
says they are a Knave. Knights always say they are Knights because they tell the truth, Knaves say they are
Knights because they always lie. The second must be a Knight, otherwise he would have lied about the
firsts response and if so, he must be telling the truth about the first. The third must therefore be a Knave.

3. If the respondent said "Yes" there is no way to know what the inhabitants are. Since he knew what they
were after the inhabitant responded, the answer must have been "No", and he must be lying since no one
would admit truthfully to being a Knave. Therefore, the one who responded must be a Knave and his
companion must be a Knight.

4. The way to solve problems like these is to create charts for each variable and then use the process of
elimination to come to a conclusion. The order of the performers is the easiest. We know from the first clue
that Victor and Vito do not perform in fourth or fifth spots, and from the last clue we know they do not
perform first. So the order they perform is Virgil, Victor Vito, Vincent (clue three), and Vance (by
elimination). Vincent must be the clown and Vance the Magician by clue 1. Vito must be the Acrobat by
clue 2. Victor is the strong man by clue 3, and that leaves Virgil to be the Juggler. This should prepare you
enough for problem five which has six unknowns.

5. This problem is too much fun to try to explain in detail, but if you want to check your answer, the
Norwegian drinks water and the Japanese owns the zebra.

6. Alice passed Math and English, Bob passed everything, and Carol only passed English.

7. The winning candidate reasoned as follows: If I saw two red marks, I would immediately jump up and
say mine is black since at least one is black. If I saw a red and a black mark, and the one with the black
mark did not immediately jump up and say, "mine is black", then I could assume I do not have a red mark.
Since both of these candidates are smart, they must be facing the same situation as I, and all three of us
have black marks.