I once cashed a cheque at the bank. I had spent £5.67 before I realised the bank clerk had made a mistake. He had transposed the pounds with the pence. I now had exactly 4 times the value of the original cheque. What was the original cheque's value?
Exactly how many minutes is it before six o'clock if 50 minutes ago it was four times as many minutes past three o'clock?
[Ref: ZTIO]
Hint: How many minutes are there between 3:00 and 6:00?
Answer: 26 minutes.
There are 180 minutes between 3:00 and 6:00. We can ignore the "50 minutes ago" for a little while and share the remaining 130 minutes in the ratio 4:1, which is 104:26. Which means the 3 hours between 3:00 and 6:00 are made of up 104 minutes + 50 minutes + 26 minutes. So it's now 26 minutes to 6.
Which means it is now 5:34. 50 minutes ago it was 4:44 - which is 104 minutes past 3:00. QED.
Puzzle 1508
Which four letter word can be placed between the two following words to make two new ones:
Answer: TH: the last two letters of the planets in reverse order from the sun.
Puzzle 1510
You have the misfortune to own an unreliable clock. This one loses exactly 13 minutes every hour. It is now showing 11:45am and you know that is was correct at midnight, when you set it. The clock stopped two hours ago, what is the correct time now?