Puzzle 281
Two friends were driving from their home to Manchester, Alex drove the first 90 miles, and Blake took over for the remainder of the journey.
On the way back, Alex drove to begin with, and Blake took over for the last 100 miles.
Who drove the furthest?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
It doesn't matter how far it was to Manchester.
Answer
Blake.
Reasoning
If we call the total distance T, we know that:
on the way there Alex drove 90 miles, and Blake drove T - 90 miles.
on the way back Alex drove T - 100 miles, and Blake drove 100 miles.
So, in total:
Alex drove 90 + (T - 100) = T - 10.
Blake drove (T - 90) + 100 = T + 10.
So Blake drove 20 miles more than Alex.
Puzzle 282
Cake Theft - Logic Puzzles
During a recent police investigation, Chief Inspector Stone was interviewing five local villains to try and identify who stole the prize cake from the mid-summers fayre. Below is a summary of their statements:
Alex: it wasn't Emery
it was Blake
Blake: it wasn't Charlie
it wasn't Emery
Charlie: it was Emery
it wasn't Alex
Dale: it was Charlie
it was Blake
Emery: it was Dale
it wasn't Alex
It was well known that each suspect told exactly one lie. Can you determine who stole the cake?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Look at Blake's statements first.
Answer
Charlie committed the terrible crime.
Reasoning
Looking at Blake's statements, one of the statements was a lie and the other was the truth. Therefore, it must have been either Charlie or Emery.
Looking at Dale's statements, for the same reason, it was either Charlie or Blake.
Therefore, it must have been Charlie who committed the crime.
Double-checking this against the other statements confirms this.
Puzzle 283
The legendary BrainBashers calendar had a recent bug. Here is a listing showing the number of days in each month:
January 107
February 68
March 135
April 15
May 133
June 104
July 104
August 16
September {?}
How many days did it show for September?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Look at the first letters of the months.
Answer
199.
Take the first letter of the month, and find its position in the alphabet: S = 19.
Then take the number of letters in the month: September = 9.
January 10-7
February 6-8
March 13-5
April 1-5
May 13-3
June 10-4
July 10-4
August 1-6
September 19-9
Puzzle 284
Exactly how many minutes is it before seven o'clock, if 40 minutes ago it was three times as many minutes past two o'clock?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
How many minutes are there between 2:00 and 7:00?
Answer
65 minutes.
Reasoning
We need to break down the five hours in the following way:
3 x Answer minutes past two o'clock
40 minutes
Answer minutes before seven o'clock
Why? It is now Answer minutes before seven o'clock, and then we have the 40 minutes before that, and the remaining time was 3 x Answer minutes past two o'clock.
So, five hours = 5 x 60 = 300 minutes. We already know about the 40 minutes, so we have to share the remaining 260 minutes in the ratio 3:1, which gives 195:65 minutes. Or using algebra 4 x Answer = 300 - 40, so Answer = 65 minutes.
Therefore, the five hours is made up of:
195 minutes past two o'clock
40 minutes
65 minutes before seven o'clock
So, it's currently 65 minutes before 7:00 = 5:55.
Double-Checking
It is now 65 minutes before seven o'clock = 5:55, so 40 minutes ago it was 5:15 – which is 195 minutes after 2:00, as required (as 65 x 3 = 195).
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