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 ?
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 144
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?
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'clock40 minutesAnswer 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'clock40 minutes65 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).
