Puzzle 157
At a recent BrainBashers party, I noted the ages of the children who attended.
Billie was 3, James and Keith were 4, Frankie and Rebecca were 5.
How old was Lara?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Look at the vowels (AEIOU).
Answer
2.
Consonants are worth 2 and vowels (AEIOU) are worth − 1.
Puzzle 158
I have a jar of sweets.
There are 234 red, 26 blue, 67 green and 63 yellow sweets.
What chance do I have of picking a blue one with my eyes shut?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
How many sweets in total are there?
Answer
1 in 15.
Reasoning
In total, there are 390 sweets in the jar, and 26 of them are blue.
So the chance of picking blue is 26 in 390 = 1 in 15 = 6.66%.
Puzzle 159
I have a jar of sweets that contains 114 red, 35 blue, 67 green, and 9 yellow.
What chance do I have of picking a yellow sweet with my eyes shut?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
How many yellow sweets are there, how many sweets in total?
Answer
1 in 25 = 4 percent.
Reasoning
In total, there are 114 + 35 + 67 + 9 = 225 sweets.
There are 9 yellow sweets, so the probability is 9 ÷ 225 = 0.04 = 4% = 1 in 25.
Puzzle 160
In my money box, I found $36.80 made up of equal numbers of quarters, dimes, and nickels.
How many of each coin did I find?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Remember that a quarter is 25c, a dime is 10c and a nickel is 5c.
Answer
92 of each coin.
Reasoning
There are an equal number of quarters, dimes and nickels, so we know that the answer must be a multiple of:
25c + 10c + 5c = 40c
and:
3680c ÷ 40c = 92 coins.
