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Puzzle 1 


The Miller next took the company aside and showed them nine sacks of flour that were standing as depicted in the sketch.

"Now, hearken, all and some," said he, "while that I do set ye the riddle of the nine sacks of flour.

And mark ye, my lords, that there be single sacks on the outside, pairs next unto them, and three together in the middle thereof.

By Saint Benedict, it doth so happen that if we do but multiply the pair, 28, by the single one, 7, the answer is 196, which is of a truth the number shown by the sacks in the middle.

Yet it be not true that the other pair, 34, when so multiplied by its neighbour, 5, will also make 196.

Wherefore I do beg you, gentle sirs, so to place anew the nine sacks with as little trouble as possible that each pair when thus multiplied by its single neighbour shall make the number in the middle."

As the Miller has stipulated in effect that as few bags as possible shall be moved, there is only one answer to this puzzle, which everybody should be able to solve.

Sacks 7 28 196 34 5

The Miller's Puzzle, The Canterbury Puzzles, Henry Ernest Dudeney.

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Puzzle 2 


Can you create a sentence that contains the word 'and' five times in a row?

With no other word between each 'and'.

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Puzzle 3 


A trout's tail weighs eight pounds.

Its head weighs as much as the tail and one-half of the body combined, and the body weighs as much as the head and tail combined.

What does the whole trout weigh?

Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone

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Puzzle 4 


Which is larger:

millimetres in a mile sixteenths of an inch in 2 kilometres

Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone

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