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).
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Puzzle 42
Place the digits from 1 to 9 in each closed area so that the sum of the digits in each large square is the same.
Hint
What must the middle midday temperature be? Remember that the temperatures are in degrees Celsius.
Answer
The midday temperatures were -6, -2, 2, 6, 10 °C.
Each day the midday temperature increased by a steady 4 degrees.
Reasoning
As the temperature rose steadily each day, we know that the middle temperature (Day 3) was 2 degrees (because the average was 2 degrees).
Since Day 3 was 2 degrees, and there were two negative temperatures, we know that the daily increase must have been at least 3 degrees (otherwise Day 2 would not have been negative).
If we check a daily increase of 3 degrees, the sequence would be -4, -1, 2, 5, 8, but this doesn't work as the product is less than 500.
If we check a daily increase of 4 degrees, the sequence would be -6, -2, 2, 6, 10, which does match all of the requirements.
If we check a daily increase of 5 degrees, the sequence would be -8, -3, 2, 7, 12, but this doesn't work as the product is more than 2000.
Any larger increase makes the product even larger, so we can stop checking.