Puzzle 517
Farmer Stone is quite an eccentric dairy farmer.
He originally had a total of 54 gallons of milk in three churns, and he wanted to make sure each churn contained 18 gallons of milk.
In order to do this, he did the following:
First, he poured 1/4 of the first churn into the second churn.
He then poured 1/2 of the second churn into the third churn.
Finally, he poured 1/3 of the third churn into the first churn.
How many gallons did each churn contain before Farmer Stone started pouring?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Try working backwards with each churn containing 18 gallons.
Answer
12, 33, and 9 gallons respectively for churns 1, 2, and 3.
Reasoning
Working backwards, at the end after Pour 3, the churns (C1, C2, C3) contained:
C1 C2 C3
————————————
18 18 18 after Pour 3
Pour3 was 1/3 of C3 into C1, the remaining 2/3 has to be the 18 gallons left in C3 after the pour, which means that 1/3 is 9 gallons. So 9 gallons was poured from C3 into C1. Before Pour3, C1 must have contained 9 gallons, and C3 contained 27 gallons.
C1 C2 C3
————————————
9 18 27 after Pour 2
18 18 18 after Pour 3
Pour2 was 1/2 of C2 into C3, the remaining 1/2 has to be the 18 gallons left in C2 after the pour, which means that 1/2 is 18 gallons. So 18 gallons was poured from C2 into C3. Before Pour2, C2 must have contained 36 gallons, and C3 contained 9 gallons.
C1 C2 C3
————————————
9 36 9 after Pour 1
9 18 27 after Pour 2
18 18 18 after Pour 3
Pour1 was 1/4 of C1 into C2, the remaining 3/4 has to be the 9 gallons left in C1 after the pour, which means that 1/4 is 3 gallons. So 3 gallons was poured from C1 into C2. Before Pour2, C1 must have contained 12 gallons, and C2 contained 33 gallons.
C1 C2 C3
————————————
12 33 9 at the start
9 36 9 after Pour 1
9 18 27 after Pour 2
18 18 18 after Pour 3
Puzzle 518
Here is a well-known proverb with the consonants removed. What is the proverb?
-oo- -e-o-e -ou -ea-.
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
The first word is Look.
Answer
Look before you leap.
Puzzle 519
My first is in kendo, but not in squash.
My second is in hurdles, and in hunting.
My third is in bowman, and in bowling.
My fourth is in cycling, and in golf.
My fifth is in flying, and not in swimming.
My last is in running, and not in dancing.
My whole is a sport.
What am I?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
The 2nd letter can only be H or U.
Answer
Kung fu.
Reasoning
The 1st letter can only be: D E K N O
The 2nd letter can only be: H U
The 3rd letter can only be: B N O W
The 4th letter can only be: G L
The 5th letter can only be: F L Y
The 6th letter can only be: R U
Puzzle 520
My local library decided to hand out some of its old books to the 1,400 people who lived in the town.
To each library member, they offered 6 books, and to each non-member, they offered 4 books.
If only half of the members, and three-quarters of the non-members, accepted the books, how many books were given away?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
As we don't know how of the people were library members, you can try a random number and see what happens.
Answer
4,200 books.
Reasoning
It doesn't matter how many library members there were, as 1/2 of them accepted the books, and each accepted 6 books, which is 3 books per member on average.
Similarly, it doesn't matter how many non-members there were as 3/4 of them accepted the books, and each accepted 4 books, which is again 3 books per non-member on average.
Double-Checking
Both the members and non-members accepted, on average, 3 books each.
And 1400 x 3 = 4200.
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