Puzzle 557
How many grains of sand do you need...
...until you have a heap of sand?
workings
hint
answer
print
Share link: https://www.brainbashers.com/puzzle/zmqo
Hint
Is a million grains of sand a heap?
Answer
We can probably agree on two things:
A million grains of sand is a heap.
If we remove one grain of sand from this heap, we will still have a heap.
We can now keep repeating (2) until we only have a single grain of sand remaining.
Is this a heap? Clearly not. But what went wrong with our thinking?
This is called the Sorites paradox (soros being Greek for "heap") and is a classic paradox that has no real answer.
Both (1) and (2) are true, and we can indeed keep removing one grain of sand until we have a single grain remaining. If we remove one more grain, we're left with nothing, is this still a heap?
When does the heap become a non-heap?
Puzzle 558
What three-letter word best completes the below words?
t---ed
b---et
fl---
c---et
m---
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
workings
hint
answer
print
Share link: https://www.brainbashers.com/puzzle/znwu
Hint
The word begins with the letter A.
Answer
Ask.
tasked
basket
flask
casket
mask
Puzzle 559
Can you find the country hidden in the following sentence:
If a Dalmatian dog can catch five balls in five minutes, four balls in four minutes, and three balls in three minutes, can a Dalmatian dog catch two balls in two minutes?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
workings
hint
answer
print
Share link: https://www.brainbashers.com/puzzle/ztto
Hint
The country spans more than one word.
Answer
Canada.
If a Dalmatian dog can catch five balls in five minutes, four balls in four minutes, and three balls in three minutes, CAN A DAlmatian dog catch two balls in two minutes?
Puzzle 560
For being well-behaved at the garden fayre, four children were each given two sweets.
Jesse had an orange sweet.
One child who had a red sweet also had a blue one.
No child had two sweets of the same colour.
A child who had a green sweet also had a red one.
Jamie didn't have a red sweet, and Jo had a green one.
Jordan didn't have an orange one, and Jesse had no blue sweets.
Knowing that there were two sweets of each colour, can you tell the colours of the sweets each child had?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
workings
hint
answer
print
Share link: https://www.brainbashers.com/puzzle/zpjx
Hint
Start by looking at Jesse's sweets.
Answer
Jamie Orange Blue
Jesse Orange Green
Jo Green Red
Jordan Red Blue
Reasoning
The children were: Jamie, Jesse, Jo, Jordan.
The colours were: Blue, Green, Orange, Red.
There were two sweets of each colour, and by (3) no child had two sweets of the same colour.
By (1), Jesse had an Orange sweet...
...by (6), didn't have Blue...
...by (2) and (4), Red was paired with Blue and Green...
...therefore Jesse's other sweet can't have been Red, so was Green.
Jamie
Jesse Orange Green
Jo
Jordan
By (4) the other Green sweet was paired with Red, by (5) this must have been Jo.
Jamie
Jesse Orange Green
Jo Green Red
Jordan
By (2) the other Red sweet was paired with Blue, but by (5) this wasn't Jamie, so must have been Jordan.
Jamie
Jesse Orange Green
Jo Green Red
Jordan Red Blue
Leaving Jamie with Orange and Blue.
Jamie Orange Blue
Jesse Orange Green
Jo Green Red
Jordan Red Blue
next >
Note: BrainBashers has a Dark Mode option. For BrainBashers, I'd recommend not using your browser's built-in dark mode, or any dark mode extensions (sometimes you can add an exception for a specific website).
