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Puzzle 97
The legendary BrainBashers calendar had a recent bug. Here is a listing showing the number of days in each month:
January 107
February 68
March 135
April 15
May 133
June 104
July 104
August 16
September ?
Take the first letter of the month, and find its position in the alphabet: S = 19.
Then take the number of letters in the month: September = 9.
January 10 7
February 6 8
March 13 5
April 1 5
May 13 3
June 10 4
July 10 4
August 1 6
September 19 9
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Puzzle 98
Using a tap, a container of 9 litres and a container of 4 litres …
Answer
Here are the contents of the containers after each stage:
A = 9 litres, B = 4 litres
A B
9 0 fill A
5 4 fill B from A (leaving 5 litres in A)
5 0 empty B
1 4 fill B from A (leaving 1 litre in A)
1 0 empty B
0 1 fill B from A
9 1 fill A
6 4 fill B from A (only 3 more litres fit in B)
6 0 empty B
This leaves 6 litres in container A.
??
Puzzle 99
Start in square 'S' and end in square 'E' moving either horizontally or vertically in each move. Start by moving 2 squares in each of your moves, but when you land on a '*' square, change the number of squares you move from 2 to 3, or vice versa. You can not step on or pass through the black squares, and you have only 8 moves in which to complete this task.
At last month's rehearsal, four top athletes competed in two 400-metre qualifiers.
As the results were expected to be mislaid, various notes were taken to ensure the accuracy of the overall placings:
No one finished both races in the same position. In both races, Sam beat the runner whose surname was Watson. Billie Taylor came third in the second race, and Pat came last in the first race. In the second race, the athlete whose surname was Arnold won, and the athlete whose surname was Bowler came last. In the first race, Billie beat Jamie, but Jamie beat Sam.
Can you determine who finished where in each of the races?
Answer
Race1 Race2
————————————————————————
#1 Billie Sam
Taylor Arnold
————————————————————————
#2 Jamie Pat
Bowler Watson
————————————————————————
#3 Sam Billie
Arnold Taylor
————————————————————————
#4 Pat Jamie
Watson Bowler
Reasoning
The four names were: Billie, Jamie, Pat, Sam
The four contestants were: Arnold, Bowler, Taylor, Watson.
By (3), Billie Taylor came third in the second race, and Pat came last in the first race, giving:
Race1 Race2
————————————————————————
#1
————————————————————————
#2
————————————————————————
#3 Billie
Taylor
————————————————————————
#4 Pat
By (5), in the first race Billie beat Jamie, and Jamie beat Sam, giving:
Race1 Race2
————————————————————————
#1 Billie
Taylor
————————————————————————
#2 Jamie
————————————————————————
#3 Sam Billie
Taylor
————————————————————————
#4 Pat
By (2), Sam beat the runner with the surname Watson in the first race, which means that Pat's surname is Watson, giving:
Race1 Race2
————————————————————————
#1 Billie
Taylor
————————————————————————
#2 Jamie
————————————————————————
#3 Sam Billie
Taylor
————————————————————————
#4 Pat
Watson
By (1), Pat can't have also finished in last place in race 2, and by (2), Sam beat the Pat Watson, so Pat must have finished in second place in race 2. And Sam came first, therefore Jamie came last, giving:
Race1 Race2
————————————————————————
#1 Billie Sam
Taylor
————————————————————————
#2 Jamie Pat
Watson
————————————————————————
#3 Sam Billie
Taylor
————————————————————————
#4 Pat Jamie
Watson
By (4), in the second race the athlete whose surname was Arnold won, and the athlete whose surname was Bowler came last, so we know Sam and Jamie's surnames, and we can complete the grid:
Race1 Race2
————————————————————————
#1 Billie Sam
Taylor Arnold
————————————————————————
#2 Jamie Pat
Bowler Watson
————————————————————————
#3 Sam Billie
Arnold Taylor
————————————————————————
#4 Pat Jamie
Watson Bowler
It is now four years since I first asked for support, and I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has helped me. BrainBashers doesn't show adverts, and I continue to depend on the ongoing support from everyone who enjoys the site.
