Puzzle 157
Can you find a word that is singular, and when you add an 's' it becomes plural, and adding another 's' makes it singular again?
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Hint
One of answers involves royalty.
Answer
Prince, princes, princess.
Bra, bras, brass.
A similar change is care, cares, caress, but these are not nouns.
Puzzle 159
I recently gave a new watch to my friend for their birthday.
However, as usual with my presents, it was quite useless as it gains 6 minutes every hour.
I set it using my own accurate clock at midnight, and the watch now shows 8:26am.
I know that it stopped 30 minutes ago, so what is the correct time now?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
How many watch minutes pass in a real hour?
Answer
8:10am.
Reasoning
The watch now shows 8:26am, so we know that 8 x 60 + 26 = 506 watch minutes have passed.
Since the watch is gaining 6 minutes every hour, for every real hour that has passed, the watch will show 66 minutes.
So, 506 ÷ 66 ≈ 7.666 real hours have passed.
This equals 460 minutes, which is 7 hours and 40 minutes = 7:40am.
The watch stopped 30 minutes ago, therefore the time must now be 8:10am.
Puzzle 160
What letter comes next in this sequence:
y · y · h · l · y · e · y · t · ?
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Hint
This is a well-known sequence.
Answer
R.
Reasoning
The last letter of September.
y = January
y = February
h = March
l = April
y = May
e = June
y = July
t = August
r = September
