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From Zeta, first letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta.
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Puzzle 170
In each of these sentences, can you replace the missing number.
The number is written as a word (e.g. five, twenty-four, thirty-three), and each sentence is correct after the replacement.
This sentence contains ? letters, one hyphen, two commas and a full stop. Interestingly, this sentence contains ? letters, one hyphen, three commas and the final full stop. Finally, this sentence contains ? letters, one hyphen, three commas and one full stop.
Answers This sentence contains sixty-seven letters, one hyphen, two commas and a full stop.Interestingly, this sentence contains eighty-nine letters, one hyphen, three commas and the final full stop.Finally, this sentence contains seventy-nine letters, one hyphen, three commas and one full stop.
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Puzzle 171
My current age is the age of my favourite book (which is 14 years old) plus one third of my age.
How old will I be when my favourite book is twice its current age?
Answer
The missing sum is 40.
Circle = 12
Star = 3
Square = 7
Triangle = 9
Reasoning
Looking at Column 1 and Column 3 we have:
[1] Square + Star + Circle + Square = 29
[2] Square + Square + Triangle + Star = 26
If we subtract [1] – [2] we get:
[3] Circle – Triangle = 3
And Row 3 is:
[4] Circle + Circle + Triangle + Circle = 45
If we add [3] + [4] we get:
Circle + Circle + Circle + Circle = 48
So, Circle = 12.
Using [3] we find that Triangle = 9.
Using Column 2 we find that Star = 3.
Using Row 1 we find that Square = 7.
Double-Checking
The rows add to: 35 + 26 + 45 + 25 = 131.
The columns add to: 29 + 36 + 26 + 40 = 131.
The rows and columns must add to the same number, so this could have been used a shortcut to the missing sum.
In total, there are:
5 Squares = 5 x 7 = 35
5 Circles = 5 x 12 = 60
3 Stars = 3 x 3 = 9
3 Triangles = 3 x 9 = 27
Which is also a total of 131.
So all of the totals are the same, as expected.
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