Puzzle 257
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 {?} X.
Slightly trickier, this sentence contains {?} R's.
Even trickier, this sentence contains precisely {?} E's.
This sentence has exactly {?} letters.
This sentence, hopefully, contains {?} letters, one hyphen, five commas, and four Y's.
To finish, if this sentence had a T removed, it would contain {?} letters!
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Start by counting the letters you're given.
Answers
This sentence contains one X.
Slightly trickier, this sentence contains four R's.
Even trickier, this sentence contains precisely ten E's.
This sentence has exactly thirty-nine letters.
This sentence, hopefully, contains seventy-five letters, one hyphen, five commas, and four Y's.
To finish, if this sentence had a T removed, it would contain sixty-two letters!
Puzzle 258
Frankie the Squirrel can find one acorn in 15 minutes and Glenn the Squirrel can find one acorn in 12 minutes. As autumn approaches, they both work all day and all night.
However, Alex the Squirrel is eating their collection! It takes Alex 20 minutes to eat an acorn, and Alex eats all day and all night long (and starts on yesterday's acorns).
How many extra acorns will there be at the end of a 24-hour day?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
How many acorns does each find in one hour?
Answer
144 acorns.
Reasoning
Frankie finds 4 acorns every hour, Glenn finds 5 acorns every hour and Alex eats 3 acorns every hour, so the nett total per hour is 4 + 5 – 3 = 6.
Which is 6 x 24 = 144 extra acorns in a day.
Puzzle 259
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.
Puzzle 260
Can you find three words which...
...contain EE twice?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
One possibility starts with the word BEE.
Answer
Choose from: beekeeper, beekeepers, beekeeping, freebee, freebees, freewheel, freewheeled, freewheeling, freewheels, peewee, peewees, squeegee, squeegeed, squeegeeing, squeegees, teepee, teepees.
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