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Puzzle #170: Can you work out who gave Kayleigh which present?

Holly Biming — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 18:00:00 +0000

Can you solve this week’s logic puzzle, Presents, but not correct? Plus the answer to puzzle #169

Puzzle #166: Can you work out the order for the days of the week?

Holly Biming — Wed, 04 May 2022 18:00:00 +0000

Can you solve this week’s logic puzzle, The week link? Plus the quick quiz and the answer to puzzle #165

Puzzle #103: Can you figure out the broken coffee machine?

Holly Biming — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 18:00:00 +0000

#103 Trouble brewing

Our office vending machine normally allows me to get any combination of tea, coffee, chocolate, milk and sugar, each with its own button. Unfortunately it has developed a glitch.

What happens now is that instead of delivering its own ingredient, each button delivers two other ingredients instead. Each button delivers a different pair, and each of the ingredients is delivered by two of the buttons.

However, if two buttons demand the same ingredient, such as tea, they cancel each other out and I don’t get tea at all.

The result? If I ask for chocolate with milk, I get tea with sugar. If I ask for tea with milk and sugar, I get those three ingredients plus coffee!

What do I get if I press the coffee and milk buttons?

#102 Passport to success

Solution

The passport number is 381654729. Since AB is divisible by 2, B must be even, and by similar reasoning so must D, F and H.

Since ABCDE is divisible by 5, E must be 5, meaning A, C, G and I must be 1, 3, 7and 9 in some order. ABCD is divisible by 4, so CD is also divisible by 4, meaning CD must be one of 12, 16, 32, 36, 72, 76, 92 or 96. This means that D can only be 2 or 6.

Similar reasoning narrows down which digit can go where, ending with the unique answer. 381654729 is the only pandigital (i.e. uses all the digits once) polydivisible number.

Quick quiz #91

1 Akira Yoshino is credited with creating the first commercially viable what?

2 What are the three forms of plague?

3 The Exocoetidae family of fish is better known by what name?

4 How old was US astronaut John Glenn when he became the oldest person to fly in space?

5 Nordic Gold, a gold-coloured alloy often used in coins, is made of copper, aluminium, tin and which other metal?

Answers on page 55

Answers

1 Lithium-ion battery

2 Bubonic, pneumonic, septicemic

3 Flying fish

4 Glenn was 77 when he flew on space shuttle Discovery’s STS-95 mission in 1998

5 Zinc

Puzzle #99: Can you work out the real time on a vandalised clock?

Holly Biming — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:00:00 +0000

#99 Around the clock

Pranksters have tampered with the school clock. They have removed the minute hand, repainted the numbers so that some or all of them are now in the wrong position and left the clock lying on the desk so there is no way of telling which is the right way up.

The note they left says: “We won’t tell you how many numbers are in the right position because if we did, you could work out the time.”

The hour hand is pointing directly at the number 2. What time is it?

Answer next week

#98 Puppies galore!

Solution

Harriet has 10 puppies and Matilda has nine. A little thought should convince you that it isn’t possible for Harriet to have more males AND more females than Matilda, which means she either has more males OR more females.

Since there is no bias towards males or females, both outcomes must have the same chance, so the chance that Harriet has more female puppies than Matilda is 50 per cent.

Quick quiz #87

1 Remains of the hominin Homo antecessor were first discovered in which country?

2 Coprophagy is the consumption of what?

3 In what year will Halley’s comet next be visible from Earth?

4 A vertical or nearly vertical shaft in a glacier is known as what?

5 Who invented the first commercial synthesiser in 1964?

Answers

1 Spain

2 Faeces

3 2061

4 A moulin

5 Robert Moog

Holly Biming, Author at ��è����Ƶ