Puzzles to Puzzle you

Puzzles to Puzzle you

1. TALL MEN NEXT DOOR

Next door to me live four brothers of different heights. Their average height is 74 inches, and the difference in height among the first three men is two inches/’The difference between the third and the fourth man is six inches.

Can you tell how tall each brother is?   Click to see Answer

2. A MATTER OF TIME

Fifty minutes ago if it was four times as many minutes past three o’clock, how many minutes is it until six o’clock?  Click to see Answer

3. BROTHERS AND SISTERS

A family I know has several children. Each boy in this family has as many sisters as brothers but each of the girls has twice as many brothers as sisters. How many brothers and sisters are there?  Click to see Answer

4. AROUND THE EQUATOR

Two identical trains, at the equator start travelling round the world in opposite directions. They start together, run at the same speed and are on different tracks.

Which train will wear out its wheel treads first?  Click to see Answer

5. OVER THE GOLDEN GATE

While in San Francisco some time back, I hired a car to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. 1 started in the afternoon when there was no traffic rush. So I could do 40 miles an hour. While returning, however, I got caught in the traffic rush and I could only manage to drive at a speed of 25 miles an hour.

What was my average speed for the round trip?  Click to see Answer

6. BICYCLE THIEVES

A friend of mine runs a bicycle shop and he narrated to me this following story:

A man, who looked like a tourist, came to his shop one day and bought a bicycle from him for Rs. 350. The cost price of the bicycle was Rs. 300. So my friend was happy that he had made a profit of Rs. 50 on the sale. However, at the time of settling the bill, the tourist offered to pay in travelers cheques as he had no cash money with him. My friend hesitated. He had no arrangements with the banks to encash travelers cheques. But he remembered that the shopkeeper next door had such a provision, and so he took the cheques to his friend next door and got cash from him.

The travellers cheques were all made out for Rs. 100 each and so he had taken four cheques from the tourist totaling to Rs. 400! On encashing them my friend paid back the tourist the balance of Rs. 50.

The tourist happily climbed the bicycle and pedalled away whistling a tune.

However, the next morning my friend’s neighbor, who had taken the travelers cheques to the bank, called on him and returning the cheques which had proved value-less demanded the refund of his money. My friend quietly refunded the money to his neighbor and tried to trace the tourist who had given him the bad cheques and taken away his bicycle. But the tourist could not be found.

How much did my friend lose altogether in this un-fortunate transaction?  Click to see Answer

7. THE DIGITS AND SQUARE NUMBERS

All the nine digits are arranged here so as to form four square numbers:

9, 81, 324, 576

How would you put them together so as to form a single smallest possible square number and a single largest possible square number?  Click to see Answer

8. THE BUS NUMBER

While visiting a small town in the United States, I lost my overcoat in a bus. When I reported the matter to the bus company I was asked the number of the bus. Though I did not remember the exact number I did remember that the bus number bad a certain peculiarity about it. The number plate showed the bus number as a perfect square and also if the plate was turned upside down. The number would still be a perfect square—of course it was not?

I came to know from the bus company they had only five hundred buses numbered from 1 to 500.

From this I was able to deduce the bus number. Can you tell what was the other number?  Click to see Answer

9. THE HOUR HAND AND THE MINUTE HAND

We all know that the hour hand and the minute hand on a clock travel at different speeds. However there are certain occasions when the hands are exactly opposite each other. Can you give a simple formula for calculating the times of these occasions?  Click to see Answer

10. TO CATCH A THIEF

Some time back while in England I watched a case in a criminal court. A man was being accused of having stolen certain valuable jewels and trying to run away with them, when he was caught by a smart police officer who overtook him.

In cross examination the lawyer for accused asked the police officer how he could catch up with the accused who was already seven steps ahead of him, when he started to run after him. ‘Yes Sir.’ The officer replied. ‘He takes eight steps to every five of mine!

‘But then officer,’ interrogated the lawyer, ‘how did you ever catch him, if that was the case?’

‘That’s easily explained sir,’ replied the officer, I got a longer stride… two of my steps equal in length to his five. So the number of steps 1 required were fewer than his. And this brought me to the spot where I captured him.’

A member of the jury, who was particularly good at quick calculations did some checking and figured out the number of steps the police officer must have taken.

Can you also find out how many steps the officer needed to catch up with the thief?   Click to see Answer