The worlds first riddle!

I'll be amazed if they can cross the bridge in less than 20 minutes.
5 rungs remain visable regardless of tide level.

Persons 1 and 2 go, #2 comes back. #3 and #4 go, with #1 on the other side coming back. #1 and #2 go across. 17 min, right?

Awww, Try, I cannot get over that I damn near had the solution to your riddle and then screwed it up over a dumb assumption.

I simply assumed 10 as the oldest age of a kid -- and never even considered 12, 18, 24, and 36.

And I even realized that the "strawberry" statement (which I transposed in my mind to "my youngest" rather than "my oldest") -- revealed no twins -- at least for the 3, 3, 8 possibility.

Damn.

Gotta say this: As you get older -- your mind truly does deteriorate -- no matter that you constantly challenge it. I never would have allowed that mistake to creep into my reasoning just 10 years ago.

Hey, like they say. Getting older sucks -- but it sure beats the alternative.

I agree with Chaos.

17 is as good as I can get it.


1 & 2 cross first -- and it does not matter which returns with the light. The total trip will take either 3 or 4 minutes depending on who takes the light back.

5 & 10 then cross-- and that takes 10 minutes. If 1 was left on the other side, the return trip will be 1 minute -- if 2 was left there, the return trip will be 2 minutes.

Either way, at this point 15 minutes have been consumed.

The 1 & 2 make the trip in 2 minutes making the total trip 17 minutes.

Stop the clock! We have a winner. A new name in the hall of fame.

The full answer is as follows:
First #1 and #2 go across which takes them 2 minutes. #1 comes back which takes another 1m (3m). He sends #3 and #4 across which takes 10m (13m). #2 comes back (15m). #1 and #2 go back across which takes 2m (17m). They can make it across in 17 minutes.

Silly.
a) In the middle of a pool floats a water lily. Every day, the water lily doubles in size. After 20 days, the lily covers the entire pool. After how many days was the pool half covered

b) If you have 37 cows standing in a field and all but 16 lie down, how many are left standing


If you are taking medication, do not attempt this;

"There are one thousand lockers and one thousand students in the school. The principal asks the first student to go to every locker and open it. Then he has the second student go to every second locker and close it. The third goes to every third locker and, if it is closed, he opens it, and if it is open, he closes it. The fourth student does this to every fourth locker, and so on. After the process is completed with the thousandth student, how many lockers are open "

Ps. Frank, hang in there buddy. If I was half as good as you, I would be well pleased. It is far better to take part, than just sit. :wink:

a) 19

b) 16

c) 1

You'll love how I solved "c." :wink: :wink:

That may be true, however, I still await the correct answer
Unless, Adrian and Kev agree 1 is it.

The trick to c) is perfect squares.
The square root of the biggest perfect square under 1000 is the answer.
So 31 will still be open I think.

Aha--a possibility that I had not considered.

I could be wrong.

Don't think so.

But...I've been wrong before.

I'm waitin'!

I'll stick with 1!

Frank, we posted at the same time. I think the answer is 31.

It would appear that you earthlings win again.

The only lockers that remain open are perfect squares (1, 4, 9, 16, etc) because they are the only numbers divisible by an odd number of whole numbers; every factor other than the number's square root is paired up with another. Thus, these lockers will be "changed" an odd number of times, which means they will be left open. All the other numbers are divisible by an even number of factors and will consequently end up closed.

So the number of open lockers is the number of perfect squares less than or equal to one thousand. These numbers are one squared, two squared, three squared, four squared, and so on, up to thirty one squared. (Thirty two squared is greater than one thousand, and therefore out of range.) So the answer is thirty one.


Fast Adrian the used car sales representative sold a well-used car for a 30% profit.
The poor soul who bought the car was happy with the vehicle until it started breaking down a week later. The customer who bought the car went back to Fast Adrian and demanded he receive his money back.

Adrian countered that the car had been used for a week, thus, no refund. However, Fast Adrian offered to buy the car back for 20% less than the customer paid.
The customer agreed. Fast Adrian was then able to unload the car for the same amount that he initially paid for it.

What percentage of profit did Adrian make on the whole deal

Riddle
There is a barrel with no lid and some wine in it. "This barrel of wine is more than half full," said Frank. "No it's not," says Adrian. "It's less than half full."

Without any measuring implements and without removing any wine from the barrel, how can they easily determine who is correct.

I don't think so -- but I guess we gotta wait for Kev before the answer is revealed.

One thought, if I may -- when Try wrote...




...it may have been a ruse. He may have been trying to throw you guys off.

I think 1 is the answer -- and I now think it can logically be determined to be 1 without doing any math -- just using reasoning.

I used neither to come up with my answer -- and I guess I still gotta suppose I could be wrong. But I'd bet on this one.

Frank, I beat you to the 'post' by one minute. You owe me a buck.
BTW I dont know how you could accuse me of trying to fool anyone. Who moi! :wink:

I'm dripping wet out of the shower to say that I discovered a flaw.

goddam it why did you gtet here so fast.

Shivering

back in ahwielwe

Holy Toledo -- this house is cold. We keep the temperature down during the day -- and jumping out of the shower that way -- I damn near froze my butt off.

Just as I got under the shower -- a mere few minutes after posting my "I will bet on my answer" comments -- the terrible truth hit me.

I had begun to doubt myself immediately after posting. Why would Adrian come up with that solution it the answer were as easy as I supposed??? He's no dummy!

Just as the shower water hit me, I realized what I had done.

I had the first student open all the lockers. Then I had the second student go to the second locker and change every other one. The third student went to the third locker and closed it (it was open) but then instead of proceeding to the 6th locker -- I screwed up and had him reverse all the other locker configurations. The fourth student goes to the fourth locker and closes it (it is open) and then proceeds to reverse all the others. As it goes on -- the next locker is always open -- and gets closed.

I did that with a grid of 10 lockers and 10 students -- and it looked like a slam dunk. But I knew that Adrian never would have missed that. I only wish that thought had occurred before the water hit, but...

Goddam it, I never woulda made mistakes like that in the old days. (Well -- maybe once in a while.)

I'll get one of these yet.


(Tell me this is not the most clever way anyone ever said: "I am all wet!")

There are a number of dubious answers.

1) Using your figures - 42.37 years

2) Using the realworld figures (i.e. Alpha Centauri being one tenth as far as you said it is) - 4.237 years.

3) Using the actuality - when there is a telescope powerful enough and that will not be in any of our lifetimes, so there would be an infinite wait.

MY SOLUTION: (Which I readily acknowledge is probably not what you are looking for)...

...we drink the wine and say, "Who really gives a rat's ass!"

(Still tryin' ta come up with another answer.)





Fast guess -- 30%.

Bah...math problems. Bah!!! Dirty rotten frazatrash!