Yours but Others Use It
What belongs to you but mostly other people use it?
SOLUTION
The answer is YOUR NAME.
The Die Game
You pick a number between 1 and 6 and keep throwing a die until you get it. Does it matter which number you pick for maximizing the total sum of the numbers in the resulting sequence?
In the example below, the picked number is 6 and the total sum of the numbers in the resulting sequence is 35.
SOLUTION
No matter what number you pick, the expected value of each throw is the average of the numbers from 1 to 6 which is 3.5. The choice of the number also does not affect the odds for the number of throws until the game ends, which is 6. Therefore, the total sum is always 3.5 × 6 = 21 on average, regardless of the chosen number.
Hexado Puzzles
Place arrows along the hexagon edges so that the number of arrows pointing to each hexagon equals the number of dots inside, adhering to the following rules:
- Arrows cannot be touching.
- Arrows cannot be placed on dashed edges.
SOLUTION
The solutions are shown below.
Puzzle Sum 30
What nationalities do these sums spell?
SOLUTION
TURKEY – KEY + KEG + G – EGG = TURK
CANAL – L + DIANA – A = CANADIAN
Symmetry and Perplexion
Find an X > 1, such that:
SOLUTION
If we pick X=√2, (using a somewhat ambiguous notation) we get:
To see that the equality above holds, simply note that 2=(√2)² and take √2 root of both sides.
Peculiar Sequence of Words
What is the peculiar property of this sequence of words?
WHAT, HOLE, ALES, TEST
SOLUTION
If you take the first letter from each word, you will spell the first word in the sequence.
If you take the second letter from each word, you will spell the second word in the sequence.
If you take the third letter from each word, you will spell the third word in the sequence.
If you take the fourth letter from each word, you will spell the fourth word in the sequence.
| W | H | A | T |
| H | O | L | E |
| A | L | E | S |
| T | E | S | T |
Breaks and Never Falls
What breaks and never falls, and what falls and never breaks?
SOLUTION
Day breaks and night falls.
Ten Matchsticks
You have these fifteen matchsticks. Remove six of them and leave ten.
SOLUTION
Remove 6 matchsticks and leave 9 that spell the word TEN.
Dead Man in a Hut
One day, the police found a man dead inside a hut. In his left hand, he was holding a gun. In his right hand, he had a recording device. When the recording was played, the police heard the man talking about how horrible his life was and how he wanted it to end. The recording ended with a gunshot. The police was about to call it a suicide until one detective pointed out a very important clue. What was it?
SOLUTION
If the man shot himself with the gun, then he would not have been able to stop recording with the device.
Color Venn
What does this Venn diagram depict?
SOLUTION
Each of the numbers corresponds to a letter from the alphabet:
1 – A, 4 – D, 5 – E, 7 – G, 14 – N, 15 – O, 18 – R
The three colors in the Venn diagram are GREEN, RED, YELLOW, and what is depicted is the letters they share.
