City of Stairs
Help the wanderer find his way to the lady.
SOLUTION
The solution is shown below.
The Silent Parrot
A person enters a pet shop and sees a beautiful parrot. The seller guarantees him that the bird repeats everything it hears, so the person buys it. However, when he goes back home and tests the bird, it turns out that it doesn’t say a word. The buyer goes to the shop to complain to the seller, but the seller argues he has not lied. How is this possible?
SOLUTION
The parrot is deaf.
The Sheikh and the Camels
A Sheikh dies, leaving behind three sons, 17 camels, and the following order:
1. The oldest son shall inherit one in two camels.
2. The middle son shall inherit one in three camels.
3. The youngest son shall inherit one in nine camels.
Now the three sons do not know what to do. They ask an old friend of the family for advice, and he finds a solution. What does the friend propose?
SOLUTION
The friend lent them one camel to make the camels 18. The first son took 9 camels, the second son took 6 camels, the third son took 2 camels. Then the friend took back his camel.
The Pirates and the Monkey
There are five pirates, one monkey, and lots of coconuts on an island. The pirates are supposed to share the coconuts on the next day, but while everybody is sleeping, the first pirate gives 1 coconut to the monkey, splits the remaining coconuts into 5 equal piles, and secretly keeps one of the piles for himself. Later, the second pirate does the same, then the third one, the fourth one, and the fifth one. On the morning, the pirates wake up and split all the remaining coconuts in five, leaving one last coconut for the monkey.
What is a possible number for the number of coconuts on the island?
SOLUTION
Notice that if we find a certain number of coconuts which works, then we can add 56 and get a new one. Now imagine the pirates start with -4 coconuts, i.e. they have a total loan of 4 coconuts. Every time a pirate wakes up, he gives 1 coconut to the monkey, which makes the total loan 5 coconuts. Then the pirate keeps a loan of 1 coconut for himself and leaves -4 coconuts. Now we just add 56 coconuts to -4 to make the number positive and get 56 – 4 coconuts as a possible answer.
Spelling Bees and Feet
Researchers have discovered
SOLUTION
Older students have bigger feet and perform better at spelling bee contests.
Fake Photo
James sent this beautiful photo to a contest, hoping he will win first prize. The contest organizers
Source: Puzzling StackExchange
SOLUTION
There are stars over the moon, which is impossible.
Calendar Puzzle
What numbers should you put on the sides of two cubes, so that every date of the month can be expressed using these cubes?
SOLUTION
You put the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 on the first die and the numbers 0, 1, 2, 7, 8, 6/9 on the second die.
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Puzzle Prime Maze
Get from START to FINISH in this special maze created by Joe Wos for Puzzle Prime.
SOLUTION
The solution is shown below.
Clock Hands
When do the hour and the minute hands of the clock lie on top of each other, and also between the numbers 1 and 2?
SOLUTION
One such time is around 1:05 – at 1 o’clock and 5.454… minutes. This can be easily found by solving the linear equation x = 12(x – 5) => x=60/11.
Another time you possibly didn’t think about is 12:00 o’clock. At that time, the hour and minute hands are on top of each other and just between the two digits of the number 12.
The Mother and the Girlfriend
John gets off work at random times between 3 and 5 PM. His mother lives uptown, his girlfriend lives downtown. John takes the first subway that comes in either direction and eats dinner with the one he is delivered to. Even though John believes he has 50-50 chance to have dinner with either his mother or his girlfriend, he visited the former only 2 times out of the last 20. How come?
SOLUTION
The subway heading downtown arrives at 3:00, 3:10, 3:20, etc, and the subway heading uptown arrives at 3:01, 3:11, 3:21, etc. Thus, the chance that John goes to his girlfriend is about 90% (depending on train delays).