Insight 4 - Puzzle Prime

Ten Matchsticks

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Insight

Difficulty: Medium Tags: 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.

Unknown Author November 16, 2022

1 Comment

Color Venn

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Insight

Difficulty: Medium

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.

Untangle - House of Puzzles November 10, 2022

1 Comment

Frustrating Question

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Insight

Difficulty: Easy

John was asking Bob the same question again and again throughout the day and kept getting different answers. What was John’s question?

SOLUTION

John’s question was “What time is it?”.

Unknown Author October 28, 2022

0 Comments

Sequence 1, 3, 7, 12

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Insight

Difficulty: Medium Tags: Sequence

Which is the next number in the following sequence:

1, 3, 7, 12, 18, 26, 35, 45, 56, ?

SOLUTION

This is the so called Hofstadter Figure-Figure Sequence.

The sequence of the differences between the consecutive numbers in the original sequence is 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11… These are exactly the natural numbers missing from the original sequence. Therefore, the next number should be 56 + 13 = 69.

Douglas Hofstadter October 13, 2022

0 Comments

A Cardinal Points

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Insight

Difficulty: Medium Tags: Words

A cardinal points and says, “thorn, shout, seat, and stew.” Can you explain?

SOLUTION

The sentence is a play on words and anagrams. Thorn, shout, seat, and stew are anagrams of the four cardinal directions of the compass: north, south, east, and west.

Unknown Author October 10, 2022

0 Comments

Conflicting Words

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Insight

Difficulty: Hard Tags: Words

What unique feature do the following words share?

FRIEND, FEAST, THERE, THOROUGH, FLIGHT, WONDERFUL, RESIGN, ENDURING, PEST, COVERT

SOLUTION

Each of these words contains its antonym as a sub-word:

FRIEND – FIEND, FEAST – FAST, THERE – HERE, THOROUGH – ROUGH, FLIGHT – FIGHT, WONDERFUL – WOEFUL, RESIGN – REIGN, ENDURING – ENDING, PEST – PET, COVERT – OVERT

Unknown Author October 4, 2022

0 Comments

The Car and the Bird

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Insight

Difficulty: Medium

A car weighing 1500kg (including the driver) starts crossing a 20km long bridge. The bridge can support at most 1500kg and, above that weight, it collapses. If halfway through the bridge, a small bird, weighing 200g, lands on the roof of the car, will the bridge collapse?

SOLUTION

By the time the car reaches the middle of the bridge, it would have used fuel that weighs more than 200g, so the bridge will not collapse.

Unknown Author August 28, 2022

4 Comments

Bus Driver’s Age

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Insight

Difficulty: Easy

Imagine you are driving a bus. At the first stop, 3 people get on the bus. At the second stop, 5 more get on. At the third stop, 2 get out and 4 get on. At the last stop, everybody gets out. How old is the bus driver?

SOLUTION

You are imagining the story, so the bus driver is as old as you.

Unknown Author August 7, 2022

2 Comments

Coins and Cups

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Insight

Difficulty: Medium

How can you put ten coins in three plastic cups, so that in every cup there is odd number of coins?

SOLUTION

Drop five coins in the first cup. Than put the other two cups in each other and drop the five remaining coins in them.

Unknown Author August 4, 2022

2 Comments

Easy Money

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Insight

Difficulty: Medium

The horse got $18, the the bee got $27, the duck got $9, and the spider got $36. How much did the snake get?

SOLUTION

Every animal got $4.50 for every leg it has. Therefore, the snake got nothing.

Unknown Author June 28, 2022

2 Comments