Brain Teasers 8 - Puzzle Prime

Barbenheimer Tickets

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Lateral

Difficulty: Medium

Barbara and Oprah went to a theater where two movies were being shown: “The Barbie Movie” and “Oppenheimer”. The ticket price for the former was $15 and the ticket price for the latter was $20. When Barbara handed $20 to the cashier, she was asked which movie she wanted to watch, to which she replied, “The Barbie Movie”. However, when Oprah handed $20 to the cashier, she was automatically given a ticket for “Oppenheimer”. How come?

SOLUTION

Barbara handed two $10 bills, so the cashier wasn’t sure which movie she wanted to watch. However, Oprah handed four $5 bills, so it was clear she wanted to watch “Oppenheimer” (otherwise she would have handed just three $5 bills).

Unknown Author May 22, 2023

0 Comments

Girls Rock

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Detective

Difficulty: Advanced

What are the names of the three girls in this rock band?

T _ _ _ _ & D _ _ _ _ _ _ & L _ _ _

SOLUTION

The vocalist’s name is Tessa. On her notebook it is written “I’m diving into the ~~DARK~~ gloom End to start“. On the poster in the top right corner it is written DARK and underneath ASSET. “Asset” spelled backwards becomes TESSA.

The bassist’s name is Delilah. Her shirt features a cat, which is also present on the Freddy Mercury poster. The lyrics written on it are from the song “Delilah” by Queen.

The drummer’s name is Lisa. Inside her backpack there is a copy of the book “1984” by G. Orwell. On her backpack there is a sticker which also appears on the poster behind Delilah. The poster says “Local punk’o’matIc AnarchiSts bazAr”. If one selects the 1st, the 9th, the 8th, and the 4th letters from each word, the resulting name is LISA.

SweetyKissa May 19, 2023

0 Comments

Forming Symmetry

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Deduction

Difficulty: Hard

Rearrange the three polyominoes so that they form a symmetrical shape.

SOLUTION

The solution is shown below.

Unknown Author May 4, 2023

0 Comments

Five Acronyms

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Insight

Difficulty: Medium

What do the following acronyms have in common?

LCD display
ATM machine
PDF format
ISBN number
HIV virus

SOLUTION

All five are examples of the RAS syndrome (Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome) in which the last word of the acronym is repeated.

Liquid-Crystal Display display
Automated Teller Machine machine
Portable Document Format format
International Standard Book Number number
Human Immunodeficiency Virus virus

Unknown Author May 1, 2023

1 Comment

Goats and Cabbages

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Deduction

Difficulty: Medium

Separate all the goats from the cabbage in the picture by drawing 3 straight lines.

SOLUTION

The solution is shown below.

Unknown Author April 28, 2023

0 Comments

A Small Curious Table

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Chess

Difficulty: Medium

What does this table represent?

SOLUTION

The digits represent the minimum number of knight-moves needed to reach the respective cells, starting from the center.

Unknown Author April 19, 2023

1 Comment

Numbers on a Dodecahedron

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Mathematics

Difficulty: Advanced

We have written the numbers from 1 to 12 on the faces of a regular dodecahedron. Then, we have written on each vertex the sum of the five numbers on the faces incident with it. Is it possible that 16 of these 20 sums are the same?

SOLUTION

We color the vertices in five colors as shown in the image below, such that each face of the dodecahedron has 1 vertex of each color. Then, the sum of the four numbers from each color must be equal to the sum of all numbers written on the faces: 1 + 2 + … + 12 = 78.

If 16 of the vertices have the same number written on them, then by the pigeonhole principle there will be 4 vertices with identical colors and identical numbers. Since 78 is not divisible by 4, we conclude that this is impossible.

Unknown Author April 13, 2023

0 Comments

Switch the Knights

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Chess

Difficulty: Advanced

Your goal is to switch the positions of the three white knights with the positions of the three black knights. What is the least number of moves required to do this?

SOLUTION

The least number of moves required to switch the positions of the knights is 16. An example is shown below.

Next, we prove that it is impossible to switch the positions of the knights with less than 16 moves. Since the white knights occupy 2 black and 1 white squares, they need to end up on 2 white and 1 black squares, and each knight must make at least 2 moves in order to get to the opposite side, the total number of moves for the white knights should be an odd number, larger or equal to 2+2+2=6. The same applies to the total number of moves for the black knights. Therefore, the only possible way to get a total number of moves less than 16 is if both the white knights and the black knights move exactly 7 times.

We assume it is possible to switch the positions with 7+7=14 moves in total. Then, the white knight on A2 and one of the white knights on A1, A3 should make 2 moves each, and the third white knight should make 3 moves and land on a white square, either D1 or D3. Without loss of generality, we assume the knight on A1 makes 3 moves: A1-B3-C1-D3. Then, the knight on A2 should make 2 moves: A2-C3-D1, and the knight on A3 should make 2 moves: A3-B1-D2.

We make the same argument for the black knights. Since it is impossible that the white knight on A1 moves along the trajectory A1-B3-C1-D3 and also the black knight on D3 moves along the trajectory D3-C1-B3-A1, we conclude that the black knight on D1 should make 3 moves: D1-C3-B1-A3, the black knight on D2 should make 2 moves: D2-B3-A1, and the black knight on D3 should make 2 moves: D3-C1-A2.

This is only possible if:

the knight on A1 moves to C1 after the knight on D3 moves to A2
the knight on D3 moves to A2 after the knight on A2 moves to C3
the knight on A2 moves to C3 after the knight on D1 moves to B1
the knight on D1 moves to B1 after the knight on A3 moves to D2
the knight on A3 moves to D2 after the knight on D2 moves to B3
the knight on D2 moves to B3 after the knight on A1 moves to C1

We get a contradiction which means that the least number of moves is 16.

Unknown Author April 10, 2023

0 Comments

6 Missing Letters

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Insight

Difficulty: Medium

Fill the blanks with 6 different letters to read a meaningful sentence.

A _losopher of _sic in _na _ght about the _ances of _tch.

SOLUTION

You should add the 6 Greek letters φ (phi), μ (mu), χ (chi), τ (tau), ν (nu), π (pi), and get the sentence:

A philosopher of music in China taught about the nuances of pitch.

Chandan R March 28, 2023

2 Comments

Clean Death

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Science

Difficulty: Hard

A man was going to bleach his socks because they had gotten muddy the day before. As he was pouring the bleach into the washing machine, he spilled some on the floor. He got some cleaning fluid and mopped it up with a rag. Minutes later he was dead. What killed him?

SOLUTION

When the ammonia (NH₃), found in cleaning fluids, is mixed with bleach (a dilute solution of sodium hypochlorite, NaOCl), a deadly gas (monochloramine, NH₂Cl) is produced that can kill a person instantly. The resulting chemical reactions are the following:

Bleach decomposes, forming hydrochloric acid and subsequently chlorine gas:
NaOCl → NaOH + HOCl
HOCl → HCl + O
NaOCl + 2HCl → Cl₂ + NaCl + H₂O
The chlorine gas reacts with the sodium hypochlorite in the bleach, releasing chloramine as a vapor:
2NH₃ + Cl₂ → 2NH₂Cl

Unknown Author March 25, 2023

3 Comments