Category: Puzzles

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Escaping the Kingdom

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Insight
Difficulty:

A long time ago there was a kingdom, isolated from the world. There was only one way to and from the kingdom, namely through a long bridge. The king ordered the execution of anyone caught fleeing the kingdom on the bridge and the banishment of anyone caught sneaking into the kingdom.

The bridge was guarded by one person, who was taking a 10-minute break inside his cabin every round hour. Fifteen minutes were needed for a person to cross the bridge and yet, one woman managed to escape the kingdom. How did she do it?

Once the guard entered the cabin, the woman started crossing the bridge for 9 minutes, and then turned around and pretended to be going in the opposite direction for one more minute. When the guard caught her, she said she was trying to enter the kingdom, so he banished her away.

unknown-author
Unknown Author November 1, 2023
3 Comments

Out of Time

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Chess
Difficulty:

In the position below, Black played a move, but right before he pressed the clock, he ran out of time. However, the judge declared a draw instead of awarding a victory to the opponent. Why?

The rules of FIDE state that if a player runs out of time, their opponent wins the game IF they have a path to victory. If there is no sufficient material, e.g. a King and a Knight against a King, then the game is declared a draw.

In this position, Black played Rxg6 which forces the moves:

  1. … Rxg6+
  2. Nxg6+ Rxg6+
  3. Kxg6+ Qxg6+
  4. Kxg6

This leaves White with a King and a Knight against Black’s King. Thus, White did not have a path to victory and the game was declared a draw.

puzzle-prime
Puzzle Prime October 28, 2023
0 Comments

Unconscious and Bleeding

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Lateral
Difficulty:

A man is found unconscious in front of a store at two in the morning. His head is bleeding and there is a brick laying next to him. When the police arrive, they carry the man to jail. Why did they arrest him?

The man was a burglar who tried to break the store’s glass with the brick. The glass turned out to be bullet proof, so the brick bounced back and hit him in the head, knocking him out.

unknown-author
Unknown Author October 25, 2023
1 Comment

Dr. Riesen’s Rebuses 2

Section: Casual Puzzles Category: Rebus
Difficulty:

Can you figure out what common phrases these rebuses represent?

The answers are:

  1. A drop in the bucket
  2. First edition
  3. Kick the bucket
  4. Feeling under the weather
  5. Don’t cut corners
  6. Pillow talk
  7. Don’t cry over spilled milk
  8. Jump the gun
  9. Spill the beans
  10. A piece of cake
  11. Back to square one
  12. Hold your horses
  13. Catch my drift
  14. Let the cat out of the bag
  15. Face the music
  16. Barking at the wrong tree
guillaume-riesen
Guillaume Riesen October 22, 2023
0 Comments

Death Cult

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Mathematics
Difficulty:

A thousand people stand in a circle in order from 1 to 1000. Number 1 has a sword. He kills the next person (Number 2) and gives the sword to the next living person (Number 3). All people keep doing the same until only one person remains. Which number survives?

First, we note that if the number of people is a power of 2, then the first person will survive every round. The greatest power of 2 that is less than 1000 is 512. Therefore, after 488 people die, there will be 512 remaining and the first one to kill the 489-th person will survive. This person has number 1+2×488=977.

unknown-author
Unknown Author October 10, 2023
25 Comments

A String Around a Rod

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Mathematics
Difficulty: Tags:

A string is wound around a circular rod with circumference 10 cm and length 30 cm. If the string goes around the rod exactly 4 times, what is its length?

Imagine the circular rod is actually a paper roll and the string is embedded inside the paper. When we unroll it, we get a paper rectangle 30cm×40cm with the string embedded along the diagonal. Using the Pythagorean theorem, we find that the length of the string is 50cm.

unknown-author
Unknown Author October 7, 2023
0 Comments

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