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.
There are 100 rooms in a row in a building and inside each room there is a lamp that is turned off. One person enters each room and switches the lamp inside. Then, a second person enters every second room (2, 4, 6, etc.) and switches the lamp inside. A third person switches the lamp in every third room and so on and so far, until person #100 switches the lamp in room 100. How many lamps are turned on at the end?
SOLUTION
We can see that the only switches that have been switched an odd number of times are the ones in rooms with perfect square numbers.
Indeed, if person N has switched the switch in room M, then person M/N has done that as well. Since person N and M/N coincide only when M=N², the claim above follows.
We conclude that the number of lamps that are turned at the end is equal to the number of perfect squares less than or equal to 100; that is exactly 10 rooms.
A dog was tied to a tree with a 7-meter rope. How did the dog manage to get to its bowl of food which was 15 meters away from the dog?
SOLUTION
The dog was initially on the other side of the tree and the tree’s diameter was 1 meter long. Thus, when the dog moved to the opposite side, it got 2×7+1=15 meters closer to its food.
Find a number containing every digit 0-9 exactly once, such that for every 1≤N≤10, the leftmost N digits comprise a number, divisible by N.
SOLUTION
Let the number be ABCDEFGHIJ.
The digit J must be 0, so that the number is divisible by 10.
The digit E must be 5, so that the number comprised of the first 5 digits is divisible by 5.
The digits B, D, F, H, J must be even, and therefore the digits A, C, E, G, I must be odd.
The numbers CD and GH must be divisible by 4 and the number FGH must be divisible by 8. Since C and G are odd, D and H must be 2 and 6, or vice-versa.
Since ABC, ABCDEF, and ABCDEFGHI are all divisible by 3, we see that A+B+C, D+E+F, and G+H+I are divisible by 3 as well. Therefore, D+F+5 is divisible by 3 and since D and F are even, we have either D=2, H=6, F=8, B=4 or D=6, H=2, F=4, B=8.
D=2, H=6, F=8, B=4. Since FGH is divisible by 8 and G is odd, we have G=1 or G=9. Also, G+I+6 is divisible by 3 and since I is odd, we have G=1, I=3. The only possibilities for ABCDEFG are 7492581630 and 9472581630, but they are not divisible by 7.
D=6, H=2, F=4, B=8. Since FGH is divisible by 8 and G is odd, we have G=3 or G=7. Also, G+I+2 is divisible by 3 and since I is odd, we have G=3, I=1 or G=3, I=7 or G=7, I=3 or G=7, I=9. The only possibilities for ABCDEFG are 9876543, 7896543, 1896543, 9816543, 1896547, 9816547, 1836547, 3816547. Out of these, only 3816547 is divisible by 7.
How many pawns can you place at most on a chess board so that no three pawns lie on a single line, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal?
SOLUTION
Since there are 8 rows on the chess board, if you place more than 16 pawns, then there will be at least 3 that lie on a single horizontal line. An example with 16 pawns is shown below:
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.
You are walking alone on the sidewalk. There are no stars on the sky, no moonlight, all of the lamps on the street are broken, you don’t carry any source of light with you and there aren’t any cars or other people approaching. A silent black cat tries to cross your way, but you somehow spot it and turn around in order to avoid bad luck. How did you see the cat?