1260 Challenging Brain Teasers Page 82 of 84
If you've done all of the brain teasers so far, you're tried over 1200, what an accomplishment and maybe you learned something too.
1216. Change the second letter of each pair of words to make a new word. Place the letter, the same for each pair, on the blank line in the middle. When you have finished, you will have a new word reading down.
Clown ______ Blow
Came ______ Bail
Alp ______ Ark
Ball ______ Sand
1217. Five of your relatives are having a Sunday Football party. You have to decide which one you are going to by solving the problem of how they are related to you, what snacks they are serving, and what team they are cheering for.
Their names are Pat, Chris, PJ, Stacey, and Bobbi. They are your Cousin, Uncle, Mother, Brother, or Sister. They serve Popcorn, Chips, Carrot Sticks, Pizza or Cookies. They cheer for the Broncos, Raiders, Packers, Cowboys or Dolphins.
Neither Chris nor Stacey serves chips (which are served while watching the Broncos).
The cookies are not served while watching the Packers or Raiders. Pat isn't your brother (your brother doesn't serve cookies or pizza).
PJ is your cousin (and doesn't serve cookies or carrot sticks) who watches the Dolphins.
Your sister doesn't watch the Broncos or the Packers; and the Packers fan doesn't serve carrot sticks. Chris is not your brother.
When you go to Bobbi's house, pizza is served, but Bobbi is not your uncle.
1218. Inspector Will Ketchum was called in to investigate a series of thefts at the Hotel Splendide.
"Thanks for coming so promptly, Inspector," said the manager, as he ushered Ketchum into his office. "Recently, we've been troubled by a series of thefts from the guests' rooms, but until now we haven't been able to point a finger of suspicion at anyone.
"And now you can?" asked the Inspector. "On what grounds?"
"Yesterday a guest reported a fifty-dollar bill missing from a purse she left on the table in her room. This morning I sent one of my receptionists on an errand to the bank. In front of her at the teller was one of our chambermaids asking for change of a fifty-dollar bill. I know it doesn't prove anything, against the girl, but her pay isn't due until the end of the week, and it looks highly suspicious."
"I agree," said the Inspector. "I'd like to have a word with her, if that's possible."
"Certainly," said the manager. He pressed a button on the intercom and asked that Mabel be sent to his office. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door. A young girl entered and the manager explained why the Inspector wanted to ask her a few questions.
"It's in your interest," began the Inspector, "that you be cleared of suspicion. If it's true that you were in the bank changing a fifty-dollar bill soon after one had been stolen from a room you were working in, how did you come by that money?"
"It's true that I was in the bank with a fifty-dollar bill," admitted Mabel. "One of the guests gave it to me. I don't know which one, because it was my weekend off. When I came back yesterday." Monday-there was a telephone message for me from one of the guests who left during the weekend. I don't know who it was or where she phoned from. Lots of people come and go on weekends, and they often leave me tips."
"And you were left fifty dollars," said the Inspector. "That's quite a tip."
"Biggest I've ever had," said Mabel. "She must be rich. She left it in a funny place. I guess she wanted to be sure I got it. There's a bookcase in the lounge, full of old books I've never seen anybody read. The money was hidden in one of them on the top shelf. Myrtle, the telephone operator, took the message. Myrtle didn't get the title right, but it was by Dickens and I was supposed to look between pages 99 and 100, though she didn't say what I'd find there. There were a lot of books by Dickens to look through, and after I looked through six or seven of them and didn't find anything, I was beginning to think it was a joke."
"Do you remember which book you found it in?" asked the Inspector.
"It was Oliver Twist," said Mabel. "I saw the movie. Oliver asked for more, but didn't get it. I got more than I expected."
The Inspector smiled. "You may go now, Miss. Thanks for your explanation."
When the girl left, Inspector Ketchum asked the man?ager to call the telephone operator, Myrtle. Soon she was in the room.
"About the message you gave Mabel," the Inspector began, "how is it that you didn't know who was speaking? Why did you get only part of the message?"
"It was a really bad line," Myrtle said. "Sometimes it was clear and then it would get all noisy and crackly. I don't know where the lady was speaking from, but it may have been through a switchboard a hotel switch?board, like ours."
"Very likely," said the Inspector.
"When the operator got through to me," continued Myrtle, "the lady must have asked her to check that we were the Hotel Splendide and was spelling it out for her. I heard the operator saying, Hotel what? Speak up, please. S for Samuel, yes; P for Peter, yes; L for what? Speak up please!' Then I chimed in and called out 'Hotel Splendide!' When the lady was put through, she asked for Mabel. I told her Mabel was off for the weekend, so she gave me a message for her to look in a book. I got as much of it as I could make sense of, what with the bad line, and other calls to deal with."
"I understand," said the Inspector. "No more ques?tions. Thank you for your cooperation."
By the time Myrtle left, the Inspector had made his decision about the girls' stories. Have you?
1219. Messrs. Spinnaker, Buoy, Luff, Gybe, and Windward are yacht owners. Each has a daughter, and each has named his yacht after the daughter of one of the others.
Mr. Spinnaker's yacht, the Iris, is named after Mr. Buoy's daughter. Mr. Buoy's own yacht is the Daffodil; Mr. Windward's yacht is the Fonquil; Mr. Gybe's, the Anthea.
Daffodil is the daughter of the owner of the yacht which is named after Mr. Luff's daughter. Mr. Windward's daughter is named Lalage.
Who is Jonquil's father?
1220. An eccentric man had a block of wood measuring 3 feet by 1 foot by 1 foot, which he gave to a wood turner with instructions to turn from it a pedestal, saying that he would pay him a certain sum for every cubic inch of wood taken from the block in process of turning. The ingenious turner weighed the block and found it to contain 30 pounds. After he had finished the pedestal it was again weighed, and found to contain 20 pounds. As the original block contained 3 cubic feet, and it had lost just one-third of its weight, the turner asked payment for 1 cubic foot. But the gentleman objected, saying that the heart of the wood might be heavier or lighter than the outside.
How did the ingenious turner contrive to convince his customer that he had taken not more and not less than 1 cubic foot from the block?
1221. Just before the end of the term four high school students were discussing their chances for certain grades. The following remarks contain the gist of their hopes and fears.
Jack: We'll all get different grades.
If I get an A, then Lucy will get a D.
Jean: If Lucy gets a C, then Jack will get a D.
Jack will get a better grade than Paul.
Lucy: If Jean doesn't get an A, then Jack will get a C.
If I get a B, then Paul won't get a D.
Paul: If Lucy gets an A, then I'll get a B.
if Jean doesn't get a B, I won't either.
When the final examinations were graded and the term marks made out each of the four passed, and strange as it may seem, each received a grade that checked exactly with all the ideas they had previously expressed.
What grade did each receive?
1222. Farmer Jones was complaining to officer Luke Sharp about four boys from town who had trespassed on his land and let their dogs run loose among his chickens.
"The collie and the pug did damage that the boys' folks ought to pay for," said the farmer. "But the dogs weren't on leashes, and the boys ran away when they saw me coming, so I don't know which dog belonged to which boy."
"What about the other dogs?" asked Officer Sharp.
"There was a boxer and an Irish setter," said the farmer. "Two of my workmen saw the boys before. They nicknamed 'em Red, Scruffy, Shorty and Curly. They said they saw Shorty and Red out with the boxer and the pug one time. And later they saw Scruffy and Curly with the collie and the Irish setter. They once saw the collie and the pug with Curly and Shorty, too."
"That information," said Officer Sharp, "is enough to tell me which dog belongs to which boy. Come into town tomorrow and we'll go over to the high school. If you can point out the boys, I'll question the two whose dogs did the damage."
Which dog belonged to which boy?
1223. A chessboard has squares that are two inches by two inches. What is the diameter of the largest circle that can be drawn on the board in such a way that the circle's circumference is entirely on black squares?
1224. The same seven letters, rearranged into two different words, can be used to fill in the blanks below. Fill in the blanks to complete the sentences.
"What happened to your secret _ _ _ _ _ _ _?" asked the lady with the parasol, having the driver stop her carriage to ask this most indiscreet question. "Well," said the lady in the bustle gown who had just returned to town for a visit, "Didn't you hear? we _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ."
1225. Four brothers were comparing the number of sheep that they owned. It was found that Claude had ten more sheep than Dan. If Claude gave a quarter of his sheep to Ben, then Claude and Adam would together have the same number as Ben and Dan together. If; then, Adam gave one-third to Ben, and Ben gave a quarter of what he then held to Claude, who then passed on a fifth of his holding to Dan, and Ben then divided one-quarter of the number he then possessed equally amongst Adam, Claude, and Dan, they would all have an equal number of sheep.
How many sheep did each son possess?
1226. Counting one number per second twenty-four hours per day, how long would it take to count to a billion? A trillion?
1227. Find the six-digit number in which the first and last digits are the same; the first and last digits multiplied by two gives a two-digit number, now the second and third digits; and the last digit multiplied by three gives a two-digit number, now the fourth and fifth digits. The sum of all the digits is 22.
1228. The average distance from the earth to the sun has a specific name. Do you know what it is?
1229. What two words, formed from different arrangements of the same eight letters,can be used to complete the sentence below?
The ________ with the magnificent voice knew he had no stage presence, so he took acting lessons and was able to ________ his opera role.
1230. Here's a sentence palindrome!
Help! A mouse got into the local church.
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