TRICKY PUZZLES

1. There are thirty-four lines that are tangent to a circle and these lines create regions in the plane.
    Can you tell how many of these regions are not enclosed ?

2. A man attended a small get-together. He counted the number of handshakes that were  
    exchanged.There were 28 altogether. Can you tell me how many guests were present ?

3. The sum of two numbers is ten. Their product is twenty. Can you find the sum of the reciprocals of
    the two numbers ?

4. What is the sum of all numbers between 100 and 1000 which are divisible by 14 ?

5. What will be the height of a pole made up of all the millimetre cubes in one cubic metre, if placed
    one on top of another ?

6. A cylindrical container has a radius of eight inches with a height of three inches. Compute how
    many inches should be added to either the radius or height to give the same increase in volume ?

7. Jobin collected 8 spiders and beetles into a little box. When he counted the legs he found that there
    were altogether 54. How many beetles and how many spiders did he collect ?

8. Can you find a number of nine non-respective digits that is divisible by 11 ? Find the smallest of
     such number as well as the biggest ?

9. We have a brick of regular size. It weighs 4 kg. How much do you think a similar brick, four times
    smaller, but made of the same material weigh ?

10. A little ball is dropped from a height of 8ft and it bounces back each time to a height which is one
     -half of the last bounce. How far approximately will the ball have travelled when it comes to rest ?

WHAT IS AN ABACUS ?

An Abacus is a calculation tool, generally comprising of a wooden frame with beads mounted on wires. These can be conveniently slided on the wires of the wooden frame. It was primarily used centuries ago, long before the discovery and the consequent adoption of the written arabic numeral system and is still widely used by the merchants of China, central Asia and other locations. The word Nepohualtzintzin comes from the Nahuatl and it is formed by the roots; Ne - personal -; pohual or pohualli - the account -; and tzintzin - small similar elements

Abacus is arguably the forefather of a modern day computer or it can be perceived as the first computer invented by the mankind. Abacus was invented as early as 1220 A.D. in the west coast of China. Every ancient civilization in the world was familiar if not expert when it came to the usage of the abacus. It was invented in China and slowly but surely spread among the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks, Japanese and India.

The Abacus used in our programme is a Japanese soroban. It has got 17 rods .There is one bead on each rod in the upper deck and four beads each in the bottom for both decimal and hexadecimal computation. The beads on the abacus are usually shaped as a double cone (bi-cone) to facilitate ease of movement. The beads are counted by moving them up or down towards the beam. The abacus can be reset to the starting position instantly by a quick jerk along the horizontal axis to align all the beads away from the horizontal beam at the center.

PUZZLE GAMES

Mark Riedel's Applet
A smoothly working set of 40 original Rush Hour® challenges programmed in JavaScript by Mark Riedel. Give this set a try and you'll definitely discover playing it on screen isn't less convenient and exciting than playing its physical version.
Play


for quiz

BRAIN TEASERS

1. BINGO
A group of us were playing Bingo. I noticed something very interesting. There were different Bingo cards with no two cards having the same set of numbers in corresponding column or row. The centre of course was a free space. How many such cards are possible, can you tell?
2. Find out the Sum
What is the sum of al numbers between 100 and 1000 which are divisible by 14?
3.. A Pair of Palindromes
Multiply 21978 by 4. Now see if you can find a pair of palindromes.
4. Count the Digits
Can you find a number which added to itself one or several times will give a total having the same digits as that number but differently arranged and after the sixth addition will give a total of all nines?
5. Prime Number
Do you know which is the largest known prime number?
6. Continue the Series
1, 3, 6, 10 Name the next three numbers in the series
7. Smallest Positive Prime
Which is the smallest positive prime which is some multiple of seven less than a cube of a counting number less than ten?
8. Do You have Change?
Can you change a rupee note in such a way that there are exactly fifty coins? No 2 paisa coin?
9. A Probability Problem
Is it possible that there are 53 Tuesdays in a non-leap year? What is the probability?

ANSWERS
1. 1365
2. 35392
3. 4*21978=87912
4. 142857
5. 170 1411 83460469231731687303715884 105 727
6. 15 21 28 .. . .
7. 7
8. 45 PAISE, 2 FIVE PAISE, 2 TEN PAISE AND 1 TWENTY FIVE PAISE.
9. 1/7TH

AMAIZING PUZZLES

1. A Matter of Time

Fifty minutes ago if it was four times as many minutes past three o’clock,

how many minutes is it to six o’clock?

2. Around the Equator

Two identical trains at the equator start traveling round the world in opposite

directions. They start together run at the same speed and are on different tracks. Which train will wear out its wheel treads first?

3. The Gong

Supposing a clock takes 7 seconds to strike 7 .How long will the same clock takes to strike 10?

4. Brothers and Sisters

A family I know has several children. Each boy in this family has as many sisters as brothers but each girl has twice as many brothers as sisters. How many brothers and sisters are there?

5. Cotton or Gold

Which would you say is heavier, a pound of cotton or a pound of gold?

6. The Peculiar Number

There is a number which is very peculiar. This number is three times the sum of its digits. Can you find the number?

7. The Digital Game

There is a number, the second digit of which is smaller than its first digits by 4, and if the number was divided by the digits sum, the quotient would be 7. Can you find the number?

8. Right Foot Forward

A short man takes 3 steps to a tall man’s 2 steps. They both start out on the left foot. How many steps do they have to take before they are both stepping out on the right foot together?

9. The Number Game

The product of three consecutive numbers when divided by each of them in turn, the sum of the three quotients will be 74. What are the numbers?

10. The Sari and the Blouse

I brought a sari and a blouse for Rs. 110 at the Market. The sari cost Rs. 100 more than the blouse, how much does the sari cost?

11. The Weight of the Block

A cement block balances evenly on the scales with three quarters of a pound and three quarters of a block. What is the weight of the whole block?

12. The Special Number

There is a number whose double is greater than its half by 45. Can you find this number?

13. Sawing the Tree Trunk

A heavy tree trunk can be sawed into a 12 ft long piece in one minutes .How long will it take to saw it into 12 equal pieces?

14. The Split

Can you split 34 parts into two parts such that 4/7 of one of the parts gquals 2/5 of the other?

15. Father and Son

A father, I know, is 4 times his son’s age. And in 30 years son’s age will be half of his father’s age. How old are the father and son now?

ANSWERS

1. 26 minutes
2. Naturally, the train traveling against the spin of the earth. This train will wear out its wheels more quickly, because the centrifugal force is less on this train.
3. while striking 7 the clock strikes its first gong at 7 o’clock and it strikes 6 more at regular intervals. These 6 intervals take 7 seconds so that the intervals between gongs is 7/6 seconds. However, to strike 10 there are 9 intervals each taking 7/6 seconds for a total of 10 ½ seconds
4. Since the boys have as many brothers as sisters, there must be 1 boy more than the number of girls. If we try 2 & 1, 3&2, 4&3, we will find that 4 boys and 3 girls is the solution to fulfill the requirement that each girl has twice as many brothers as sisters.
5. A pound of cotton is heavier than a pound of gold because cotton is weighed by the avoirdupois pound, which consists of 16 ounces, where as gold, being a precious metal is weighed by the troy pound which contains 12 ounces (5760 grams)
6. Number is 27, 2+7=9
7. The number is 84
8. They will never step out with right foot together
9. 4, 5 and 6
10. If the sari cost Rs. 100 and the blouse Rs. 10 the difference would be Rs 90 and therefore, the sari must cost more and the blouse less. A little thought indicates the sari costs Rs 105 and the blouse Rs 5. so , the difference in cost is Rs 100
11. The whole block weighs 3 lbs
12. 30
13. Eleven minutes. The 12^th piece does not require sawing
14. 14 & 20
15. The ratio of the father and son’s age is now 4 to 1, and 30 years from now it will be 2 to 1. the period of thirty years equals the difference of the two ratios or 2 to 1 therefore , 30* 2=60, the father’s age and ½*30=15, the son’s age

MATHEMATICAL PUZZLES

1. Which number in the following series occurs a second time nearest the beginning?

9 7 8 6 7 5 6 4 5 3 4 2 3 1 2 0

2. The sum and product of two numbers are 8 & 15 respectively .The sum of their reciprocal is?
3. If 6 men working 8 hours a day earn Rs 720 per week ,then 8 men working 6 hours a day will earn per week?

4. if A:B =3:4 and B:C =5:6 THEN A:B:C=?

5. A and B can do a work in 12 and 15 days respectively .They starts the work together but A left after 4 days due to illness .The remaining work was finished by B in ?

6. The average of 12 numbers in 20 .If each number is multiplied by 3 ,the average of the new numbers will be?

7. If it was a Saturday on 17^th December ,1982 ; What will be the day on 22^nd September ,1984?

8. If the difference between three times and seven times of a number comes to 36 ,what is that number?

9. All the numbers in the following set have been obtained by multiplication of two prime numbers ;6,35,143,323 .What is the difference in the value of the lowest and the highest prime numbers used?

10. Father is 5 years older than mother and the mother’s age is thrice the age of the daughter .The daughter is now 10 years old .What was the father’s age when the daughter was born?

ANSWERS

1. 7

2. 8/15

3. RS 720

4. 15:20:24

5. 6 DAYS

6. 60

7. SUNDAY

8. 9

9. 17

10. 25 YEARS

GENERAL PUZZLES

1. 1. While facing east you turn to your left and walk 10 yards; then turn to your left and walk 10 yards    and now you turn 45'0 towards your right and go straight to cover 25 yards .Now,in what direction are you from your starting point?

2 A placed three sheets with two carbons to get two extra copies of original.Then he decided to get more carbon copies ,and folded the papers in such a way that the upper half of the sheets were on top of the lower half. Then he typed.How many carbon copies did he gets?

3 A set of 8 books is arranged in orderly fashion on a shelf.Each book has 100 pages making 800 pages in all.A worm starting on the first page of the first book eats through the last page of the last book?How many pages has it eaten?

 

4 in a row of six persons, D and C are immediate neighbours of E. B is a neighbour of A only . A is the fourth from F. Who are on the two end points?

 

5 What is the smallest number of ducks that could swim in this formation--two ducks in front of a duck ,two ducks behind a duck and a duck between two ducks?

6.B is twice as old as A but twice younger than F.C is half the age of A but is twice older than D.Which two persons for the pair of the oldest and youngest?

7.A walks a distance of 3km towards north ,then turns to his left and walks for 2kms .He again turns to left and walks for 3kms.At this point he turns to his right and walks for 3kms.How many kms and in which direction is he from the starting point?

8.Mr.A ,Miss B,Mr C and Miss D are sitting around a table and discussing their trades.

• Mr A sits opposite to cook
• Miss B sits right to the barber
• The washerman is on the left of the tailor
• Miss D sits opposite Mr C   

What are the trades of A and B?

 

9. If the first and second letters in the word MEPHISTOPHELES were inter changed, as well as the third and fourth letters, the fifth and the sixth and so on then which one would be tenth letter counting from the right?

 

10.If all the even numbered letters of the English alphabet are crossed out ,then which would be the ninth letter not crossed out?

 

11.A man walks westward .He turns to his right then to his left and finally to his left again after walking a kilometer distance .In which direction is he walking now?

 

12.At the dining table were a man and his wife ,his son and his daughter and their spouses ,and four grand children in each family of his offspring .How many were there at the dinning table?

 

13.Gulshan ,Helen ,Indu ,and Fatima are sitting on a park bench .Fatima has Helen next to her on her left .Indu sits with Fatima and Gulshan on either side of her .Who sits at the extreme right?

 

14.Anand is taller to Suraj .Shadani is not as tall as Anand but taller to Ashok .Suraj too is not as tall as Shadani but taller to Ashok .Who is the tallest?

 

15. Shafi was all alone in the park .After some time came an old man and an old women followed by two couples with one child each.How many persons are there in the park now?

 

 

ANSWERS

 

1.NORTH-WEST

2. TWO

3. 602

4. F and B

5. 3

6. F is the oldest and D is the youngest

7. 1km and east

8. Trades of A and B are tailor and cook respectively

9. S

10.Q

11. SOUTH.

12. 14

13. GULSHAN

14. ANAND

15. 9