Test Your Mathematic Ability

[gatewish]

Albert Einstein wrote this riddle. He was quoted saying "he believed that 98% of the world could not solve it." Are you in the top 2% of intelligent people in the world? There are no tricks - just pure logic! http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/confused.gif

1. There are 5 houses in 5 diffent colours, all in a row.
2. In each house lives a different person with a different nationality
3. These 5 people drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keeps a certain pet.
4. No person has the same pet, smokes the same cigar, or drinks the same beverage.

The question is, who owns the fish?
- The Brit lives in the red house.
- The Swede has a dog.
- The Dane drinks tea.
- The green house is on the left of the white house.
- The green house's owner drinks coffee.
- The person who smokes Pall Ball has a bird.
- The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
- The man living in the center house drinks milk.
- The Norwegian lives in the first house.
- The man who smokes Blends lives next to the cat owner.
- The man who owns a horse lives next to the one who smokes Dunhill.
- The man who smokes BlueMaster drinks beer.
- The German smokes prince.
- The Norweigan lives next to the blue house.
- The man who smokes Blends has a neighbour who drinks water.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!

[Tsarkon]

If you want to figure this brain teaser out on your own, then please don't read this. Spoilers are forthcoming.
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The order of the houses from left to right is Yellow, Blue, Red, Green, and White.

The Norwegian lives in the yellow house, has a cat for a pet, drinks water, and smokes Dunhill.

The Dane lives in the Blue house, has a horse for a pet, drinks tea, and smokes Blends.

The Brit lives in the Red house, has a bird for a pet, drinks milk, and smokes Pall Ball.

The German lives in the green house, has the fish for a pet, drinks coffee, and smokes Prince.

And the Swede lives in the white house, has a dog for a pet, drinks beer, and smokes BlueMaster.


This was a fun one. I hope I put enough spaces so as to not spoil it for anyone else here, because it really isn't as hard as it looks. http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/smile.gif

I'm new here, so I'll give a short introduction. My nick is Tsarkon (redundant, I know it's in the title, but, hey, give me a break. http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/wink.gif ) and I first learned of the Necroscope books when a medieval MUD that I play introduced a guild that was loosely based on the wamphyri. Our guildmaster encouraged us to roleplay heavily, which inevitably led to many of us delving into the history of the wamphyri. The other players there grew to hate the members of the wamphyri (no we didn't steal, equipment or kills or attack players, but we were always cold and calculating, never doing anything unless we saw a way in which it benefitted ourselves), which ultimately led to the closing of the guild. But as a result Brian Lumley has definitely become my favorite author, and that is what brings me here.


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/Tsarkon vV~Vv

[Mike C]

Gatewish... Hey, I liked this puzzle. What is your fascination with brain teasers? Women don't usually like puzzles (I can already feel the abuse coming, don't hurt me!)

[Lichloathe]

Ok Tsarkon got here first... Good work mate! In fact there are 2 solutions in this riddle, giving of course the German for the Fish owner, depending on how one interprets "left". One interpretation is the one used by Tsarkon. He takes "left" the way one would see the houses from outside. One living inside the houses see "left" in the opposite way, wielding this solution:

House #: 1 2 3 4 5
Owner : Norwegian Dane Brit Swede German
color : Yellow Blue Red white Green
drink : water tea milk beer coffee
pet : cat horse bird dog FISH
cigar : Dunhill Blends PallBall BlueMaster Prince

Very good riddle gatewish!

*Lichloathe bows deeply*

------------------
"Though thou seest me not pass by,
Thou shalt feel me with thine eye
As a thing that, though unseen,
Must be near thee and hath been;"



[This message has been edited by Lichloathe (edited February 11, 2000).]

[Quail]

How long did it take you two?

I mean three.

[This message has been edited by Quail (edited February 12, 2000).]

[Mike C]

Ehlana, Hey I actually deserved worse than that, but I was just curious. I hear a lot of females say they aren't good at math and I can't remember seeing too many chicks doing puzzels like this... I think more of them prefer crosswords. Something about right-brained/left-brained. Still a stereotype and I apologize.

As for posting puzzles, I search the internet all night at work to kill time (when I'm not reading) so I wouldn't mind.

[Lichloathe]

Ehlana, bring it forth girl, i'd love to give it a try, 6 variables sound like a challenge...
Quail, it didn't take really long, 5-7 mins i guess. I had to do it a couple of times afterwards with different arrangement, to cancel out some other probabilities. It wasn't really hard it just needs the right approach, forming a table really does it. I wouldn't really call it math, logic actually. It was quite fun though (ok i'm not trying to play the wise guy or anything, it's just me)


------------------
"Though thou seest me not pass by,
Thou shalt feel me with thine eye
As a thing that, though unseen,
Must be near thee and hath been;"

[gatewish]

Well Mike I actually only did this puzzle cos my flatmate couldn't solve it. He is male by the way, and boy did it feel good!
WOMAN POWER!!! It took me about 30 mins so well done Lichloathe.

[gatewish]

Well since you did that so easily try the following


A farmer went to a cattle auction with a certain number of cows.
The first customer bought half the farmer's cows, plus half a cow.
The second customer purchased half of what the farmer had left,
plus half a cow. The last customer bought half of what the farmer
had left, plus half a cow. Each of the farmer's customers bought
whole cows, not half cows. After the three customers purchased
cows, the farmer had no cows left. How many cows did he start out
with?

[Lichloathe]

Gatewish, thanks. I was kind of lucky to get it fast. There are 2 different placements for the white-green house in the 5 row and the one i picked first actually worked. I had to try the other one afterwards to see if it lead to a different solution (leads nowhere) and i took me some time to think of all possibilities. So I guess the total time was close to yours. Are you a math or engineering student?
Lord Shaithis, you got on the second one first mate. Good work. I just saw your riddle, not a math one but seems cool. Wait on that solution, give us time.


------------------
"Though thou seest me not pass by,
Thou shalt feel me with thine eye
As a thing that, though unseen,
Must be near thee and hath been;"

[gatewish]

LichloatheI'm actually neither. I'm studying Medical Laboratory Science How about yourself. Are you in college?

Ok Lord Shaithis try the following.

Three men checked into a hotel room for which they paid $30. The next day, the manager realized that the men had been overcharged. He gave the bellhop $5 to return to the three men. On the way to their room the bellhop decided to keep $2 for himself, and give each of the three men one dollar. The three men had now paid $9 each, or a total of $27. This plus the $2 the bellhop kept makes a total of $29. What happened to the other dollar?

It's a good one!

[Emaleth]

*Does her Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah for Gatewish* You go girl! *Smiles as watches the males in the group scrambling to get the first answers*

[Mike C]

Lord Shaithis- Jack Smith is either a taxi cab driver or driving a convertible with the top down... Either way the police aren't too bright.

[Emaleth]

*Chuckles*

Really though, I do enjoy figuring out logic puzzles, but honestly it takes me longer to write it all out on paper so I can work on them than you all probably take at doing the whole puzzle. so :-P at the provoking, I will just lurk in this category if you all don't mind. :->

[Lichloathe]

Gatewish, you study Science so it's the same thing actually. (I don't mean that women involved with say litterature can't think so no shooting me gals)
I'm not in college at the moment. I took a degree in Electrical Engineering back in 98, spent some time in the army and next year i'll move to England for a PhD. As for my fascination with puzzles and stuff, it started since I was young.

Lord Shaithis although that kind of puzzles you mentined is not my usual type of game, i'd like to see that one with the dots, see if i'll be able to figure it out. This time difference with you guys gets me out of the game though. I log on and not only there's a new puzzle but also the answer. I still have the fun of doing it, but no reason to post unless there's an alternative....
Anyway i'll see if i can find a good one for the board.
Oh and mate, not wise provoking the Ladies: they'll stab you in the back without even turning it on them http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/wink.gif


------------------
"Though thou seest me not pass by,
Thou shalt feel me with thine eye
As a thing that, though unseen,
Must be near thee and hath been;"

[gatewish]

Well Lord Shaithis that ain't the answer I had but it's still right. Congratulations. http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/cool.gif Here's two more puzzels for anyone who would like to have a go.

The first
You have nine coins. One of the nine is counterfeit. The counterfeit coin can only be distinguished by weight - it is
heavier than the rest. Using a balance scale only twice, find the counterfeit coin.


And the second
The total ages of Julie and Jason are 44 years. Julie is twice as old as Jason was when Julie was half as old as Jason will be when Jason is three times as old as Julie was when Julie was three times as old as Jason. How old are Julie and Jason?

Good luck! (Chuckle)

[Emaleth]

Heh heh..saw this and thought it was good, although a quick one. BTW, I figured it in about 5 minutes..loves these kind of puzzles :->

*What's wrong with this Paragraph?*

How quickly can you find out what is so unusual about this paragraph? It looks so ordinary that you would think that nothing is wrong with it at all, and, in fact, nothing is. But it is unusual. Why? If you study it and think about it, you may find out, but I am not going to assist you in any way. You must do it without coaching. No doubt, if you work at it for long, it will dawn on you. Who knows? Go to work and try your skill. Par is about half an hour.

[Lichloathe]

Ok, for the nine coin puzzle. It might be a little cheat solution so if i have to try otherwise say so.
We leave a coin out and weigh 2 piles of 4. If they are the same (lucky us) the counterfeit is the one left out. Otherwise we take the heavier pile and make 2 piles of 2 coins. We put those on the scale and find which is heavier. Hold the 2 coins one in each hand. The heavier is the counterfeit. This last step might be illegal but i came up with this solution quite fast so i thought to mention it. If not, say so and i'll try again.

Lord Shaithis its the first time i see the 9 dot puzzle. My way of thought is probably flawed but i could not reach a solution after about 20-25 mins. I'll try again tonight. It's weird though. I use a litle graph theory (like paths joining 9 towns) and the obvious symmetries in the design but the best i came up with is 8 dots. Obviously i'm overlooking something.

Emaleth, you beat me. I can see nothing in the paragraph http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/smile.gif



------------------
"Though thou seest me not pass by,
Thou shalt feel me with thine eye
As a thing that, though unseen,
Must be near thee and hath been;"

[Emaleth]

*Smiles* I will await until tomorrow to post the answer.

I gave up on the 9 dot myself, although it seems like I remember doing a puzzle of the same in my school years. It escapes me though. lol I also had the same idea of sorts with the coins. But, knowing my luck it would be the slightest of differences in the coins..so I would ultimately lose.. :-|

Ahh, does anyone know of a card trick that comes out due to mathematics everytime, I used to win money when I bartended years ago and all I can remember are piled cards counted from the first up to 13, etc. Anyway, you wound up knowing what card the subject picked every time. I should have written that in stone :-

[Lichloathe]

Emaleth i know that trick too! Learned it recently and although i forget the details i have it written down somewhere. I think you subtract 14 from a card number or something. Yeah really cool trick. I bet you amazed everyone!

------------------
"Though thou seest me not pass by,
Thou shalt feel me with thine eye
As a thing that, though unseen,
Must be near thee and hath been;"

[Emaleth]

Lichloathe..it was many years ago that I did that card trick, and yes, amazed the ones I performed for got a bit richer for it. *Smiles*

Ahh Lord Shaithis, you do have the touch for flattery, and I commend you for finding the answer to my puzzle, it was not at all that difficult, but it is meant to make you think...and for what I have witnessed..you do have a quality I admire..*smiles*

[Luna]

Mike C. Are you always that arrogant? Because MOST MEN love puzzles, but can never solve them. Ouch, those rash generalizations suck, don't they. (I'm sorry if I offended any other males here. I really don't feel that way. I'm just making a point.)
I can't believe you made me use my angry face. http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/mad.gif

[Lichloathe]

Lord Shaithis, got it mate! I thought the ryles were to keep on the 3x3 grid but that way its impossible. With your tip it comes easily. Dont know how to describe well: I start at the top left, write the 3 dots and keep going out, then then a diagonal line throuh middle bottom and middle right dot, i keep it going till i reach the level of 3 top dots, write them out and lastly the diagonal which clears the grid! Good one.
Still waitnig the reply on that coin prob from gatewish. Did I get it or not?
Oh and take it easy on the ladies will you, they might be the fairer sex but as we see from Brians work, Ladies are often far more dangerous.... http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/smile.gif


------------------
"Though thou seest me not pass by,
Thou shalt feel me with thine eye
As a thing that, though unseen,
Must be near thee and hath been;"

[Luna]

I just want everyone to know that I don't think either sex is smarter than the other. I just don't like it when someone tells ME what I do or don't like based on one detail. I do like puzzles. I also like men...alot. In fact the puzzle I like most is that of a man. I still haven't figured that one out, but I'm having fun just trying. http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/tongue.gif. So how about a truce, for now.

[This message has been edited by Luna (edited February 21, 2000).]

[SimonK]

Hey Guys, Im kind of new here, and i was quite happy when i solved that first problem (5 houses thing) in only a few hours! Im a kid, so stop laughing. And Gatewish, i thought you might be interested to know that I saw that Julie & Jason problem on the SAT's. It brought up bad memories

[Lichloathe]

Ehlana, I totally agree with you on the proof matter. However, in some problems the proof would take more to write than to figure it out (the houses problem needs more than a page for a well stated proof).
And of course, i think all of us have provided proofs for the problems solved, except the one with the houses. Anyway we'll be more diligent in the future. Peace http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/smile.gif


------------------
"Though thou seest me not pass by,
Thou shalt feel me with thine eye
As a thing that, though unseen,
Must be near thee and hath been;"

[SimonK]

Ok, here we go with a house proof -

1. The Brit lives in the red house

2. The Swede has a Dog

3. The Dane Drinks tea

4. The German smokes Prince

5. The Norweigan lives in the first house; next to the blue

6. The Green house is on the left of the white house; therefore, the norweigan cannot live in the White house, the Green house (norweigan house is ONLY next to the blue), the Blue house, or the Red house

7. The Norweigan lives in the Yellow house

8. The man living in the center drinks milk; the Dane doesnt live in the center (tea), neither does the norweigan (first house)

9. The green house owner drinks coffee, so neither the Brit nor the Dane live in the green house or drink coffee (red house, tea)

10. The man who smokes Pall Ball has a bird - the German smokes Prince, so he doesnt have a bird - the swede has a dog - he doesnt smoke Pall Ball

11. The man who smokes Bluemaster drinks beer - the Dane drinks tea, so he doesnt smoke Bluemaster, and the German smokes prince, so he doesnt drink beer.

12. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill - the norweigan lives in the yellow house, so he smokes Dunhill.

13. The owner of the horse lives next to the one who smokes Dunhill - the owner of the horse lives in a blue house.

14. The Green house MUST have the white house on its right, so the green house is in either position 3 or 4. The center house drinks milk, and the green house drinks coffee. So the final house order is Yellow, Blue, Red, Green, White.

15. The man who smokes blends has a neigbor who drinks water - the white house's only neighbor is green, and it drinks coffee, so the white house does not smoke blends.

16. The man in the center drinks milk - the brit is in the center, so he drinks milk.

17. The man who smokes blends has a neighbor who drinks water - The yellow house smoke dunhill, so the blue house cannot drink water.

18. The Dane drinks tea, so the yellow house cannot.

19. The man who smokes Pall Ball has a bird - The blue house has a horse, so he doesn't smoke pall ball, and the norweigan smokes dunhill, so he cannot have a bird.

20. The Brit lives in the red house, and the horse is in the blue house - the brit doesn't have a horse.

21. The man who smokes Bluemaster drinks beer - the brit drinks milk, so he doesnt smoke bluemaster. The swede smokes bluemaster, therefore, he drinks beer.

22. The german is the only person left who can drink coffee, so he does.

23. The norweigan is the only person left who can drink water, so he does.

24. The man who smokes blends has a neighbor who drinks water. The only neigbor of the norweigan (drinks water) is the blue house, so it smokes blends.

25. The man who smokes Bluemaster drinks beer - The only house that can smoke bluemaster and drink beer is the white house.

26. The Swede lives in the white house.

27. The German is the only one left who can live in the green house, so he does.

28. By process of elimination, the dane lives in the blue house.

29. By process of elimination, the blue house smokes blends (Dane), so the Brit (Red) smokes pall ball.

By now, you be able to fill in alot of other stuff by process of elimination.

30. Red house (brit) smokes pall ball, so he has a bird.

31. The blends smoker (Dane) lives next to the cat owner, who must be the norweigan. Therefore, the German owns the fish!!!!!!

Im grounded, so i have ALOT of free time.

[Emaleth]

ROFL! Very good job SimonK! Sorry for laughing, but grounded..Oie..it has been a while since I was grounded..Thanks for making my day, I'll be chuckling about this all day now...

[Mike C]

Luna- Please don't take offense to my comments. I was making a generalization. There are exceptions to that generalization and anyone that can solve these puzzles impresses me. I believe I've read where women are more inclined to enjoy reading and men to enjoy problems (even if we can't solve them); and out of curiosity sake I just wondered if the women here were inclined to puzzle solving for any reason in particular (they might be teachers or math majors etc.)
I hope I have sufficiently removed my foot from my mouth without offending anyone. http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Emaleth]

lol, the closest thing to being a math major here is Dad going through his third retirement/career teaching (he never quits..good for him!) college algebra and math for liberal arts. Believe me, it was NOT my favorite subject.

I do enjoy though challenging myself, to see how much common sense I know and use daily as opposed to mathematical sense, just to see if I can figure out puzzles. Aggravating at times when I can't, but very satisfying when I do.

Rambling now, so I will go :->

[gatewish]

Here are the answers to some of the puzzels.

Lord ShaithisThe answer I had to the age one was Julie is 27.5 and Jason is 16.5 years old, but as it didn't even make sense to me I don't know how you did it. I actually have another version of this puzzle which is less confusing and if I find it I'll post it up.

As for the coins here's the answer
Create three groups of three coins. Groups 1, 2 and 3. . Balance Group 1
against Group 2. If the two groups balance, the bad coin is in Group 3. If
one group of coins weighs more than the other, the bad coin is in the
heavier group.

Once you have determined which group contains the counterfeit coin, take
any two coins from the bad group and weigh them against each other. If
they weigh the same, the bad coin is the third coin. Otherwise the bad coin
is the heavier coin of the two.


In a pond there are some flowers with some bees
hovering over the flowers. How many flowers and
bees are there if both the following statements
are true.

Here is the answer to the dot puzzle
<center>http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Birdland/4625/dot.gif<center>

And finally a nice little puzzle all of my own

http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/cool.gif

1. If each bee lands on a flower, one bee doesn't
get a flowe r.
2. If two bees share each flower, there is one
flower left out.

[gatewish]

OOps! Sorry SimonK, well I thought it was thorougly confusing to start with. As you can guess I didn't attempt that version. I may be in the top 2% but I think that you would have to be in the top .0001% for that one. I mean it would take years to algebraeically(??) figure that out. But the version I have is a lot easier. (By the way the answer is not the same).

I guess I should have explained the dot puzzle as well so here it goes. You draw two extra dots - one on the right and one on the bottom. (See diagram above) Start at the dot on the bottom right hand corner and go to the top left hand corner. Then go from there to the top righthand corner. Then to the bottom lefthand corner and back to the top lefthand corner.

Phew!

Oh and here's another one for good measure.
--------------------------------------------
Four people are sitting around a campfire after a long day of recreation, when one man comments: "Do you realize that around this campfire, the four of us include a mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, niece, nephew, aunt, uncle and a couple cousins"?. If everyone is related by blood and all the people in the listed relationships are sitting around the campfire(with no unusual marriages) how is this possible?

[Lichloathe]

Ok the one with the bees seems quite easy.
Let b equal bees number and f the flowers. Put the statements in symbols:
1. b = f + 1
2. b/2 = f - 1
Solving this simple system gives f = 3 and b = 4


------------------
"Though thou seest me not pass by,
Thou shalt feel me with thine eye
As a thing that, though unseen,
Must be near thee and hath been;"

[Lichloathe]

Forgot the relatives puzzle. Ok here goes:
We have a brother and a sister. Say the brother has a son and the sister has a daughter. Hence: fater,mother,daughter,son, brother,sister. The children are cousins of course so we have uncle, aunt, nephew,niece and of course two cousins!
Cool thought on the coin puzzle gatewish. I'm curious on the way you solved the 5 house prob. I thought making a table and working as SimonK did was the only way. That's the one I tried at least.....

------------------
"Though thou seest me not pass by,
Thou shalt feel me with thine eye
As a thing that, though unseen,
Must be near thee and hath been;"

[gatewish]

I solved the puzzle by making this diagram
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Birdland/4625/einstein.gif

It took about 20minutes to draw this. (Which I did in a physiology lecture).

[Lichloathe]

Hey gatewish, you sure you're not the one in the 0.001%? It seems harder to me this way.
I imagine how interesting that lecture was http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/smile.gif

------------------
"Though thou seest me not pass by,
Thou shalt feel me with thine eye
As a thing that, though unseen,
Must be near thee and hath been;"

[gatewish]

Ha I know the answer Lord Shaithis

[Certified Nut]

If gatewish doesn't have the guts to answer, I guess that leaves me. Smith is the engineer.

[gatewish]

Yes. Here's the reasoning.

Notice that the passengers are noted with the title Mr., whereas the brakeman, engineer and fireman are identified by their last names only.

1.Mr Brown Lives in New York City
2.The brakeman lives midway between NY and Chicago
3.Mr. Jones earns exactly $20K per year
4.Smith beat the fireman at their last game of golf.
5.The brakeman's next-door neighbor, who is a passenger, earns exactly three times the brakeman's salary.
6.The passenger who lives in Chicago has the same name as the brakeman.

According to #1 and #2, the brakeman's neighbor cannot be Mr. Brown.
According to #5, the brakeman's neighbor also cannot be Mr. Jones, because $20,000 is not evenly divisible by three. This leaves Mr. Smith as the next door neighbor to the brakeman. Mr. Smith lives halfway between New York and Chicago (#2) as does the brakeman. Since Mr. Brown lives in New York, by process of elimination, it is now known that Mr. Jones lives in Chicago. According to statement #6, this means that the brakeman is named Jones.

According to statement #4, the fireman cannot be Smith, so the fireman must be must be Brown, which leaves Smith as the engineer.