Tel Me you Maths Wizards

[Dragutin]

How does 3 + 4 = 5. Teacher once asked us this.

Hope its not to easy.

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****** It is better to be judged by 12 than to be carried by 6.******

[Dragutin]

I figured it was to easy for such as you. Damn i'm gonna have to get thinking for better puzzles.

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****** It is better to be judged by 12 than to be carried by 6.******

[Certified Nut]

Hello everyone, I'm new here

Here's an interesting puzzle I can only vaguely remember from my school days. The solution to this puzzle is through a loophole in algebraic reasoning, but I don't remember what. So what is this puzzle? Simple... 1=2. How?

[Dragutin]

Unless something is missing or I'm missing something it should be 1x=2 where x=2. But I'm not sure if this is what you meant?

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****** It is better to be judged by 12 than to be carried by 6.******

[Certified Nut]

Well that's two answers I hadn't considered, but not the one I intially learned. It was kinda like a simultaneous equation, but I'll be damned if I can remember how it went http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/frown.gif

[gatewish]

Here's one for ye. No doubt it will sound a bit framiliar to some of ye film buffs.

There are three glasses on the table - 3, 5, and 8oz. The first two are empty, the last contains 8oz of water. By pouring water from
one glass to another make at least one of
them contain exactly 4oz of water.

[Certified Nut]

Ok this may be a little long winded but here goes:

Pour in the following order - 8 to 3 (5oz in 8), 3(0oz left) to 5(3oz in). 8(2oz left) to 3, fill 5(now 5oz) with 3(1oz left). 5 to 8(7oz), then 3(0oz) to 5(1oz), followed by 8 to 3. This should leave 4oz remaining in 8. Hope I didn't confuse anyone =)

[gatewish]

Now try this for size. It got me stumped - but I'll blame it on the fact we don't have mosquito's in Ireland.

Sam and Angela were on a camping trip. When making dinner, they discovered that neither of them had brought a clock or watch. Dinner required cooking for 45 minutes. All Sam could dig up was a couple of mosquito coils that would each burn for one hour. They didn't have any method to measure the coils in any way. Angela figured out a way to measure 45 minutes using the two coils (and fight off mosquitoes at the same time). How did she accomplish this task?

[Certified Nut]

I think I've found out the so-called solution to my 1=2 question.

a = b
ab = bx2
ab - ax2 = bx2 - ax2
a(b-a) = (b-a)(b+a)
a = b+a

ergo 1=2. The question is what went wrong?

Shaithis , I don't know what movie it comes from.

And gatewish I don't really know. I'll blame it on the fact that mosquito coils make me light-headed http://www.brianlumley.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Certified Nut]

No wait, I've got it.

Burn one coil at both ends, and light the other at one end. When the first one has burnt itself out, light the other end of the second one. When that burns out, 45 minutes has gone by.

[gatewish]

I'll give you a clue CN. Bruce Willis.

Here's a really good one.

"Think of words ending in -GRY. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is."

[Pybob]

OK, Shaithis, you do the smart stuff, I'll do the Trivia... The movie is Die Hard With a Vengence...

I feel so ashamed in knowing that... my only consolation is that I'm really good at quiz nights at the pub!

[DaveStrorm]

Hmmm, I'm a little late to these questions and answers, but here is my take on a couple of things.

First, any number raised to the first power is the number itself, not 1. However, any number raised to the zero power IS 1.

Second, I think I see the flaw in the whole a=b thing.
At the step where you go from . . .
a(b-a) = (b-a)(b+a)
. . . to . . .
a = b+a
. . . I think you have an illegal division. To get to a = b+a, you have to divide both sides of the 'a(b-a) = (b-a)(b+a)' equation by (b-a). However, (b-a) is zero and division by zero is undefined. So, I don't think you can get to a = b+a by doing that.

Of course, maybe my logic is completely flawed. I'm a lowly thrall after all.