Challenge your brain today with riddles, puzzles and problems.
A bank offers a cash advance credit card at an interest rate of 24%, and no payments required for 3 years. What amount is closest to what you will owe if you borrow $3000 now and make no payments? A) $4000 B.) $5000 C). $6000 Answer: The amount owing increases by 24% each year. The …
Two comets, Alpha and Beta have periodic orbits with periods of exactly 76 years and 48 years respectively. When both comets appear in the same year, they are said to be in conjunction. How many years are between successive conjunctions? Answer: Alpha returns in multiples of 76 years and Beta in multiples of 48 years. …
All Xerxes are also Yadocks, but only some Yadocks are Zerples. Which of the following statements is true? Answer: We can represent the statements in a Venn diagram. The statement that all Xerxes are Yadocks means that the set of Xerxes is contained in the set of Yadocks. The statement that only some Yadocks are …
It is given that everyone is prejudiced against prejudiced people. Deepti is prejudiced against Jill. Is Jill prejudiced against Jamal? Answer: Yes. Since Deepti is prejudiced, and everyone is prejudiced against prejudice people, Jamal and Jill must both be prejudiced against Deepti. Since Jamal is prejudiced against Deepti, and everyone is prejudiced against prejudiced people, …
You may recognize that 365 is the number of days in a non leap-year. These 365 days are composed of 7 months of 31 days, plus 4 months of 30 days, plus the 28 days in February. Therefore, 365 = 31(7) + 30(4) +28. Therefore, x = 7, y = 4, satisfies this equation.
A gambler makes an “even money” bet on each toss of a coin. The amount he bets is half the amount of money he has in his possession. On a sequence of 10 bets, he wins 5 Times. Does the gambler have more, less or the same amount that he had at the beginning? Can …
Alpha owed $30,000 to Barry. Barry owed $20,000 to Corine, and Corine owed $10,000 to Dale. If Alpha absconded and everyone else refused to pay their debts. How much did each member of the group gain or lose? Answer: Alpha gained $30,000, and the three others lost $10,000 each.
You may remember from high school algebra the difference of squares identity x2– y2 = (x – y)(x + y). Since 899 = 900 – 1 or 302 – 12, we substitute x = 30 and y = 1 into the identity to obtain 899 = 29 x 31.
Since the cost of 2 lines is $1000, the cost of painting one line is $500. Each new line creates one new lane, so 3 more lines must be painted to create 6 lanes. The total cost of the 5 lines at $500 per line is 5 x $500, or $2500.
A publisher offers its new book in 3 formats: ebook for $3, paperback for $20, and hardcover for $30. In one hour it sold 100 copies for a total of $1080. How many paperback copies were sold? Answer: If x, y. and z represent the respective number of copies of each format sold, then 3x …
