#1 - Popular Age Problem

Two old friends, Jack and Bill, meet after a long time.

Three kids
Jack: Hey, how are you, man?
Bill: Not bad, got married and I have three kids now.
Jack: That's awesome. How old are they?
Bill: The product of their ages is 72 and the sum of their ages is the same as your birth date.
Jack: Cool..But I still don't know.
Bill: My eldest kid just started taking piano lessons.
Jack: Oh, now I get it.

How old are Bill's kids?

Popular Age Problem

3,3,8

Lets break it down. The product of their ages is 72. So what are the possible choices?

2, 2, 18 sum(2, 2, 18) = 22
2, 4, 9 sum(2, 4, 9) = 15
2, 6, 6 sum(2, 6, 6) = 14
2, 3, 12 sum(2, 3, 12) = 17
3, 4, 6 sum(3, 4, 6) = 13
3, 3, 8 sum(3, 3, 8 ) = 14
1, 8, 9 sum(1,8,9) = 18
1, 3, 24 sum(1, 3, 24) = 28
1, 4, 18 sum(1, 4, 18) = 23
1, 2, 36 sum(1, 2, 36) = 39
1, 6, 12 sum(1, 6, 12) = 19

The sum of their ages is the same as your birth date. That could be anything from 1 to 31 but the fact that Jack was unable to find out the ages, it means there are two or more combinations with the same sum. From the choices above, only two of them are possible now.

2, 6, 6 sum(2, 6, 6) = 14
3, 3, 8 sum(3, 3, 8 ) = 14

Since the eldest kid is taking piano lessons, we can eliminate combination 1 since there are two eldest ones. The answer is 3, 3 and 8.

#2 - Brain Twister Puzzle

2+3=8,
3+7=27,
4+5=32,
5+8=60,
6+7=72,
7+8=??

Solve it?

98

2+3=2*[3+(2-1)]=8
3+7=3*[7+(3-1)]=27
4+5=4*[5+(4-1)]=32
5+8=5*[8+(5-1)]=60
6+7=6*[7+(6-1)]=72
therefore
7+8=7*[8+(7-1)]=98
x+y=x[y+(x-1)]=x^2+xy-x

#3 - Pyramid Number Puzzle

The below is a number puzzle. It should be read left to right, top to bottom.
1
1 1
2 1
1 2 1 1
1 1 1 2 2 1
? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Question 1: What is the next two rows of numbers?
Question 2: How was this reached?

Popular Number Sequence Puzzle
3 1 2 2 1 1
1 3 1 1 2 2 2 1

Line 1 is 'Two ones' (2 1)
Line 2 then becomes 'One two, and one one' (1 2 1 1)
Line 3 therefore is 'One one, one two and two ones' (1 1 1 2 2 1)
Line 4 is 'Three ones, two twos and one one' (3 1 2 2 1 1)
Line 5 is 'One three, one one, two twos and two ones' (1 3 1 1 2 2 1 1)

#4 - Cipher Puzzle

What does this message say?

G T Y O R J O T E O U I A B G T


Hint
Count the letters and try splitting the letters up into groups.

'Great Job You Got It'

This type of code is known as a Caesar Box (Julius Caesar was the first to write codes this way.) To decipher the message, simply divide the code into four groups of four (you can also divide them into groups such as 5 groups of 5 or 6 groups of 6 depending on the number of letters in the phrase), and rearrange them vertically like this...
G T Y O
R J O T
E O U I
A B G T

Then you read vertically column by column.

#5 - Cross Bridge Puzzle

Four people need to cross a rickety bridge at night. Unfortunately, they have only one torch and the bridge is too dangerous to cross without one. The bridge is only strong enough to support two people at a time. Not all people take the same time to cross the bridge. Times for each person: 1 min, 2 mins, 7 mins and 10 mins. What is the shortest time needed for all four of them to cross the bridge?

17 mins

The initial solution most people will think of is to use the fastest person as an usher to guide everyone across. How long would that take? 10 + 1 + 7 + 1 + 2 = 21 mins. Is that it? No. That would make this question too simple even as a warm up question.

Let’s brainstorm a little further. To reduce the amount of time, we should find a way for 10 and 7 to go together. If they cross together, then we need one of them to come back to get the others. That would not be ideal. How do we get around that? Maybe we can have 1 waiting on the other side to bring the torch back. Ahaa, we are getting closer. The fastest way to get 1 across and be back is to use 2 to usher 1 across. So let’s put all this together.

1 and 2 go cross
2 comes back
7 and 10 go across
1 comes back
1 and 2 go across (done)

Total time = 2 + 2 + 10 + 1 + 2 = 17 mins

#6 - Weighing Balance Puzzle

You can place weights on both side of weighing balance and you need to measure all weights between 1 and 1000. For example if you have weights 1 and 3,now you can measure 1,3 and 4 like earlier case, and also you can measure 2,by placing 3 on one side and 1 on the side which contain the substance to be weighed. So question again is how many minimum weights and of what denominations you need to measure all weights from 1kg to 1000kg.

Weighing Balance Puzzle

For this answer is 3^0, 3^1, 3^2... That is 1,3,9,27,81,243 and 729.

#7 - Hard Maths Puzzle

A high school has a strange principal. On the first day, he has his students perform an odd opening day ceremony:

There are one thousand lockers and one thousand students in the school. The principal asks the first student to go to every locker and open it. Then he has the second student go to every second locker and close it. The third goes to every third locker and, if it is closed, he opens it, and if it is open, he closes it. The fourth student does this to every fourth locker, and so on. After the process is completed with the thousandth student, how many lockers are open?

The only lockers that remain open are perfect squares (1, 4, 9, 16, etc) because they are the only numbers divisible by an odd number of whole numbers; every factor other than the number's square root is paired up with another. Thus, these lockers will be 'changed' an odd number of times, which means they will be left open. All the other numbers are divisible by an even number of factors and will consequently end up closed.

So the number of open lockers is the number of perfect squares less than or equal to one thousand. These numbers are one squared, two squared, three squared, four squared, and so on, up to thirty one squared. (Thirty two squared is greater than one thousand, and therefore out of range.) So the answer is thirty one.

#8 - Monday Cipher Puzzle

Can you decipher the following common phrase?

T M C
A U O
H S M
W T E

What goes up must come down.

#9 - Missing Piece Puzzle

Below the four parts have been reorganized. The four partitions are exactly the same in both arrangements. Why is there a hole?

Missing Piece Puzzle

he gradient of the teal hypotenuse is different than the gradient of the red hypotenuse.

#10 - Wise Cipher Riddle

Decipher
yyyy u r, yyyyy u b, i c u r y+y 4 ? by sharks. How would you survive?

Wise you are, wise you be, I see you are too wise for: ME!