#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 - Puzzle In A Puzzle

What are the next two letters in the following series and why?
W A T N T L I T F S _ _
*Hint: Check Puzzle Title

Puzzle In A Puzzle

The letters are the first letters of the words in the question. Thus, the next two letters are A and W.

#3 - Sherlock Holmes Cipher Puzzle

Sherlock, A detective who was mere days from cracking an international smuggling ring has suddenly gone missing. While inspecting his last-known location, you find a note:
710 57735 34 5508 51 7718
Currently, there are 3 suspects: Bill, John, and Todd. Can you break the detective's code and find the criminal's name?

Sherlock Holmes Cipher Puzzle

Bill. If you read the message upside down, you'll notice that the numbers resemble letters and that those letters form legible sentences. The message is 'Bill is boss. He sells oil.'

#4 - Albert Einstein Cipher Puzzle

Can you decipher these quotes by Albert Einstein?
Blf xzm mvevi hloev z kilyovn lm gsv ovevo lm dsrxs rg dzh xivzgvw.

You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.
Here is the answer key:
A-Z
B-Y
C-X
D-W
E-V
F-U
G-T
H-S
I-R
J-Q
K-P
L-O
M-N
N-M
O-L
P-K
Q-J
R-I
S-H
T-G
U-F
V-E
W-D
X-C
Y-B
Z-A

#5 - Find The Next Number

What are the next three numbers in this series?

4, 6, 12, 18, 30, 42, 60, 72, 102, 108, ?, ?, ?

The series lists numbers that are flanked by two prime numbers.

4 (3 and 5 are prime)
6 (5 and 7 are prime)
12 (11 and 13 are prime)
18 (17 and 19 are prime)
30 (29 and 31 are prime)
42 (41 and 43 are prime)
60 (59 and 61 are prime)
72 (71 and 73 are prime)
102 (101 and 103 are prime)
108 (107 and 109 are prime)

thus

138 (137 and 139 are prime), 150 (149 and 151 are prime), 180 (179 and 181 are prime

#6 - 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!

#7 - 2 Eggs 100 Floors Puzzle

-> You are given 2 eggs.
-> You have access to a 100-storey building.
-> Eggs can be very hard or very fragile means it may break if dropped from the first floor or may not even break if dropped from 100 th floor.Both eggs are identical.
-> You need to figure out the highest floor of a 100-storey building an egg can be dropped without breaking.
-> Now the question is how many drops you need to make. You are allowed to break 2 eggs in the process

2 Eggs 100 Floors Puzzle

answer is: 14

Let x be the answer we want, the number of drops required.

So if the first egg breaks maximum we can have x-1 drops and so we must always put the first egg from height x. So we have determined that for a given x we must drop the first ball from x height. And now if the first drop of the first egg doesn’t breaks we can have x-2 drops for the second egg if the first egg breaks in the second drop.

Taking an example, lets say 16 is my answer. That I need 16 drops to find out the answer. Lets see whether we can find out the height in 16 drops. First we drop from height 16,and if it breaks we try all floors from 1 to 15.If the egg don’t break then we have left 15 drops, so we will drop it from 16+15+1 =32nd floor. The reason being if it breaks at 32nd floor we can try all the floors from 17 to 31 in 14 drops (total of 16 drops). Now if it did not break then we have left 13 drops. and we can figure out whether we can find out whether we can figure out the floor in 16 drops.

Lets take the case with 16 as the answer

1 + 15 16 if breaks at 16 checks from 1 to 15 in 15 drops
1 + 14 31 if breaks at 31 checks from 17 to 30 in 14 drops
1 + 13 45 .....
1 + 12 58
1 + 11 70
1 + 10 81
1 + 9 91
1 + 8 100 We can easily do in the end as we have enough drops to accomplish the task


Now finding out the optimal one we can see that we could have done it in either 15 or 14 drops only but how can we find the optimal one. From the above table we can see that the optimal one will be needing 0 linear trials in the last step.

So we could write it as

(1+p) + (1+(p-1))+ (1+(p-2)) + .........+ (1+0) >= 100.

Let 1+p=q which is the answer we are looking for

q (q+1)/2 >=100

Solving for 100 you get q=14.
So the answer is: 14
Drop first orb from floors 14, 27, 39, 50, 60, 69, 77, 84, 90, 95, 99, 100... (i.e. move up 14 then 13, then 12 floors, etc) until it breaks (or doesn't at 100)

#8 - Aeroplane Hardest Quiz

The puzzle question is : On Bagshot Island, there is an airport. The airport is the homebase of an unlimited number of identical airplanes. Each airplane has a fuel capacity to allow it to fly exactly 1/2 way around the world, along a great circle. The planes have the ability to refuel in flight without loss of speed or spillage of fuel. Though the fuel is unlimited, the island is the only source of fuel.
What is the fewest number of aircraft necessary to get one plane all the way around the world assuming that all of the aircraft must return safely to the airport? How did you get to your answer?
Notes:
(a) Each airplane must depart and return to the same airport, and that is the only airport they can land and refuel on ground.
(b) Each airplane must have enough fuel to return to airport.
(c) The time and fuel consumption of refueling can be ignored. (so we can also assume that one airplane can refuel more than one airplanes in air at the same time.)
(d) The amount of fuel airplanes carrying can be zero as long as the other airplane is refueling these airplanes. What is the fewest number of airplanes and number of tanks of fuel needed to accomplish this work? (we only need airplane to go around the world)

As per the puzzle given ablove The fewest number of aircraft is 3! Imagine 3 aircraft (A, B and C). A is going to fly round the world. All three aircraft start at the same time in the same direction. After 1/6 of the circumference, B passes 1/3 of its fuel to C and returns home, where it is refuelled and starts immediately again to follow A and C.

C continues to fly alongside A until they are 1/4 of the distance around the world. At this point C completely fills the tank of A which is now able to fly to a point 3/4 of the way around the world. C has now only 1/3 of its full fuel capacity left, not enough to get back to the home base. But the first 'auxiliary' aircraft reaches it in time in order to refuel it, and both 'auxiliary' aircraft are the able to return safely to the home base.

Now in the same manner as before both B and C fully refuelled fly towards A. Again B refuels C and returns home to be refuelled. C reaches A at the point where it has flown 3/4 around the world. All 3 aircraft can safely return to the home base, if the refuelling process is applied analogously as for the first phase of the flight.

#9 - 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

#10 - 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)