Logical Puzzles

Jeff Killed Mike

1. Jack is not the murderer because he is the brother of the murderer.
2. Dan can't be the murderer since he ran a marathon, and the murderer recently had his leg amputated, and wouldn't be running a marathon of any magnitude that quickly.
3. Ben is not the murderer if he just met Jack since Jack and the murderer grew up together.
4. This leaves Jeff and Mike.

Since Jeff is still alive (he wants to install a new computer next week, present tense) he must be the murderer. Mike also didn't grow up with Jack. It has been determined that Jack, Dan, and Jeff are all alive. Ben must also be alive since Jeff plans to install Ben computer next week. This means that Jeff killed Mike.

So let’s think this through. The ants can only avoid a collision if they all decide to move in the same direction (either clockwise or anti-clockwise). If the ants do not pick the same direction, there will definitely be a collision. Each ant has the option to either move clockwise or anti-clockwise. There is a one in two chance that an ant decides to pick a particular direction. Using simple probability calculations, we can determine the probability of no collision.

5*(X+6) = (X+6)+21
4*(X+6) = 21
X+6 = 5.25
X = -0.75

So daddy is at top of mom

Dozens

10 prisoners must sample the wine. Bonus points if you worked out a way to ensure than no more than 8 prisoners die.

Number all bottles using binary digits. Assign each prisoner to one of the binary flags. Prisoners must take a sip from each bottle where their binary flag is set.

Here is how you would find one poisoned bottle out of eight total bottles of wine.

Bottle 1 Bottle 2 Bottle 3 Bottle 4 Bottle 5 Bottle 6 Bottle 7 Bottle 8
Prisoner A X X X X
Prisoner B X X X X
Prisoner C X X X X
In the above example, if all prisoners die, bottle 8 is bad. If none die, bottle 1 is bad. If A & B dies, bottle 4 is bad.

With ten people there are 1024 unique combinations so you could test up to 1024 bottles of wine.

Each of the ten prisoners will take a small sip from about 500 bottles. Each sip should take no longer than 30 seconds and should be a very small amount. Small sips not only leave more wine for guests. Small sips also avoid death by alcohol poisoning. As long as each prisoner is administered about a millilitre from each bottle, they will only consume the equivalent of about one bottle of wine each.

Each prisoner will have at least a fifty percent chance of living. There is only one binary combination where all prisoners must sip from the wine. If there are ten prisoners then there are ten more combinations where all but one prisoner must sip from the wine. By avoiding these two types of combinations you can ensure no more than 8 prisoners die.

One viewer felt that this solution was in flagrant contempt of restaurant etiquette. The emperor paid for this wine, so there should be no need to prove to the guests that wine is the same as the label. I am not even sure if ancient wine even came with labels affixed. However, it is true that after leaving the wine open for a day, that this medieval wine will taste more like vinegar than it ever did. C'est la vie.

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

The woman was a photographer. She shot a picture of her husband, developed it, and hung it up to dry.

The surgeon is the boy's mother

Starting with the first two words, Take the first and last letters, reading from left to right. Example: Carrot fiascO "from these pairs" the message is as follows:

CONGRATULATIONS CODE BREAKER

The second, as it is the only coat that can go on 'the first' coat.