Brain Traps

400. Eleven-Letter Word

I am a word of 11 letters.
My 4, 9, 5, is worn on the head.
My 10, 9, 1, 11 is a narrow road.
My 11, 2, 3, 4, 5 is a number.
My 8, 6, 7 is a liquor.
My whole is an excellent songster.

What Am I?

Solution

Nightingale.
The words are hat, lane, eight, gin.

Credit:
The Mensa® Puzzle Calendar

399. Shared Words

What characteristic do these words share:
claim, create, cure, duct, file, fit, found, fuse, gram, long, motion, of, pose, test, ton, verb, vision?

Solution

When pro- is added to each, a new word is formed (pro + claim = proclaim).

Credit:
Ask Marilyn

398. Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch

A farmer knows that 20 of his hens, housed in 3 coops, will hatch 30 eggs in 18 days.
How long will it take 30 hens, housed in 4 coops to hatch the same number of eggs?

Solution

You can't shorten the process of egg-hatching by increasing the number of chickens.
Therefore, 30 hens will also need 18 days to hatch their eggs.

Credit:
The Daily Tease

397. What's the Sequence?

What's the secret to the sequence? What's the next number?

2, 4, 6, 30, 32, 34, 36, 40, 42, 44, 46, 50, 52, 54, 56,
60, 62, 64, 66, 2000...

Solution

2002. The key is in the numbers that aren't there. None of
these numbers contain an "E".

396. Picking Apples

Three people picked 65 apples altogether. At the first tree they each picked the same number
of apples. At the second tree they each picked 3 times as many as they picked at the first tree.
When they finished at the third tree, the group had 5 times as many apples as they had when they
started at that tree. At the fourth tree the group picked just 5 apples.

How many apples did each person pick at the first tree?

Solution

Each person picked 1 apple at the first tree.

Begin with 65 apples picked, and work backwards. Subtract the number of apples picked
at the fourth tree (5), and then divide the total (60) by 5 to equal the number of apples
picked after the first two trees. The total after the first two trees = 12. Since the number
of apples picked at the first two trees (12) is equal to the number of apples picked at the
first tree plus 3 times the number picked at the first tree (or a total of 4 times the number
picked at the first tree), then the number of apples picked at the first tree must be
12 divided by 4 = 3. Therefore, each person picked 1 apple at the first tree.

Using algebra: Suppose they pick y apples at the first tree.
Then, they pick 3y apples at the second tree and have 4y apples altogether.
After the third tree, they have 5*4y or 20y apples, and after the fourth tree, they have
20y + 5 apples.

20y + 5 = 65
20y = 60
y = 3

So each person picks 1 apple at the first tree.

395. Seventh Heaven

On July 7th, I had a most unusual day, I woke up at exactly 7:07, stumbled to my refrigerator
and had a 7-Up. I got dressed, went downstairs and caught the number 7 bus to go to my office
on 77th Street. While sitting in my office on the 7th floor it dawned on me how my day was
going, so I called my bookie and placed a $777 dollar bet on the number 7 horse in the seventh
race, whose name was Seventh Heaven to win.

Do you know what happened?

Solution

The horse came in 7th.

394. The Contrary Clock

You have a correctly set standard wall clock (not digital), which has marks indicating the hours,
but no numbers. You can only see the clock through a mirror. To complicate things, you happen to
know that it was installed upside-down.

When you look in the mirror, you see that the time appears to be 7:55 (although the hour hand is
just a tad off from where it's supposed to be). What is the real time?

Solution

To solve this, simply draw a standard clock on a sheet of white paper, with the time showing
as 7:55. Now flip the paper over, left to right (as if you were turning the page of a book).
This simulates looking in a mirror. Then rotate the paper 180 degrees to simulate the clock
being upside down. Hold the paper up to the light and the time will appear to be 10:35.

393. Sleepless in Chicago

A man had flown to Chicago on a business trip. In the hotel, he couldn't sleep.
So, he called someone on the telephone provided in the room, and once the person
hung up, he fell sound asleep. Who was the mystery person on the other side of
the phone?

Solution

The mystery person was the hotel guest in the next room. He had been snoring,
and the man called him to tell him. He stopped, to let the man fall back asleep,
then he too, fell back asleep.

Other answers submitted:

Someone in an adjacent room making noise.

He couldn't fall asleep because he thought he would be waking up late the
next day. So he called wake up service.

- calling the airlines to determine if his lost luggage had been found (it was and
   would be sent to the hotel so he had clothes for the next day);
- he was a wuss and called his mommy to have her read a bedtime story so he could go to sleep;
- he called a hypnotist who mesmerized him into falling asleep [most popular answer];
- he called god and got permission to fall asleep;
- he called GW and found that war would not be declared on the city in which he was
   staying, so he could relax and go to sleep; ...

A girl from a 900 number.

He talked to his boring boss and that put him right to sleep
or maybe he had the number of Mr. Sandman....

392. On the Trail

A man was hiking in the hills for the first time and, for safety, he brought
along two guides. At the beginning of the hike, the first guide said, "Keep
all personal items close, stay behind me, and above all else, keep your
balance around the steep drop-offs!" The second guide had never been on such
a long hike and, despite the warnings, tumbled off one of the high cliffs and
rolled into a valley. The second guide's spine was broken in the fall. The
man and the first guide watched the fall, shrugged, and moved on. Why did they
offer no help or concern?

Solution

The second guide was a book.

391. Portraits

If a painter can paint one portrait in 10 hours, how many painters would it take
to do 10 portraits in 5 hours?

Solution

It can't be done. If one portrait takes 10 hours, no number of painters can do one in 5 hours.

It's like the old saying: One woman takes 9 months to make a baby, but that doesn't mean that
two women can make one in 4 ½ months.

Credit:
The Mensa® Puzzle Calendar

390. What Am I Now?

          Round I start, yet no shape have I.
       Allow me to breathe, and my life will die.   
   The older I grow, the more sought after I become.   
       You will feel much better when I am done.   
                     What am I?

Solution

A bottle of wine

389. A Tricky What Is It

Five hundred begins it
Five hundred ends it
Five in the middle is seen
The first of all letters and the first of all numbers
Find their places in between.

Solution

DAVID

388. Homophones

What two sets of homophones (words that sound the same but are
spelled differently) can be used to complete the sentences below?
(Example: by, buy)

Solution

border, boarder
hoarse, horse

Other answers suggested for the first homophone:
surf, serf
moor, mower

387. Title

At a card game one of the players poses a question. "In an ordinary deck of playing cards, two of the jacks have
two eyes and two of the Jacks have one eye. How many eyes are on the four Jack cards?"

Solution

Since each Jack has two faces, the total number is 12.

386. At the 7-11

A customer at a 7-11 store selected four items to buy, and was told that the
cost was $7.11. He was curious that the cost was the same as the store name,
so he enquired as to how the figure was derived. The clerk said that he had
simply multiplied the prices of the four individual items. The customer protested
that the four prices should have been ADDED, not MULTIPLIED. The clerk said
that that was OK with him, but, the result was still the same: exactly $7.11.

What were the four prices?

Solution

$1.20, $1.25, $1.50, and $3.16.

Credit:
BrainBashers.com

385. Sons & Daughters

An old man said to a young man, "I have a daughter. She
has as many brothers as she has sisters. Each one of her
brothers has twice as many sisters as he has brothers.
How many sons and daughters do I have?"

Solution

The answer is: 3 sons and 4 daughters.

The answer to this problem can be found with a little algebra.
Let S be the number of sons and D be the number of daughters.
From the first statement, we have: S=(D-1).
From the second statement we have: 2(S - 1) = D.
Solving for S and D gives S=3, D=4, i.e., 3 sons and 4 daughters.

384. Another What Am I?

I know what my job is,
The point has been made.
You say I have a big head,
And you're right, I'm afraid.
Put me in my place,
And then leave me alone.
What I need most,
Is someone to drive me home.
What am I?

Solution

I am a nail.

383. Which of Ten?

Which of the following statements are true?

1.	Exactly one of these ten statements is false.
2.	Exactly two of these ten statements are false.
3.	Exactly three of these ten statements are false.
4.	Exactly four of these ten statements are false.
5.	Exactly five of these ten statements are false.
6.	Exactly six of these ten statements are false.
7.	Exactly seven of these ten statements are false.
8.	Exactly eight of these ten statements are false.
9.	Exactly nine of these ten statements are false.
10.	Exactly ten of these statements are false.

Solution

Statement number nine. Since each of the ten statements contradict the other
nine, only one of them can be correct. It just happens that statement number
nine correctly accuses the other nine of being false.

382. Number Pattern

What's the pattern to these numbers?

8 5 4 9 1 7 6 3 2 0

Solution

They are in alphabetical order: eight, five, four, nine, one, seven, six, three, two, zero

381. Double Time

Amoebas reproduce by splitting in two. An amoeba which splits in two every minute
is placed in a jar at exactly ten o'clock in the morning. At 12:00 noon the jar is
full. At what time is the jar half full?

Solution

At 11:59 it is half full. It doubles one minute later, filling the jar.

380. What Am I Today?

My first is a creature whose breeding is unclear. My second,
a price you must pay. My whole can be found in the river of
Time and refers to events of today.

What am I?

Solution

CURRENT

379. Divisible Nine-Digit Number

There is a nine digit number with each of the digits from 1 to 9 appearing
once. The whole number is divisible by 9. If you remove the rightmost number,
the remaining 8 digit number is divisible by 8. Remove the rightmost number
again and the remaining 7 digit number is divisible by 7. This pattern
continues right down to a single digit.

What is the number?

Solution

381654729

378.

5 + 5 + 5 = 550

Make the statement true by adding a single straight line, but not
manipulating the equals sign in any way...

Solution

Add a short diagonal line to one of the plus signs to make it a 4:
5 + 545 = 550

377. E - What Am I?

I start with the letter e,
I end with the letter e.
I contain only one letter,
Yet I am not the letter e!
What am I?

Solution

An envelope.

Alternate answer (but not as good): an eye (I)

376. Tunnel Magic

A Train enters a tunnel at 7 o'clock. Another train enters the exact same tunnel, also
at 7 o'clock on the same day. The tunnel only has one track, and no other means for the
trains to pass, around, over, or under. However both trains made it to the other end of
the tunnel untouched. How could this be?

Solution

One train enters the tunnel at 7:00 a.m., the other train enters at 7:00 p.m.

Other good answers:
1) The tunnel entrances are in different time zones
2) One of the trains is a model train that is on the real train.
3) One is the Hogwarts Express and Harry Potter did some magic and hasn't been caught yet.
4) David Copperfield is on one of the trains and makes it disappear until the other passes.

375. Riddle Me This

Whoever makes it, tells it not.
Whoever takes it, knows it not.
And whoever knows it, wants it not.
Can you tell me what I speak of?

Solution

Counterfeit money

Also acceptable: a computer virus

374. Second Letters

By changing the second letter of each of the words below, can you make another valid word.
You have to change each word such that the second letters will reveal a ten letter word
when read downwards. Therefore, what now reads CRAIHRUANE will be a real word.

You have five minutes. Go!

   ICON 
   CREW 
   FARM 
   OILY 
   CHOP 
   ARID 
   FUND
   WAIT
   GNAT
   TEAR   

Solution

373. Special Numbers

What do the numbers 3, 7, 8, 40, 50, and 60 have in common
that no other whole numbers have?

Solution

Each number is spelled with five letters.

372. Multiply This in Your Head

If you multiply all the numbers on the telephone, what
is the answer?

Solution

Zero. Anything times zero is zero.

1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7 * 8 * 9 * 0 = 0

371. Nine Digits, Three Signs

Using the digits one to nine in ascending order and no more than three standard arithmetic signs, find an expression that equals 100. An example that uses six standard arithmetic signs is shown below:

1 + (2 X 3) - 4 + (56 / 7) + 89 = 100

Solution

123 - 45 - 67 + 89 = 100

370. Front Words & Back Words

On each line, the definitions have a space between them. This space should be filled with a word
that can be read either forward or backward. Forward it will make the left-hand definition,
backward it will give the definition of the right hand word.
(Example: Cooking utensils POTS Cease)

A person who sketches	______________	A price earned, a bonus
Someone who keeps an entrance	______________	An identifying label
A four-legged animal	______________	A form of grass, a part of a musical instrument, a general name for that type of instrument

Solution

drawer / reward
gateman / nametag
deer / reed

369. What Number?

I am a 3 digit number.
I am divisible by 2, 3, 6, 7.
My 3rd number is the square root of the 1st number.
And my 2nd number is the sum of the 1st and 3rd.

What number am I?

Solution

462

368. King Tut

King Tut died 120 years after King Eros was born. Their
combined ages when they died was 100 years. King Eros died
in the year 40 B.C. In what year was King Tut born?

Solution

King Tut was born in 20 B.C.

There were 120 years between the birth of King Eros
and the death of King Tut, but since their combined
ages amounted to only 100 years, there must have been
20 years when neither existed.  This would be a
period between the death of King Eros, 40 B.C., and
the birth of King Tut, 20 B.C.

367. Out to Lunch

Half the employees in a department went to lunch at 11:30. Since then,
25 of them have returned and 7 others have gone out. At this point,
there are twice as many people working as there are people out to lunch.
How many people work in that department?

Solution

There are 108 employees.

e = no. of employees
e/2 - (25-7) = e/3
e/2 - e/3 = 18
e/6 = 18
e = 108

Credit:
Thanks to Marilyn Vos Savant ("Ask Marilyn") in Parade Magazine

366. The Rec Room

"When do you plan to finish the rec room?" Alan asked. "It looks like a rectangular
barn right now with no furniture and the floor not done."

Greg smiled. "It's the vinyl tiles. I'm trying to decide between nine-inch squares
at nineteen cents and twelve-inch at twenty-nine cents each," he replied. "No wastage
with either and Gwen prefers the smaller tiles, but they'd cost us $33.11 more for the
complete floor."

What were the dimensions of the room?

Solution

Either size of tiles would fit exactly, so say the dimensions of the room were 36x by 36y inches.
Then the floor area was 1296xy square inches.

That would require 16xy 9-inch tiles at 19¢, for 304xy cents. It would require 9xy 12-inch tiles
at 29¢, for 261xy cents.

So, 304xy - 261xy = 3311, making xy = 77 = 7 x 11. Obviously y = 1 would not be acceptable,
so x = 11, y = 7. The floor was 33 feet by 21 feet.

365. What Is It?

Never resting, never still.
Moving silently from hill to hill.
It does not walk, run or trot,
All is cool where it is not.

What is it?

Solution

Sunshine

364. Too Old to Marry

"You may be rich in yachts and pearls,
You may hang around with dukes and earls,
You may have your weight in silver and gold,
But when it comes to marriage, you're too old!"

"I know, Philomena, I look a bit seasoned, but really, I'm still a young buck at heart:
If to my age there added be,
One half, one third, and three times three;
Six score and ten the sum you'll see.
Pray find out what my age may be!"

Oswald should have left well enough alone. Once young Philomena deciphers
his age from that bit of doggerel he'll be shown the door pronto. Can you
figure out the ardent swain's age?

Solution

66 years.

a = age
a + a/2 + a/3 + (3 x 3) = (6 x 20) + 10
a + a/2 + a/3 + 9 = 130
a + a/2 + a/3 = 121
a + 5a/6 = 121
11a = 726
a = 66

363. Roman Math

VII - II = II

The math problem above is incorrect. Seven minus two does not equal two. Your job is to move two of the lines to new positions so that the equation is correct.

Solution

There are a number of ways you can do this.
The simplest is to slant two of the I's to make a V:

VII - V = II
VII - II = V

But there are other ways:

VI - II = IV
IIII - II = II

This one's a little more complicated:

II + II = IV

362. Seconds

Find a two-digit number that represents the number of seconds in a year.

Solution

There are 12 seconds in a year: January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd, April 2nd, May 2nd, June 2nd, July 2nd, August 2nd, September 2nd, October 2nd, November 2nd, and December 2nd.

Thanks to Denis Borris for this puzzle.

361. Detecting the Liar

The Great Detective was faced with a theft. There were only four suspects, and he knew
one came from Liar Land and the other three from Truth Land. But which was which?

"I didn't do it," said A.

"I didn't do it," said B.

"A did it," said C.

"A did it," said D.

Who was guilty?

Solution

A.

C and D can't both be lying, so A must have done it.

360. Share and Share Alike

"Let me have some," said Betty when the two boys showed her
the candies they had bought. "I'll pay."

"Fine," replied Ken. "They're all the same. I paid sixty cents,
but Steve only had forty-five cents so he paid that. You give us
thirty-five cents and we'll share them all evenly."

His brother nodded. "That's okay with me. But how do we divide
her thirty-five cents?"

What would you say?

Solution

Sharing the candies three ways, each share was worth 35¢,
the amount Betty had to pay.

Steve had paid 45¢, so was entitled to a refund of 10¢.
Ken paid 60¢, so was entitled to a refund of 25¢.

359. Saturday Flights

A man flew into Los Angeles on Saturday. He stayed for three nights
at the Beverly Hills Hotel, then spent one night in the Santa Monica
Hilton. He then flew out again on Saturday. Between the two flights
he never left the Los Angeles area, and he did not stay anywhere
except those two hotels. How could he arrive and leave on Saturday,
yet stay only four nights?

Clues

Does it involve time zones or calendar changes?
No

Did he spend just 4 nights and 5 days in Los Angeles?
Yes

Did he arrive and leave by plane?
Yes

Was it a scheduled flight or a private plane?
A private plane

Solution

Saturday was the name of the man's private plane.

358. Odd Addition

Arrange five odd digits in such a way that they add up to 20.
The same odd digit can be used more than once.

Solution

13 + 5 + 1 + 1 or
15 + 3 + 1 + 1 or
11 + 5 + 3 + 1 or
17 + 1 + 1 + 1 or ...

357. Twice Their Age

Jack and John had been friends for a long time--a very long time,
it seemed to them. Jack was six years older, but it hadn't made
any difference when they met, and it didn't on the day they were
talking about their long friendship.

"It's been twenty-two years this week since we met at Bill's wedding,"
said John.

"Yes, and our ages now, added together, are exactly double what
they were then. That makes me feel old," said Jack. But they
really were not--not even fifty.

How old were they now?

Solution

Jack is 47, and John is 41.

356. 5-Letter Q's

For each of the following words there is a five-letter synonym beginning with the letter "Q".
See how many you can figure out.

1. cover   2. doubt   3. entirely   4. fraud   5. game bird

6. line   7. measure   8. monarch   9. nimble 10. particle

11. pen 12. scruple 13. search 14. secluded 15. share

16. subdue 17. suppress 18. swallow 19. tremble 20. whip

Solution

1. quilt   2. query   3. quite   4. quack   5. quail

6. queue   7. quart   8. queen   9. quick 10. quark

11. quill 12. qualm 13. quest 14. quiet 15. quota

16. quell 17. quash 18. quaff 19. quake 20. quirt

355. The Half of It

Half a crate of eggs holds half a dozen cartons, each of which holds half a dozen eggs. The truck just delivered a crate and a half.

How many eggs?

Solution

108.

Half a crate holds half a dozen (6) cartons, each of which holds half a dozen (6) eggs.
That's 6 x 6 or 36 eggs per half crate.
A crate and a half is three times a half crate, so 3 x 36 = 108.

354. Scrambler

To the best of our knowledge, only one word can be made
from all of the letters below. Can you figure out what it is?

B  E  E  E  H  I  L  L  M  M  N  S  T

Solution

EMBELLISHMENT

353. Vintage Cars

Two old car buffs, "Duster" Bigalow and Harlow Highwheeler, are discussing the merits of Harlow's latest acquisition, a reconditioned 1904 Packard Model L.

"That's a grand addition to your collection," said Duster. "Just how many vintage cars do you now have in your collection?"

"Let's see if you can figure it out," replied Harlow. "All but two of my cars are Packards, all but two are Brewster Town cars, and all but two are Duesenbergs. I'll bet you an oil change you can't come up with the answer in five minutes."

How many cars do you think Harlow owns?

Solution

Three

352. Another Chicken Joke

Chickens must be about the smartest of the barnyard animals, judging by the number of times they appear in puzzles. The other day Cy Corncrib, after losing another game of checkers to Pop Bentley, asked him the following question:

If a chicken and a half lays an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs can six chickens lay in 6 days?

Pop is still working on that one. How many eggs do you think these chickens can lay?

Solution

24 eggs

Explanation, courtesy of Judy:
In the first three days, 1 chicken crew (1.5 chickens) lay 3 eggs,
4 chicken crews (4 x 1.5 chickens = 6 chickens) would lay 12 eggs.
In 6 days those 4 crews could put out 2 dozen eggs with no left over
work in progress, but you would have to pay them time and half for the
6th day of the week......

351. Little Bo Peep

Decipher the "quote" below by figuring out the simple substitution code.

Little Bo Peep: 18-14 26-15-15-22-9-20-18-24 7-12 4-12-12-15!

Solution

I'm allergic to wool!

The substitution code is a=z, b=y, c=x, d=w, e=v, ... x=c, y=b, z=a