Brain Teasers are Back!

Nicely done Seakayaker.

(I think I must have accidentally deleted a post replying to your posts, apologies)

I’m going out on the other limb …….

Mrs D used to teach at a local girls independent school and had difficulty getting away from the idea of 207 classrooms each with a teacher and a pupil………

…… eventually, she settled on your offering Mike. :sunglasses:

I didn’t say it’d be easy. :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Mrs R gives Maths and Statistic tutorials for the Open University which are now exclusively on line. So that’s 207 classrooms each with 1 student or 1 classroom with 207 students, depending on one’s perspective.

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Spot-on Mike. Well done.

Your post almost got lost in one of the 207 classrooms !

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The Road from X to Y.

Our Local Council is building a new road from Village X to Village Y but hasn’t made much progress to date. In fact, they have only completed a few sections as shown on the plan below.

The numbers along the bottom of the plan and down the side of the plan show how many sections of road will be built in each column and each row. The planned road will not cross itself at any point.

Each cell on the Plan can only contain :-

a straight length of road either horizontally or vertically on the plan or

a turn to the right or a turn to the left (or up/down)

Can you complete the Plan ?

(I hope the instructions are clear, if not, just ask and I’ll try to clarify)

If anybody has completed the ‘Road from X to Y’ above, but can’t scan/copy/post their result, Just post the cell references (as you would in Excel) for two or three widely spaced sections.

Eg N/S Straight at E1
E/W Straight at A6
S to E turn at G1

A couple of quick teasers … (hopefully)

Three ice creams are eaten by three children in three minutes.

How long will it take ten children to eat ten ice creams ?

I was doodling the other day and drew an isosceles triangle. The size of the largest angle was four times as big as the next largest angle.

What was the size of the largest angle ?

Guessing twenty degrees

I calculate 120 degrees for a “wide” triangle (120 at the top and 2 x 30 at the bottom), and 80 degrees for a “tall” triangle (20 at the top and 2 x 80 at the bottom).

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I used to live near Kirkham in Lancashire which is midway between Blackpool to the west and Preston to the east. For fun I used to turn up at the train station at random times during the day and get on the first train that arrived. Over time I was surprised to find that I had travelled east to Preston nine times as frequently as I had gone west to Blackpool. I therefore came to the conclusion that there were nine times as many trains going east than going west, which was improbable given that Blackpool was a terminus. What was the more likely explanation for the difference in frequency?

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Three minutes? Unless they eat ten each!

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Nice one Steve.

My explanation assumes that trains run to a given timetable, and unlikely as it seems these days, more or less keep to that timetable.
It also assumes that the random times you turned up at the station means that you were unaware of that timetable.

I’ll give others five minutes, or perhaps an hour, to post their explanations.

Nice guess Gary ! I can see how your solution might have been arrived at.

Steve’s post just after yours, provides a full solution, which includes your 20 degrees.

Regarding the train puzzle, the Preston train arrives in Kirkham shortly before the Blackpool train. If the trains run every hour, say, the Preston train may leave at the top of the hour and the Blackpool train six minutes later.

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three minutes

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Well done Dozey, and nicely put.

Also Spot-on Seakayaker. Well done.