August Competitions

[youbetsya]

Alright so here's one for you. A father and sonn are in a terrible car accident. The father dies in the car crash, but the son is raced into the emergency room. As he swings past the emergency room gates the surgeon gets a glimps at him and cries out "my son". Who is the surgeon?

mommy dearest!

 

[Bill Dickerson]

Here's one that my Grandma used to ask.

What's round as a silver dollar.
Yellow as gold

Around before Adam
but never more than a month old.

 

[amethist]

The moon

 

[Bill Dickerson]

That's right. It's not that hard I guess but it was always a good memory associated with my Grandma.

 

[amethist]

LOL I know the moon phases so it was pretty easy for me.

 

[just me here]

3 men arrive at a hotel for a convention at exactly the same time and arrive at the front desk together, each wanting a room. The desk clerk explains that there is only 1 room at 30 dollars a night, but with 2 roll away beds he can put them all up for the night for 10 dollars a piece. They agree and take the room. A short while later the hotel manager checks the front desk and the clerk tells him what he has done. "We should give them a discount for their discomfort, go up and give them back 5 dollars, tell them thanks for their patience".

On the way up in the elevator, the clerk thinks to himself- "If I give them a 5 dollar bill, they won't be able to split it 3 ways, and all this rolling beds around and extra trips to the room is worth something, I am going to give them each back a dollar and keep a 2 dollar tip for myself", and he puts the five in his wallet and gets out three ones for the tenants which they accept happily.

Now look at the math- of the original 30 bucks, 2 dollars is in the clerks wallet, and each of the men paid 9 bucks for the night, that's 27 total. 2 and 27 is 29, where is the extra dollar?

 

[catjudo]

There is no missing or extra dollar. The men originally paid $30 for the room but were refunded $3. This means they have paid $27 for the room. The hotel received $25 ($30 - the refunded $5) and the desk clerk kept $2.

$25 (hotel) + $2 (desk clerk) = $27 total paid by the men.

 

[just me here]

Here is another favorite:

If you are presented with 50 gold coins and told that 49 are plated but 1 is solid gold, and told that by using an old fashioned balance beam scale to determine which is the solid gold coin you can earn the coin, you can easily determine the solid coin by comparing the coins weight one against the other, 1 on each side of the scale until you find the heavy coin and claim the prize, right?

but what if the challenge says you can only use the scale 4 times? There are no weights available, just 50 coins and a scale, the coins look identical and are very close in weight, the plated ones all exactly the same and the solid one just slightly heavier. Can it be done with only 4 trips to the scale?

 

[just me here]

@ catjudo-

correct and very fast, I have met very educated people that were stuck much longer than you- are you smarter than them or unencumbered by higher thought processes like myself?

 

[TheLost]

Sometimes when I travel, if I've forgotten to bring something to read, I'll take a word and see how many words I can make from a single word.

For instance: people - pop, pep, lop, lope, plop, pee, pole, peel, leep, pope, eel, leo, ope (archaic)

It helps distract me from crowds and strangers which make me terrified.

Tee hee...you said plop! (I know, Im immature! Lavatory humour, sorry):giggle:

 

[just me here]

Here is another favorite:

If you are presented with 50 gold coins and told that 49 are plated but 1 is solid gold, and told that by using an old fashioned balance beam scale to determine which is the solid gold coin you can earn the coin, you can easily determine the solid coin by comparing the coins weight one against the other, 1 on each side of the scale until you find the heavy coin and claim the prize, right?

but what if the challenge says you can only use the scale 4 times? There are no weights available, just 50 coins and a scale, the coins look identical and are very close in weight, the plated ones all exactly the same and the solid one just slightly heavier. Can it be done with only 4 trips to the scale?

I guess this was overlooked, or just posted in the wrong place or didn' t get any traction- no problem.

If anyone cares, I want to provide the answer before going on vacation.

The scale can be used to eliminate coins at a faster rate per use than by dividing the fifty into two piles which would eliminate 25 coins. If you divide the fifty into 3 piles, 16,17 and 17, and weighing the two 17 coin piles against each other, 33 or 34 coins can be eliminated in 1 weighing.

So, divide into 17, 17, and 16. weigh the 17's against each other. If equal, the solid coin is in the 16 coin pile. If one 17 coin pile is heavier, thats the pile with the solid coin.

Next weighing is either 16 or 17 coins depending on the results of the weighing, divide it 5,5 and 6 or 6,6, and 5 and weigh the equal numbered piles. this will leave you with a pile of 5 or 6 that includes the solid coin after just 2 trips to the scale.

Divide the pile of 5 or 6 into 3 piles of 2 or 2,2, and 1. Weighing 2 coins on one side against 2 coins on the other side could result in an equal weight and if the third pile is a single coin you have found the solid coin in 3 trips, more likely you will end up with 2 coins and will need one more weighing.

It can be done, you just have to think outside the box a little bit.

 

[james999 7/7]

Great idea. Here's a brain teaser: A person is holding a photograph and says:

Brothers and sisters have I none.
but this man's father is my father's son.

Who is in the picture?

me