Brainteasers: March 2007

Compiled by Julianne Scibetta, Albany College of Pharmacy

Thanks, George Strohm of Brevard Community College, for your answers to the holiday brainteasers! Great job!

Congratulations to Robert Biviano at Herkimer County Community College for his correct answers to all of the questions for the Jan/Feb brainteasers. Matthew Winkler at Rutgers University came in at a close second with two answers correct.

Click here to see the Jan/Feb Brainteasers again! http://www.learningassistance.com/2007/january/index.html#brainteasers

January/February Brainteaser Solutions.

  1. $1.19. Three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies.
  2. Variations of this may occur.
  3. When you choose a paper, immediately swallow it. The executioner will be forced to read the other paper to see which one you drew. The executioner will see a paper marked “DEATH” and will assume that you drew “LIFE” and will have to set you free.

March 2007 Brainteasers

I’m looking forward to spring, aren’t you?

  1. Bird Watching. Abel, Mabel, and Caleb went bird watching. Each of them saw one bird that none of the others did. Each pair saw one bird that the third did not. And one bird was seen by all three. Of the birds Abel saw, two were yellow. Of the birds Mabel saw, three were yellow. Of the birds Caleb saw, four were yellow. How many yellow birds were seen in all? How many non-yellow birds were seen in all?
  2. Number Puzzle. Make 11 out of 7, 7, 7, and 9. Do this by taking the four numbers and performing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and/or division operations on them. Each number must be used in the calculations exactly once, and only these four operations (+, -, x, ÷) may be used. You may parenthesize your expression however you wish. For example, 5 may be obtained from 1, 2, and 3, with the expression (3 + 2) × 1.
  3. Thank you, Ben Franklin. Daylight Savings Time is a little bit earlier this year. Let’s celebrate by thanking the father of DST, Ben Franklin, with some proverb-puzzles! Each of the following sentences is a proverb, except one letter in each word has been replaced. Can you figure out which proverb it is?
    Exempli Gratia: Wetter mate than fever. = Better late than never.
    1. Earls so red, earls no rose.
    2. Won't pit oft pill gomorrow whet yon tan go toddy.
    3. Ill word end so plan takes pack I pull toy.
    4. I pool ant has honey ale boon panted.

These puzzles from Brain Food, a RinkWorks production.