Brainteasers: April 2008

LCE Brainteasers
Compiled by Julianne Scibetta-Messia

Answers to the last edition’s problems -
Many thanks to Michele Doney and Alan Craig for their submitted answers!

1. Lincoln & Kennedy Coincidences:
   Lincoln was elected in 1860, Kennedy in 1960.
   Both men were assassinated on a Friday.
   Lincoln was killed in the Ford Theater, Kennedy was killed in a Ford Lincoln.
   Both men were succeeded by vice-presidents named Johnson.
2. The other animal is a mule, a cross between a horse and a donkey, offspring of the original animals.
3. Not at all. The temp will earn $5,368,709.12 on the thirtieth day alone.
   (As Michele wrote in her responses, “I cannot think of any project for which I would hire a temp at that rate.”)
4. First figure out how much three of each type of stamp costs (63 cents). Now you need to figure out which two stamps to get a fourth of that will make the total cost some number of cents divisible by ten. You can't get enough to make 80 cents with two stamps, so the total cost must be 70 cents and the cost of the two extra stamps must be 7 cents. So the two extra stamps are a two-cent stamp and a five-cent stamp: 4 Oklahomas, 4 Wagons, 3 Tiffany, 3 Coffee Pot, 3 Marine.
5. Word box answers:
   LAWMAN
   AVIATE
   WINNOW
   MANGLE
   ATOLLS
   NEWEST

April Brainteasers
Try Your Hat

Spring is a time for planting, growth, and family gatherings.

1. Spring Training: 97 baseball teams participate in an annual state tournament. The champion is chosen for this tournament by the usual elimination scheme. That is, the 97 teams are divided into pairs, and the two teams of each pair play against each other. The loser of each pair is eliminated, and the remaining teams are paired up again, etc. How many games must be played to determine a champion?
2. 2. Spring Planting: All of my flowers except two are roses. All of my flowers except two are tulips. All of my flowers except two are daisies. How many flowers do I have?
3. Happy Birthday! You must cut a birthday cake into exactly eight pieces, but you're only allowed to make three straight cuts, and you can't move pieces of the cake as you cut. How can you do it?
4. The Apprentice, Elementary School Edition: Two boys sell apples. Each sells thirty apples a day. The first boy sells his apples at two for fifty cents (and therefore earns $7.50 per day). The second boy sells his apples at three for fifty cents (and therefore earns $5.00 per day). The total received by both boys each day is therefore $12.50.
   
   One day, the first boy is sick, and the second boy takes over his apple selling duties. To accommodate the differing rates, the boy sells the sixty apples at five for a dollar. But selling sixty apples at five for a dollar yields only $12.00 earnings at the end of the day. What happened to the other fifty cents?
   
   Word Associations: In each of these puzzles, a list of words is given. To solve the puzzle, think of a single word that goes with each to form a compound word (or word pair that functions as a compound word). For example, if the given words are volley, field, and bearing, then the answer would be ball, because the word ball can be added to each of the other words to form volleyball, ballfield, and ball bearing.
   

   5. BLUE LANDS ROOTS	6. CAR TOP ICE
   7. SORE WITNESS BUCK	8. WATCH HOUSE GONE

These brainteasers are graciously taken from Brain Food.

As usual, express your opinions and submit your votes best guesses to Julianne at messiaj@acp.edu. Got a puzzler you’d love to share? Send it to me and I’ll feature it in the next Brainteaser!

Good luck!

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