Puzzle 2
You have a very large number of generic plastic building blocks, each in the shape of a cube.
Think about how many cubes you would need in order to construct a giant cube with 16 small cubes along each edge.
If you were to then remove the outside layer, how many small cubes would you have removed?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
How large would the smaller cube be?
Answer
1,352 small cubes.
Reasoning
The original large cube with 16 small cubes along each edge would require 16 x 16 x 16 = 4,096 small cubes.
Removing the outside layer would leave a large cube now with 14 small cubes along each edge (which requires 14 x 14 x 14 = 2,744 small cubes).
It isn't 15 small cubes because you're removing both ends of an edge.
Therefore, you have removed 4,096 − 2,744 = 1,352 small cubes.
Puzzle 3
I have a jar of sweets.
There are 234 red, 26 blue, 67 green and 63 yellow sweets.
What chance do I have of picking a blue one with my eyes shut?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
How many sweets in total are there?
Answer
1 in 15.
Reasoning
In total, there are 390 sweets in the jar, and 26 of them are blue.
So the chance of picking blue is 26 in 390 = 1 in 15 = 6.66%.
Puzzle 4
I am a nine-letter word (123456789).
From 6523 grows a plant.
I 689, I 689, I 689, it's no joke.
751 rhymes with you.
421 rhymes too!
What am I?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Each number in the poem indicates which letter of the answer is being used.
Answer
Wednesday.
Reasoning
Each number in the poem indicates which letter of the answer is being used.
6523 = seed
689 = say
751 = dew
421 = new
Therefore, '751 rhymes with you' is read as 'dew rhymes with you'.
