Puzzle 1
Three builders are laying a brick wall.
Freddie can lay 1,000 bricks in three hours, Jimmy can lay 1,000 bricks in two hours and Kevin can lay 1,000 bricks in six hours.
How long will it take Freddie, Jimmy, and Kevin to lay 1,000 bricks if they all work together?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
How many bricks are laid in six hours?
Answer
1 hour.
Reasoning
How many bricks are laid in six hours?
In six hours, Kevin lays 1000 bricks, Freddie lays 2000 bricks, and Jimmy lays 3000 bricks.
So, in six hours, we have a total of 6000 bricks laid.
Which means that it will take one hour to lay 1000 bricks.
Puzzle 2
What letter comes next in this sequence:
J · F · M · A · M · J · J · ?
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Hint
This is a very common sequence.
Answer
A.
August, from initial letters of the months of the year.
Puzzle 3
Alex likes soda very much. At the local convenience store, for every 5 empty soda bottles the reward is a full fresh bottle.
As part of a local recycling initiative, Alex collected 77 empty bottles.
How many bottles of soda could Alex drink in total?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
The answer is not 15.
Answer
19 bottles.
Reasoning
From the initial 77 bottles, 75 bottles can be recycled for 15 new full bottles.
Once those are drunk, Alex will have 17 empty bottles (15 plus the 2 extra empty bottles).
From the 17 empty bottles, 15 bottles can be recycled for 3 new full bottles.
Once those are drunk, Alex will have 5 empty bottles (3 plus the 2 extra empty bottles), which can be recycled for one final full bottle.
Giving a total of 15 + 3 + 1 = 19.