At my local farmer's merchant, you can buy chicken feed for £4 per tonne, pig feed for £3 per tonne, and cattle feed for 40p per tonne. The feed can only be purchased by the tonne, and part tonnes aren't sold.
Last week I bought some animal feed, and luckily I managed to buy exactly 100 tonnes for exactly £100. How much of each feed did I buy?
Hint
What must the number of tonnes of cattle feed be a multiple of?
Answer
I bought 8 tonnes of chicken feed, 12 tonnes of pig feed, and 80 tonnes of cattle feed.
Reasoning
The number of tonnes of cattle feed must be a multiple of 5, because we need to have a whole number of pounds (5 x 0.40).
If all 100 tonnes was cattle feed, the cost would have been £40, which isn't enough.
If 95 tonnes was cattle feed the cost would have been £38, and the remaining 5 tonnes of (the most expensive) chicken feed at £20, gives a total of £58, which isn't enough.
If 90 tonnes was cattle feed the cost would have been £36, and the remaining 10 tonnes of (the most expensive) chicken feed at £40, gives a total of £76, which isn't enough.
If 85 tonnes was cattle feed the cost would have been £34, and the remaining 15 tonnes of (the most expensive) chicken feed at £60, gives a total of £94, which isn't enough.
If 80 tonnes was cattle feed the cost would have been £32, and the remaining 20 tonnes of (the most expensive) chicken feed at £80, gives a total of £112. So, this might be a possible answer …
We need 20 tonnes of chicken feed and pig feed to equal £68, so let's reduce the chicken feed until it works.
Hint
The first letters of the words are: C, S, P, B. One of the vegetables is another word for rutabaga.
Answer
Carrot, swede, pea, bean.
Swede is another word for rutabaga.
??
Puzzle 3
W B H F S K F V J P Z H S S H T J P P N W L A F P W P N T D S W S T R H S P L M V R G B I D P B D W S N R T C S R S F T D B K K F B O M F R L Z F R K Y P N J Z J S Z N M B J Q E R Z F Q Z V G Y F V P P F G F W Z W N R P L B J V R J H F K T Z U H F K Y F W J F S R S S W C Q R Q Y H R S O M W F P R Q J K H R N M B W S K B J Y D Q E T J Y P F D L R P F
Can you find a five-digit number that has no zeros, no ones, no digit is repeated, and:
The fourth digit is a quarter of the total of all of the digits.The second digit is twice the first digit.The third digit is the largest.The last digit is the sum of the first two digits.
Reasoning
We can start by labelling the digits as ABCDE.
We know that:
(i) B = 2 x A
and:
E = A + B
And using (i) we get:
E = A + (2 x A) (ii) E = 3 x A
If A = 1, this isn't allowed (as there are no 1's in the puzzle).
If A = 2, then B = 4, and E = 6.
If A = 3, then B = 6, and E = 9, but this isn't allowed (as C has to be the largest digit).
So, A = 2, B = 4, E = 6, and we now have to find C and D.
We also know that:
D = (A + B + C + D + E) ÷ 4
And using (i) and (ii) we get:
D = [A + (2 x A) + C + D + (3 x A)] ÷ 4
so:
3 x D = (6 x A) + C
so:
(iii) D = [(6 x A) + C] ÷ 3
C can only be 7, 8 or 9 (as it's the largest digit, and we've already found 6) and (iii) tells us that it must be a multiple of 3, which means that C = 9. Leaving D = 7.
So the final number is: 24976.
Double-Checking
The answer is 24976.
The fourth digit is a quarter of the total of all of the digits.
A + B + C + D + E = 2 + 4 + 9 + 7 + 6 = 28, and 28 ÷ 4 = 7.
The second digit is twice the first digit.
4 = 2 x 2.
The third digit is the largest.
9 is the largest digit.
The last digit is the sum of the first two digits.
6 = 2 + 4.
