Puzzle 1
Imagine a bottle recycling skip, empty other than one lonely bottle.
Every hour, on the hour, people come and put bottles into the skip.
The first hour, at noon, one person came and put a bottle in.
One hour later, two people each placed a bottle into the skip.
An hour later, four people each placed a bottle into the skip.
This doubling of people continued until 11pm, when the skip was finally full.
When was the skip exactly half full?
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Hint
Remember that the bottle count doubles each time.
Answer
10pm.
Reasoning
The skip started with 1 lonely bottle.
At Noon: 1 person came along and added a bottle, making the total 2 bottles.
At 1pm: 2 people came along and each added a bottle, making the total 2 + 2 = 4 bottles.
At 2pm: 4 people came along and each added a bottle, making the total 4 + 4 = 8 bottles.
At 3pm: 8 people came along and each added a bottle, making the total 8 + 8 = 16 bottles.
Therefore, the number of bottles in the skip is doubling every hour, as it was full at 11pm, it must have been half full at 10pm.
Puzzle 2
The following words have had their vowels removed, can you find some animals?
ln
ntlp
gzll
strch
wl
rbn
rdvrk
dr
clt
bs
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
One of the words is Antelope.
Answer
ln = lion
ntlp = antelope
gzll = gazelle
strch = ostrich
wl = owl
rbn = robin
rdvrk = aardvark
dr = deer
clt = ocelot or colt
bs = ibis
Puzzle 3
Two friends were driving from their home to Manchester, Alex drove the first 90 miles, and Billie took over for the remainder of the journey.
On the way back, Alex drove to begin with, and Billie took over for the last 100 miles.
Who drove the furthest?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
It doesn't matter how far it was to Manchester, so you can use any distance.
Answer
Billie.
Reasoning
If we call the one way distance T, we know that:
On the way there, Alex drove 90 miles, and Billie drove (T − 90) miles.
On the way back, Alex drove (T − 100) miles, and Billie drove 100 miles.
So, in total, both ways:
Alex drove 90 + (T − 100)
= T − 10
Billie drove (T − 90) + 100
= T + 10
Therefore, Billie drove 20 miles more than Alex.
Puzzle 4
Which two letters come next in this sequence:
ME · VE · EA · MA · JU · SA · UR · ?
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Answer
NE.
From Neptune. The first two letters from the planets in sequence: MErcury, VEnus, EArth, MArs, JUpiter, SAturn, URanus, NEptune.
