Puzzle 1
If Malcolm, Laura, John, Alan, Brenda and Kevin like chocolate …
… and Norman, Steve, Thomas, Zebedee do not …
… does Peter like chocolate?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Think about the alphabet.
Answer
No.
Only people with initials A-M do like chocolate, others do not.
Puzzle 2
Which word is the odd one out:
ceelry caorrt caabbeg caefilloruw caehikort
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
The words are all vegetables.
Answer
Caehikort, which is an anagram of artichoke.
The others all begin with the letter C: celery, carrot, cabbage, and cauliflower.
Puzzle 3
Last week, I travelled from London to Stoke.
On the first day, I travelled one half of the distance.
On day two, I travelled one third of the remaining distance.
On day three, I travelled three quarters of the remaining distance.
Yesterday I travelled one half of the remaining distance.
I now have 5 miles left to travel.
How far is it from Stoke to London in total?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Try working backwards.
Answer
120 miles.
Reasoning
I now have 5 miles left to travel, so I must have travelled 5 miles yesterday.
At the end of Day 3, I had 10 miles left to travel, so I must have had 40 miles left at the start of the Day 3.
At the end of Day 2, I had 40 miles left to travel, so I must have had 60 miles left at the start of the Day 2.
At the end of Day 1, I had 60 miles left to travel, so I must have had 120 miles left at the start of the Day 1.
Double-Checking
On the Day 1, I travelled 60 miles, leaving 60 miles.
On Day 2, I travelled 20 miles, leaving 40 miles.
On Day 3, I travelled 30 miles, leaving 10 miles.
Yesterday, I travelled 5 miles, leaving 5 miles.
Puzzle 4
Start with a number larger than 0, square it, add 4, double, take away 3, times 4 and finally subtract the original number.
If you were now left with 20, what number did you start with?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
A little algebra might help.
Answer
1 /8 .
Reasoning
If we convert the question to algebra, we have:
((n^2 + 4) x 2 − 3) x 4 − n = 20
Expanding the brackets and simplifying gives:
(2n^2 + 8 − 3) x 4 − n = 20
(2n^2 + 5) x 4 − n = 20
8n^2 + 20 − n = 20
8n^2 − n = 0 (*)
8n − 1 = 0
8n = 1
n = 1 /8
In the equation marked (*) zero is also a potential solution, but as the question tells us that we "Start with a number larger than 0" we know that n can't be 0, and therefore we can safely divide by n.
Double-Checking
1 /8
squared = 1 /64
add 4 = 41 /64
double = 81 /32
take away 3 = 51 /32
times 4 = 201 /8
subtracting 1 /8 gives 20, as required.
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