Random Puzzles 

Workings

Hint
The first letters of the words are: W, O, B, H, D, F, C, N, H, D.

Answers
wat + erf + all = waterfall
ove + rbo + ard = overboard
ban + dst + and = bandstand
hai + rbr + ush = hairbrush
dif + fer + ent = different
fis + her + man = fisherman
con + duc + tor = conductor
new + spa + per = newspaper
hea + dli + ght = headlight
dra + gon + fly = dragonfly

Workings

Hint
Only the first letter is important.

Answer
3,000 miles.

Take the alphabetic position of the first letter, halve, and then multiply by 1000.

You could also multiply by 500 instead.

Double-Checking
F is the 6^th letter of the alphabet, halving gives 3, multiplying by 1000 gives 6000.

Workings

Hint
Five of the missing first letters are: F, P, T, C, B.

Answers
--pay = repay --lad = salad --ior = prior --eue = queue --rva = larva --day = today --voc = havoc --yss = abyss --gun = begun --pty = empty --til = until --cay = decay --uke = fluke --uze = gauze --noe = canoe

Workings

Hint
There are two different methods, one involves a cube root, and the other doesn't require a calculator.

Answer
9 x 11 x 13.

Reasoning #1
We're after three numbers that multiply together, so a good place to start is the cube root of 1,287, which is roughly 10.88.

Let's try dividing by the closest odd number to 10.88:

   1287 ÷ 11 = 117

We're now after whole divisors of 117. Trying the odd numbers either side of 11 might work.

Trying either 9 or 13 gives the answer:

   9 x 11 x 13 = 1,287

Trying the closest odd number to the cube root always works, and the other two numbers are the odd numbers either side.

Reasoning #2
We after three numbers that multiply together, but none of these can end in 5 (otherwise our answer would end in 0 or 5).

So, they can only end in 7, 9, 1 (e.g. 87, 89, 91), or 9, 1, 3 (e.g. 89, 91, 93).

However, if they ended in 7, 9, 1, the answer would end in 3 (because 7 x 9 x 1 = 63).

Therefore, they end in 9, 1, and 3 (because 9 x 1 x 3 = 27).

The first numbers we can try are 9, 11, 13:

   = 9 x 11 x 13
   = 99 x 13
   = 100 x 13 - 13
   = 1300 - 13
   = 1,287

A calculator is not required!