Puzzle 193
We have been quite lucky with the weather recently, it has got steadily warmer each day, over the last five days.
By this, I mean that the temperature rose by the same amount each day.
The average temperature was 2 °C, and I know it froze on two occasions (0 °C).
I also know the product of the temperatures was over 500 but below 2,000 and each temperature was an integer.
What were the last 5 temperatures?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
What must the middle temperature be? Remember that the temperature are in degrees Celsius.
Answer
The temperatures were -6, -2, 2, 6, 10 °C.
Each day increased by a steady 4 degrees.
Reasoning
As the temperature rose steadily each day, we know that the middle temperature (Day 3) was 2 degrees (because the average was 2 degrees).
Since Day 3 was 2 degrees, and there were two negative temperatures, we know that the daily increase must have been at least 3 degrees (otherwise Day 2 would not have been negative).
If we check a daily increase of 3 degrees, the sequence would be -4, -1, 2, 5, 8, but this doesn't work as the product is less than 500.
If we check a daily increase of 4 degrees, the sequence would be -6, -2, 2, 6, 10, which does matches all of the requirements.
If we check a daily increase of 5 degrees, the sequence would be -8, -3, 2, 7, 12, but this doesn't work as the product is more than 2000.
Any larger increase makes the product even larger, so we can stop checking.
So the only possible answer is -6, -2, 2, 6, 10.
Puzzle 194
Clown Of The Year - Logic Puzzles
The four clowns in this puzzle all competed for the much-prized 'Clown of the Year' award recently. There were 30 clowns in total who entered the competition and each had to make the judges laugh.
From the clues below, can you work out each clown's name, the town he or she came from, what place each clown was awarded and the most comical moment of each clown's routine?
The Budsworth clown finished one place lower than Strumpy who is not from Witfield.
The judges roared with laughter as one clown cycled across a tightrope, wobbled, screamed and fell head first into a pool of water. He finished two places below Boo Boo who was not from Witfield.
The clown who finished in 7th place lost points when her big red nose fell off during her manic routine. This involved being hit with a giant rubber mallet by her assistant who was supposed to hit her on the shoulder but unfortunately had something in his eye at the time and accidentally hit her in the face instead.
Tambo was disappointed when his usually masterful custard pie antics failed to impress the judges sufficiently to secure the award. He was not the clown from Stockville whose final placing was lower than the Shrimpton clown.
Clowns : Boo Boo, Grego, Strumpy, Tambo
Towns : Budsworth, Shrimpton, Stockville, Witfield
Position : 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th
Routine : Custard Pie, Flower, Rubber Mallet, Unicycle
Puzzle Copyright © Rodins Ltd
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Hint
Where did Strumpy finish?
Answer
Name Town # Routine
Boo Boo Shrimpton 2nd Flower
Strumpy Stockville 4th Unicycle
Tambo Budsworth 5th Custard Pie
Grego Whitfield 7th Rubber Mallet
The positions that the four clowns could finish are 2nd, 4th, 5th and 7th. The Budsworth clown finished one place below Strumpy (1) so Strumpy must have been 4th and the Budsworth clown 5th. The (male) clown on the unicycle finished two places below Boo Boo (2) so must have been 7th or 4th. Since the clown who came 7th was female, the clown on the unicycle must have been 4th and is Strumpy and Boo Boo came 2nd. Tambo (male) is not the clown who came 7th (3), 2nd (Boo Boo) or 4th (Strumpy) so came 5th with his custard pie act (4) and Grego came 7th with her rubber mallet so by elimination, Boo Boo's act involved the flower. The Budsworth clown (Tambo) came 5th, neither Strumpy (1) nor Boo Boo (2) came from Whitfield so the clown from Whitfield was Grego (7th). The Shrimpton clown was placed higher than the Stockville clown (4) so came 2nd and the Stockville clown came 4th.
Puzzle 195
What is missing from this sequence:
Greenland New Guinea Borneo Madagascar {?} Sumatra Honshu
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Hint
These are all islands.
Answer
Baffin Island.
From the largest islands in the world, in descending order.
Australia is considered the smallest continent and Greenland the largest island.
Puzzle 196
My BrainBashers electronic world atlas has developed another fault.
I listed five countries, and how far away each was from England, and here are the results:
Australia 500 miles
Peru 8,000 miles
India 4,500 miles
Scotland 9,500 miles
France {?} miles
Can you work out the distance to France?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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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 6th letter of the alphabet, halving gives 3, multiplying by 1000 gives 6000.
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