Puzzle 205
At last week's Girl Guide's picnic, four girls were tucking into their packed lunches. Jane had muffins but Denise didn't have orange juice. The girl who had blackcurrant juice also had scones and Frankie had blueberry juice. The girl who had cake also had strawberry juice, whereas Alice didn't have the strawberry juice nor toast. Can you work out who had which drink and which dessert?
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Hint
Denise had strawberry juice.
Answer
Alice had blackcurrant juice and scones.
Jane had orange juice and muffins.
Denise had strawberry juice and cake.
Frankie had blueberry juice and toast.
Puzzle 206
Without using any reference material can you find the hidden countries? In each case, the letter indicates the first letter of the country in question, the number represents the number of letters in the country. For example, E7 would be England.
Z6, L10, I9, E7, B6, J7, P8, M10, P4, F4
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Answer
Zambia, Luxembourg, Indonesia, Ecuador, Brazil (or Belize), Jamaica, Pakistan (or Paraguay), Mozambique (or Montenegro), Peru, Fiji.
Puzzle 207
What four-digit number has Digit 1 three smaller than Digit 4, which is one more than Digit 2, which is twice Digit 3, which is one more than one third of Digit 4?
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Hint
What can digit 4 be?
Answer
6849.
Reasoning
Digit 4 must be a multiple of 3:
---3
---6
---9
Digit 3 is one more than Digit 9 ÷ 3:
--23
--36
--49
Digit 2 is twice Digit 3:
-423
-636
-849
But Digit 4 is one more than Digit 2, which only leaves:
-849
And Digit 1 is three smaller than Digit 4:
6849.
Puzzle 208
I recently asked a friend of mine to buy me some ribbon for my latest embroidery project.
He went to the haberdashery shop for a particular length, but he accidentally interchanged the feet and inches.
When I measured the purchased ribbon, I only had 30% of the length I required!
How much ribbon did I originally ask for?
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Hint
Remember that there are 12 inches in a foot.
Answer
I asked for 9 foot 2 inches (110 inches) and my friend brought me 2 foot 9 inches (33 inches).
Reasoning
I asked my friend to buy me A feet and B inches, which is a total of 12A + B inches.
He accidentally bought me B feet and A inches, which is 12B + A inches.
We know that 12B + A is actually only 30% of what I wanted, so:
12B + A = 0.3 x (12A + B)
Multiply throughout by 10:
120B + 10A = 3 x (12A + B)
120B + 10A = 36A + 3B
117B = 26A
B = 26A ÷ 117
Don't forget that A and B can only be integers, and between 0 and 11.
Since 26 x A has to be at least 117, the lowest possible value for A is 5. We can check the remaining possibilities.
5 x 26 = 130
6 x 26 = 156
7 x 26 = 182
8 x 26 = 208
9 x 26 = 234 (*)
10 x 26 = 260
11 x 26 = 286
The only number wholly divisible by 117 is 234, which means that A = 9, and B = 2.
So, I originally asked for 9 feet 2 inches.
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