Puzzle 1
By changing the second letter of each word below, you can make another valid word.
Can you change each word such that the second letters will reveal an eleven-letter word when read downwards?
Therefore, what now reads 'awpydnucepa' will be a real word.
ba ke
sw ap
op al
dy ed
id le
sn ow
lu mp
ac es
me lt
sp un
ra nt
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
The eleven-letter word begins with the letter I.
Answer
Investigate.
bake = bi ke
swap = sn ap
opal = ov al
dyed = de ed
idle = is le
snow = st ow
lump = li mp
aces = ag es
melt = ma lt
spun = st un
rant = re nt
Puzzle 2
Again, my BrainBashers thesaurus has let me down again. This time I was after boy's names and it failed to show the vowels.
What were the boy's names?
rn
jms
kvn
smn
kth
jrmh
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
The first answer is Aaron.
Answer
rn = Aaron or Ernie or Ron
jms = James
kvn = Kevin
smn = Simon
kth = Keith
jrmh = Jeremiah
Puzzle 3
Combine the word fragments below to produce pairs of words that have opposite meanings. There are 9 pairs of words, one pair on each line.
For example, USE REF EPT ACC becomes ACCEPT + REFUSE.
AB ANT RCE SCA UND
WA RY RD BR ICE CO AVE
ETY NG SAF ER DA
ACT AND CO EXP NTR
WN US UNK NO MO FA
TR TE IBU HER GAT DIS
CAL HO RI RTI TAL VE ZON
TIO AL CID EN ENT INT NAL AC
OWL OR KN IGN GE ED CE AN
Puzzle Copyright © Elliott Line This puzzle appeared in Mensa's EnigmaSig (194.21) and is used with permission.
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Hint
The first letters of one half of the words are: A, B, D, C, F, D, H, A, I.
Answer
ABUNDANT + SCARCE
BRAVERY + COWARDICE
DANGER + SAFETY
CONTRACT + EXPAND
FAMOUS + UNKNOWN
DISTRIBUTE + GATHER
HORIZONTAL + VERTICAL
ACCIDENTAL + INTENTIONAL
IGNORANCE + KNOWLEDGE
Puzzle 4
At the local racetrack, Alex was testing the latest car.
During the eight test laps, Alex managed to average the first two laps at 100mph, the next two laps at 102mph, the next two laps at 140mph, and the last two laps at 150mph.
What was the average speed for the entire 8 laps?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Remember that Time = Distance ÷ Speed, and try setting the track length to be a random length.
Answer
119mph.
Reasoning
It doesn't matter how long a lap is, so let's set the track length to be a random number, say 5 miles.
Using:
Time = Distance ÷ Speed
The first two laps took:
10 /100 hours
The second two laps took:
10 /102 hours
The next two laps took:
10 /140 hours
The final two laps took:
10 /150 hours
Therefore, the total time for the 8 laps was:
10 /100 + 10 /102 + 10 /140 + 10 /150 hours
= 1 /10 + 5 /51 + 1 /14 + 1 /15 hours
Looking at the denominators:
10 = 2 x 5
51 = 3 x 17
14 = 2 x 7
15 = 3 x 5
The lowest common multiple (LCM) of these numbers is 2 x 3 x 5 x 7 x 17 = 3570.
= 357 /3570 + 350 /3570 + 255 /3570 + 238 /3570 hours
= 1200 /3570 hours
= 120 /357 hours
= 40 /119 hours
The 8 laps were 40 miles, and using Speed = Distance ÷ Time:
average speed = 40 ÷ (40 /119 )
average speed = 40 x (119 /40 )
= 119 mph
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