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You find yourself playing a game of GreenJack with your friend.
It is played with a deck of only 16 cards, divided into 4 suits:
Red, Blue, Orange, and Green.
There are four cards in each suit:
Ace, King, Queen, and Jack.
All Aces outrank all Kings, which outrank all Queens, which outrank all Jacks, except for the Green Jack, which outranks every other card.
If two cards have the same face value, then Red outranks Blue, which outranks Orange, which outranks Green, again except for the Green Jack, which outranks everything.
Here's how the game is played: you are dealt one card face up, and your friend is dealt one card face down. Your friend then makes some true statements, and you have to work out who has the higher card, you or your friend. It's that simple!
Round 2:
You are dealt the Blue King and your friend makes three statements:
My card would beat a Green King. Knowing this, if my card is more likely to be a Jack than a Queen, then my card is actually a King. Otherwise, it isn't. Given all of the information you now know, if my card is more likely to beat yours than not, then my card is Red card. Otherwise, it isn't.
Who has the higher card, you or your friend?
Hint
List all of the cards, and then eliminate some using (1).
Answer
You.
Reasoning
You were dealt the Blue King.
The possible cards, in order, are:
Green Jack
Red Ace
Blue Ace
Orange Ace
Green Ace
Red King
Blue King (your card)
Orange King
Green King
Red Queen
Blue Queen
Orange Queen
Green Queen
Red Jack
Blue Jack
Orange Jack
By (1), your friend's card is higher than the Green King, so your friend can only have one of the following cards:
Green Jack
Red Ace
Blue Ace
Orange Ace
Green Ace
Red King
Blue King (your card)
Orange King
By (2), their card is more likely to be a Jack (1) than a Queen (0), so their card is a King. Leaving:
Red King
Blue King (your card)
Orange King
By (3), only 1 could beat your card, so it is not more likely to beat yours, therefore their card is not Red. Leaving:
Blue King (your card)
Orange King
So your friend must have the Orange King, which your card beats.
??
Puzzle 2
I started out on the journey from the forest with a full tank of fuel, 12 gallons exactly.
However, the moment I started out, the fuel tank sprung a leak. I travelled at 50 mph until I ran out of fuel exactly 4 hours later.
I know that the car does 25 miles for each gallon.
Reasoning
A number that is divisible by 3 has digits that add up to a number that is also divisible by 3 (for example, 123 is divisible by 3).
So we can look for the first number where 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + … is divisible by 3, which is 4 + 4 + 4, and 444 ÷ 3 = 148.
Alternative Reasoning
Let's try the possible answers in order:
4 ÷ 3 = 1.3333 44 ÷ 3 = 14.6666 444 ÷ 3 = 148
Double-Checking
148 x 3 = 444.
?
Puzzle 4
Can you find the country hidden in the following sentence:
A popular newspaper printed part of a page that pointed out that port officials use a pencil, not a pen, when they prepare paper updates to their port reports.
A popular newspaper printed part of a page that pointed out that port officials use a pencil, not a pen, when they prepare paPER Updates to their port reports.