Random Puzzles 

Workings

Hint
Going down and across the floor isn't the only route.

Answer
40 feet.

Explanation Diagram
If you imagine the room to be a cardboard box, you can 'unfold' the room in various ways, and each route gives a different answer.



We can use Pythagoras' theorem (a² + b² = c²) to calculate the distances:
   distance² = horizontal² + vertical²
   distance = √(horizontal² + vertical²)

Route #1
   distance = 1 + 30 + 11 = 42 feet.

Route #2
   horizontal = 6 + 30 + 6 = 42 feet.
   vertical = 10 feet.
   distance = √(42² + 10²) ≈ 43.174 feet.

Route #3
   horizontal = 1 + 30 + 6 = 37 feet.
   vertical = 6 + 11 = 17 feet.
   distance = √(37² + 17²) ≈ 43.178 feet.

Route #4
   horizontal = 1 + 30 + 1 = 32 feet.
   vertical = 6 + 12 + 6 = 24 feet.
   distance = √(32² + 24²) = 40 feet.

Workings

Answer
87912.

Workings

Hint
Start by filling the 9 gallon container, and then use that to fill the 4 gallon container.

Answer
Here are the contents of the containers after each stage:
A   B
9   0      fill A
5   4      fill B from A
5   0      empty B
1   4      fill B from A
1   0      empty B
0   1      fill B from A
9   1      fill A
6   4      fill B from A
6   0      empty B

This leaves 6 gallons in container A.

Workings

Hint
A fathom is 6 feet.

Answer
Hours in a month.

Reasoning
A fathom is 6 feet, which is 1.8288 metres.

So there are 1000 ÷ 1.8288 ≈ 546.8 fathoms in a kilometre.

The shortest month has 28 x 24 hours = 672.

So even the shortest month has more hours than there are fathoms in a kilometre.