Puzzle 1
If Malcolm, Laura, John, Alan, Brenda, and Kevin like chocolate …
… and Norman, Steve, Thomas, Zebedee do not …
… does Peter like chocolate?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Think about the alphabet.
Answer
No.
Only people with initials A-M do like chocolate, others do not.
Puzzle 2
Can you find the encoded countries?
The letter indicates the first letter of the country, and the number represents the number of letters in the country.
H5
V9
D7
J7
F6
N6
P4
Z8
R7
Q5
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
For example, E7 would be England.
Answers
H5 = Haiti
V9 = Venezuela
D7 = Denmark
J7 = Jamaica
F6 = France
N6 = Norway
P4 = Peru
Z8 = Zimbabwe
R7 = Romania
Q5 = Qatar
Puzzle 3
I recently went to the shop and purchased 4 items.
Three of the items cost:
$1.50
$3.00
$4.00
There was quite a long queue, and as I was quite bored, I was playing with my pocket calculator while I waited.
Very curiously, the 4 prices added to the same number as I got when I multiplied the 4 prices together.
What was the price of the 4th item?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
What do the 3 numbers add to, and multiply to, so far?
Answer
$0.50.
Reasoning
The three prices add to 1.50 + 3.00 + 4.00 = 8.50.
The three prices multiply to 1.50 x 3.00 x 4.00 = 18.00.
You might be able to see that adding another 0.50 will take the total to 9.00, and multiplying by another 0.50 will take the product to 9.00.
The answer can also be found using algebra. If we call the missing price P, we have:
1.50 + 3.00 + 4.00 + P = 1.50 x 3.00 x 4.00 x P
8.50 + P = 18.00 x P
8.50 = 18.00 x P − P
8.50 = 17.00 x P
8.50 ÷ 17.00 = P
P = 0.50.
Puzzle 4
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.
