Puzzle 129
I recently gave a new watch to my friend for their birthday.
However, as usual with my presents, it was quite useless as it gains 6 minutes every hour.
I set it using my own accurate clock at midnight, and the watch now shows 8:26am.
I know that it stopped 30 minutes ago, so what is the correct time now?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
How many watch minutes pass in a real hour?
Answer
8:10am.
Reasoning
The watch now shows 8:26am, so we know that 8 x 60 + 26 = 506 watch minutes have passed.
Since the watch is gaining 6 minutes every hour, for every real hour that has passed, the watch will show 66 minutes.
So, 506 ÷ 66 ≈ 7.666 real hours have passed.
This equals 460 minutes, which is 7 hours and 40 minutes = 7:40am.
The watch stopped 30 minutes ago, therefore the time must now be 8:10am.
Puzzle 130
A 'complete' word is a word in which every letter, in turn, can be replaced by another to form a new word.
For example, RUG is a complete word because:
-ug = hug
r-g = rig
ru- = run
How many of the following words are not complete words? Proper nouns and names are not allowed.
team
cost
flew
ward
fail
rook
soft
most
lamp
load
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Another example, PEN is a complete word because:
-en = ten
p-n = pin
pe- = pea
Answer
Three of the words are not complete: flew, rook, lamp.
Reasoning
The remaining 7 words can be changed as follows:
team:
-eam = beam
t-am = tram
te-m = term
tea- = tear
cost:
-ost = host
c-st = cast
co-t = coat
cos- = cosy
flew:
-lew = blew
f-ew = ---- X
fl-w = flow
fle- = flex
ward:
-ard = card
w-rd = word
wa-d = wand
war- = warm
fail:
-ail = nail
f-il = foil
fa-l = fall
fai- = fair
rook:
-ook = book
r-ok = ---- X
ro-k = rock
roo- = roof
soft:
-oft = loft
s-ft = sift
so-t = sort
sof- = sofa
most:
-ost = cost
m-st = mast
mo-t = moat
mos- = moss
lamp:
-amp = damp
l-mp = lump
la-p = ---- X
lam- = lamb
Note that LARP is an uppercase acronym, and not in any of my word lists.
load:
-oad = road
l-ad = lead
lo-d = loud
loa- = loaf
Puzzle 131
Can you draw a line through all of the edges in this picture?
Each side is broken into 2 or 3 edges, and there are also 7 edges inside that you have to cross. The line must be continuous, and cross each edge exactly once.
Note: this puzzle is not interactive, and cannot be clicked.
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Hint
Try this with a piece of paper.
Answer
There is no possible way to complete the line, there will always be one edge left, or you have to cross an edge twice.
Puzzle 132
My BrainBashers electronic world atlas has developed another fault.
I listed five countries, and how far away each was from England, and here are the results:
Australia 500 miles
Peru 8,000 miles
India 4,500 miles
Scotland 9,500 miles
France ? miles
Can you work out the distance to France?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Only the first letter is important.
Answer
3,000 miles.
Take the alphabetic position of the first letter, halve, and then multiply by 1000.
You could also multiply by 500 instead.
Double-Checking
F is the 6th letter of the alphabet, halving gives 3, multiplying by 1000 gives 6000.
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