Puzzle 17
My local bus company has recently expanded and no longer has enough room inside its garage for all of its buses.
Twelve of their buses have to be stored outside.
If they decide to increase their garage space by 40% they will have enough room for all of their current buses, plus enough room to store another twelve in the future.
How many buses does the company currently own?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Think about the 40%, and how many buses that represents.
Answer
72 buses.
Reasoning
The garage is currently full, with 12 more buses outside.
If we increase the garage space by 40%, there will be enough space to house those 12 buses, plus 12 more in the future, a total of 24 buses.
This means that 40% of the current garage capacity is 24 buses.
Therefore, 10% of the current garage capacity is 6 buses.
Therefore, 100% of the current garage capacity is 60 buses.
So, the current garage holds 60 buses, and there are 12 more outside.
Therefore, we have a total of 72 buses.
Double-Checking
They currently have 72 buses, 12 of which are outside, so 60 are inside.
Increasing the garage space of 60 buses by 40% will give room for 60 x 1.4 = 84 buses.
Which is the 72 they currently own, with space for 12 more buses in the future.
This confirms the answer.
Puzzle 18
The same three-letter word has been removed from all of these words, leaving the letters below (which are still in the correct order).
What was the three-letter word?
loe
ch
she
er
vae
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
The missing word is in these locations: lo---e, ---ch, s---he, ---er, va---e.
Answer
Cat.
loe = locat e
ch = cat ch
she = scat he
er = cat er
vae = vacat e
Puzzle 19
What number completes this sequence:
4 · 15 · 14 · 11 · 5 · ?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Think of the alphabet.
Answer
25 for Y.
These are the positions of the letters of the alphabet, and they are spelling Donkey.
Puzzle 20
What letter completes this square in the most logical manner?
Y
G
W
A
K
L
?
O
Z
J
P
D
V
F
T
H
Note: this puzzle is not interactive, and the squares cannot be clicked.
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Look at the letter positions in the alphabet.
Answer
R.
If you take the alphabetic positions of each letter in a row, the total is always 56.
Double-Checking
Y + G + W + A = 25 + 7 + 23 + 1 = 56
K + L + R + O = 11 + 12 + 18 + 15 = 56
Z + J + P + D = 26 + 10 + 16 + 4 = 56
V + F + T + H = 22 + 6 + 20 + 8 = 56
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