Below, 10 nine-letter words have been broken into chunks of three letters.
These chunks have been mixed up, no chunk is used twice, and all of the chunks are used.
Can you determine the 10 original words?
rbr tim sag tel lig ent
hea dli ble whi htn fer
car age esc ing ind wat
til hai ush dif eta new
rlw all erf ope ent ght
Hints
The first letters of the words are: T, T, H, D, W, L, H, W, C, N.
Answers
tel + esc + ope = telescope
tim + eta + ble = timetable
hai + rbr + ush = hairbrush
dif + fer + ent = different
wat + erf + all = waterfall
lig + htn + ing = lightning
hea + dli + ght = headlight
whi + rlw + ind = whirlwind
car + til + age = cartilage
new + sag + ent = newsagent
Hint
This is a tricky question related to number bases.
Answer
200.
Each number in the sequence is a representation of the number 32 in different bases, starting with base 10.
Base 10: 32 = 3 x 10^1 + 2 x 10^0 = 3 x 10 + 2 = 32
Base 9 : 35 = 3 x 9^1 + 5 x 9^0 = 3 x 9 + 5 = 32
Base 8 : 40 = 4 x 8^1 + 0 x 8^0 = 4 x 8 + 0 = 32
Base 7 : 44 = 4 x 7^1 + 4 x 7^0 = 4 x 7 + 4 = 32
Base 6 : 52 = 5 x 6^1 + 2 x 6^0 = 5 x 6 + 2 = 32
Base 5 : 112 = 1 x 5^2 + 1 x 5^1 + 2 x 5^0 = 1 x 25 + 1 x 5 + 2 = 32
Base 4 : 200 = 2 x 4^2 + 0 x 4^1 + 0 x 4^0 = 2 x 16 + 0 + 0 = 32
?
Puzzle 199
How many squares of any size on this chessboard do not contain a rook?
Reasoning There are 60 squares of size 1 x 1. There are 35 squares of size 2 x 2. There are 12 squares of size 3 x 3. There are 3 squares of size 4 x 4.
At last year's BrainBashers snail race, 10 fine snails completed the tabletop course.
Predictably, as per every year, the results mysteriously went missing.
However, various spectators remembered the following snippets of information:
Orange Berry lost to Zebra Wings. Zebra Wings beat Orange Berry, Frog Flippers and Apple Pie. Fizzy Pop lost to Minty Mouth, Orange Berry and CD Player. Frog Flippers beat Windy Hill, CD Player and Orange Berry. Top Hat lost to CD Player, Kipper Slippers and Apple Pie. CD Player beat Top Hat and Fizzy Pop. Apple Pie lost to Zebra Wings and Orange Berry. Kipper Slippers lost to Apple Pie and Frog Flippers. Frog Flippers beat Fizzy Pop, Minty Mouth and CD Player. CD Player lost to Frog Flippers, Kipper Slippers and Apple Pie. Top Hat beat Fizzy Pop and Windy Hill. Minty Mouth lost to Windy Hill and Orange Berry. Windy Hill lost to Apple Pie and CD Player.
Can you work out who finished where?
Hint
Who finished first? Start with Clue 2, and then Clue 4.
Answer
Zebra Wings (ZW)
Frog Flippers (FF)
Orange Berry (OB)
Apple Pie (AP)
Kipper Slippers (KS)
CD Player (CP)
Top Hat (TH)
Windy Hill (WH)
Minty Mouth (MM)
Fizzy Pop (FP)
Reasoning
If we number the clues, write each name using two letters, and rewrite the clues so that those who finished ahead are written first:
ZW beat OB.ZW beat OB, FF and AP.MM, OB and CP, all beat FP.FF beat WH, CP and OB.CP, KS and AP, all beat TH.CP beat TH and FP.ZW and OB both beat AP.AP and FF both beat KS.FF beat FP, MM and CP.FF, KS and AP, all beat CP.TH beat FP and WH.WH and OB both beat MM.AP and CP both beat WH.
By (2): ZW FF
By (4): ZW FF OB
By (7): ZW FF OB AP
By (8): ZW FF OB AP KS
By (10): ZW FF OB AP KS CP
By (5): ZW FF OB AP KS CP TH
By (11): ZW FF OB AP KS CP TH WH
By (12): ZW FF OB AP KS CP TH WH MM
By (3): ZW FF OB AP KS CP TH WH MM FP
