My Neurons Love Me For Exercising Them
Yesterday’s Problem:
On a trip to the zoo on Easter Sunday I counted 36 heads and 100 feet. Can you work out how many birds and how many beasts I saw?
Answer:
I saw 22 two legged birds and 14 four legged beasts.
Today’s Problem:
A woman owns ten female dogs. Everyone of the dogs has had a puppy and none has had as many as ten. Does that mean that at least two of the dogs have had the same number of puppies?
Last Problem:
In a reading room at the library there are several three-legged stools and four-legged chairs and they are all occupied. If you count thirty-nine legs in the room, is it possible to figure out how many stool, chairs and people there are?
Answer:
Yes. There is a unique solution, but you simple have to remember that every leg is counted – stool legs, chair legs and people legs!
For every occupied stool there are five legs (three stool legs and two people legs). And every occupied chair counts for six legs. So, this means the following:
5 multiplied by the number of stools + 6 multiplied by the number of chairs = 39.
There are three stools, four chairs and seven people.
Today’s Problem:
On a trip to the zoo on Easter Sunday I counted 36 heads and 100 feet. Can you work out how many birds and how many beasts I saw?
Last Problem:
A mother cat has spent seven of her nine lives. Some of her kittens have spent six and some have spent only four. Together the mother and her kittens have a total of twenty-five lives left.
Can you tell with certainty how many kittens there are?
Answer:
Since the mother cat has two lives let, the kittens must divide up the remaining twenty-three. That means there are two possible answers: seven kittens (one has five lives left and six has three lives) or five kittens (one with three lives and four with five lives). Thus, you can not tell with certainty how many kittens there are.
Today’s Problem:
In a reading room at the library there are several three-legged stools and four-legged chairs and they are all occupied. If you count thirty-nine legs in the room, is it possible to figure out how many stool, chairs and people there are?
Last Problem:
I went to the zoo yesterday and saw the camels and the emus. If all told I saw 35 heads and 94 feet, how many camels and emus did I see?
Answer:
There were 23 emus and 12 camels
Today’s Problem:
A mother cat has spent seven of her nine lives. Some of her kittens have spent six and some have spent only four. Together the mother and her kittens have a total of twenty-five lives left.
Can you tell with certainty how many kittens there are?
Last Problem:
There are purple, red and yellow flowers in a garden. Anytime you pick three flowers, at least one will be red and at least one will be purple. From this information, can you figure out how many flowers there are in the garden?
Answer:
There can’t be even two red flowers or else it will be possible to pick two reds and a yellow and not have any purple flowers out of three. Similar logic dictates that there can’t be more than one purple or one yellow flower. Therefore, there are only three flowers in the entire garden.
Today’s Problem:
I went to the zoo yesterday and saw the camels and the emus. If all told I saw 35 heads and 94 feet, how many camels and emus did I see?
Yesterday’s Problem:
There are exactly 40 flowers, red and purple, in a garden. And, no matter which two flowers you pick, at least one will be purple. How many red flowers are there in the garden?
Answer:
If there are even two red flowers, then it will possible to pick a pair without one flower being purple. This means there is only one red flower. The rest are purple.
Today’s Problem:
There are purple, red and yellow flowers in a garden. Anytime you pick three flowers, at least one will be red and at least one will be purple. From this information, can you figure out how many flowers there are in the garden?
Last Problem:
There are 14 wine glasses on a table. Seven are full. Seven are half full. Without changing the amount of wine in any glass, divide the glasses into three groups so that each group has the same total amount of wine.
Answer:
Group One: Three full wine glasses. One half full glass
Group Two: Two full wine glasses; Three half full glasses
Group Three: Two full wine glasses. Three half full glasses
Today’s Problem:
There are exactly 40 flowers, red and purple, in a garden. And, no matter which two flowers you pick, at least one will be purple. How many red flowers are there in the garden?