Puzzles

1
Puzzles

• General Mayhem
• Three Cannibals / Three Peace Corps Volunteer
• Pick a Door
• Unusual Paragraph
• Close Quarters

• Tie a Knot
• The Forgetful Builder
• Lotsa Coins!
• Light a Room
• Common Ground
• Golf Balls

2
General Mayhem

• General Mahem, accused of high treason, is
  sentenced to death by the court-martial. He is
  allowed to make a final statement, after which he
  will be shot if the statement is false or will be
  hung if the statement is true. The general makes
  his final statement and is released. The
  Question What could he have said?

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3
Three Cannibals / Three Pace Corps Volunteer

• Three Peace Corps volunteers are traveling
  with three cannibals. All is fine and cordial
  until they come to a river which must be crossed.
  A canoe which holds maximum of three people sits
  on the shore. How can they all cross the river
  SAFELY? If at any time in the canoe, or on
  either side of the river, the cannibals outnumber
  the volunteers, they will have them for lunch!

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4

• Behind one door is a treasure of untold
  magnitude. Behind the other door lies instant
  death. One door keeper always lies. One door
  keeper always tells the truth. Which is which?
  Who is who? You may ask one question of one door
  keeper and then choose a door.
• What do you do?

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5
Unusual Paragraph

• How quickly can you find out what is unusual
  about this paragraph? It looks so ordinary that
  you would think that nothing was wrong with it at
  all and, in fact, nothing is. But it is unusual.
  Why? If you study it and think about it you may
  find out, but I am not going to assist you in any
  way. You must do it without coaching. No doubt,
  if you work at it for long, it will dawn on you.
  Who knows? Go to work and try your skill. Par is
  about half an hour.

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6
Close Quarters

• Take two ordinary U.S. quarters and touch them
  together. Now take a third quarter and position
  it in a fashion so that it touches the other two.
  How many quarters can you add so that each
  quarter touches every other quarter?

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7
Tie a Knot
Pick up one end of the rope between your right
thumb and forefinger. Pick up the other end of
the rope between your left thumb and forefinger.
Without letting go of either end, tie the rope
into a knot.
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8
The Forgetful Builder

• You've just purchased your first new home. When
  you arrive to begin moving in, you discover that
  the builder forgot something. Being a
  self-reliant sort of person, you decide to finish
  the job yourself. You stroll down to the local
  hardware store and find exactly what you need at
  a price you can afford. The hardware store
  charges perfectly reasonable prices for the
  items 7 will cost 1.00, 10 will cost 2.00, and
  100 will cost 3.00. As it happens, you need 880,
  which also costs 3.00. These items could likely
  be found at any hardware store, and at your
  average home. What did you buy?

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9
Lotsa Coins!

• Laid out neatly in front of you as far as you
  can see are coins, coins and more coins. They can
  all be yours! . If you can perform a simple
  task.
•   The rules are easy. 20 of the coins are heads
  up, the rest are tails. All you have to do is
  split all the coins into just two groups so that
  the number of heads is the same in both groups.
•   You can turn over as many coins as you like,
  and the groups do not have to have the same
  number of coins in them.
•   You have one day to complete this task. You
  must be blindfolded, completely sightless from
  start to finish.
•   You cannot see. You cannot feel the
  difference between head nor tail. How can you
  accomplish this task with certainty in a single
  day?

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10
Light a Room

• The lights in three rooms in the upstairs of a
  house are controlled by three separate switches
  located in a downstairs room. Without going
  upstairs, no changes in the lighting of upstairs
  rooms are visible. What is the fewest number of
  trips upstairs one can make to determine which
  switch controls the light in each room?

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11
Common Ground

• What do these three have in common?SupermanMose
  sThe Cabbage Patch Kids

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12
Golf Balls

• You have 12 golf balls. One of these balls is of
  a different weight than the other eleven. You may
  use a balance scale three times. Find the odd
  ball and determine if it is heavier or lighter
  than the others.

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