Thursday, April 17, 2008

MIND-BLOWING PUZZLES
RIDDLES
1) Ram decided to offer five coconuts to lord Venkateshwara. To reach the lords idol he had to pass through ten gates. At each gate he had to offer one coconut for each bag he carries. Each bag can hold only ten coconuts. How many coconuts should he carry from the main gate?

2)
Tenali is an old man. His family in all consists of, 1Grandfather, 1Grandmother,2Fathers,2Mothers,4Children,3Grandchildren,1Brother,2Sisters,2Sons,2Daughters,1Father-in-law,1Mother-in-law and 1Daughter-in-law.So there are 23 members in this family. Am I correct?

3) Can you tender a rupee note in such a way that there shall be about fifty coins but none of the 2paise coins?

4) Imagine that you need to put a coin into an empty bottle and then insert a cork into the neck. Is there a way to remove the coin without taking out the cork or breaking the bottle?

5) Isaac and Albert were excitedly describing the result of the Third Annual International Science Fair Extravaganza in Sweden. There were three contestants, Louis, Rene, and Johannes. Isaac reported that Louis won the fair, while Rene came in second. Albert, on the other hand, reported that Johannes won the fair, while Louis came in second. In fact, neither Isaac nor Albert had given a correct report of the results of the science fair. Each of them had given one correct statement and one false statement. What was the actual placing of the three contestants?

6) A mountain goat attempts to scale a cliff sixty feet high. Every minute, the goat bounds upward three feet but slips back two. How long does it take for the goat to reach the top?

7) A man is looking at a photograph of someone. His friend asks who it is. The man replies, "Brothers and sisters, I have none. But that man's father is my father's son." Who was in the photograph?

8) In a rectangular array of people, who will be taller: the tallest of the shortest people in each column, or the shortest of the tallest people in each row?

9) You have two cups, one containing orange juice and one containing and equal amount of lemonade. One teaspoon of the orange juice is taken and mixed with the lemonade. Then a teaspoon of this mixture is mixed back into the orange juice. Is there more lemonade in the orange juice or more orange juice in the lemonade?

10) How can you build pig pens so you can put nine pigs in four pens such that each pen has an odd number of pigs?

11) An explorer was trekking through a remote jungle when he was captured by logic-loving cannibals. He was brought before the chief and told, "You may now speak your last words. If your statement is true, then we will burn you at the stake. If your statement is false, we will boil you in oil." The man thought for a moment, then made his statement. Perplexed, the clever cannibals realized they could do nothing but let him go. What did the explorer tell them?


SOLUTIONS
1. Ram has to carry 2 bags with ten coconuts in each bag. At first he offers 5*2=10coconuts from one bag only and thus exhausts one bag .Now he has only one bag with 10 coconuts and five gates to pass. He offers 5*1=5coconuts at these gates and reaches the lord with five coconuts.

2. No, its wrong. There are only seven in the family. There were two girls, their brother, parents and their fathers parents.

3. 45 onepaise.
2fivepaise.
2tenpaise

4. Push the cork into the bottle and put the bottle upside down to let the coin out.

5. Johannes won; Rene came in second; Louis came in third.

6. Fifty eight minutes. Although his net progress each minute is one foot, he reaches the top on the fifty-eighth minute just before he would normally slip back two feet.

7. His son

8. This is a tongue twister of an explanation, but bear with me. The shortest of the tallest people in each row will be taller than, or the same height as, the tallest of the shortest people in each column. There are four cases. The first is that the shortest of the tallest and the tallest of the shortest are the same person, so obviously in this case the shortest of the tallest and the tallest of the shortest would be the same height.

The second case is that the shortest of the tallest and the tallest of the shortest are in the same row. The shortest of the tallest people in each row is obviously the tallest person in his row, so he's taller than the tallest of the shortest, who is also in his row.

The third case is that the shortest of the tallest and the tallest of the shortest are in the same column. The tallest of the shortest people in each column is obviously the shortest person in his row, so he's shorter than the shortest of the tallest, who is also in his column.

The fourth case is that the shortest of the tallest is neither in the same column nor the same row as the tallest of the shortest. For this case, consider the person X who is standing in the intersection of the row containing the shortest of the tallest and the column containing the tallest of the shortest. X must be taller than the tallest of the shortest, since the tallest of the shortest is the shortest in his column, and X must also be shorter than the shortest of the tallest, since the shortest of the tallest is the tallest in his row. So TofS <>

9. There's the same amount of lemonade in the orange juice as orange juice in the lemonade. Each cup ends with the same volume of liquid that it started with, and there's still an equal amount of each juice between the two cups.

10. Build three pens and put three pigs in each. Then build a fourth pen around the other three.

11. "You will boil me in oil."