Gears 1 - Solution

The Puzzle: There are five gears connected in a row, the first one is connected to the second one, the second one is connected to the third one, and so on. If the first gear is rotating clockwise what direction is the fifth gear turning?

The Solution . . .

Clockwise.

Four-sided Dice Puzzle - Solution

The Puzzle:

I have three special four-sided dice.

They have one letter on each side.

When I roll them together I get three random letters which I try to rearrange into a word. In my eight goes so far I have made the words:

CAT, SON, POD, RIG, PEG, TAP, DIN, APE

What are the letters on each dice?

Our Solution:

The letters on the three dice are:

CNPR AGDS EIOT

Four People Travel Puzzle - Solution

The Puzzle:

Four people are traveling to different places on different types of transport.

Their names are: Rachel, John, Mr. Jones and Cindy.

They either went on train, car, plane or ship.

* Mr. Jones hates flying
* Cindy has to rent her vehicle
* John gets seasick

Our Solution:

There are 3 possibilities:

Cindy: car
Mr. Jones: train
John: plane
Rachel: ship

Cindy: car
Mr. Jones: ship
John: plane
Rachel: train

Cindy: car
Mr. Jones: ship
John: train
Rachel: plane

Four Adventurers and a Small Canoe - Solution

The Puzzle: Four adventurers (Alex, Brook, Chris and Dusty) need to cross a river in a small canoe. The canoe can only carry 100kg. Alex weighs 90kg, Brook weighs 80kg, Chris weighs 60kg and Dusty weighs 40 kg, and they have 20kg of supplies. How do they get across? The Solution . . . Chris and Dusty row across, Dusty returns. Alex rows over, and Chris returns. Chris and Dusty row across again, Dusty returns. Brook rows across with the Supplies, and Chris returns. Chris and Dusty row across again for the last time.

Farmer Crosses River - Solution

The Puzzle: A farmer wants to cross a river and take with him a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. There is a boat that can fit himself plus either the wolf, the goat, or the cabbage. If the wolf and the goat are alone on one shore, the wolf will eat the goat. If the goat and the cabbage are alone on the shore, the goat will eat the cabbage. How can the farmer bring the wolf, the goat, and the cabbage across the river? The Solution . . . Farmer takes Goat across (leaving Wolf and Cabbage behind) Farmer returns alone Farmer takes Wolf across Famer returns with Goat * We now have the Farmer, the Cabbage and the Goat on one side and the Wolf on the other side Farmer takes Cabbage across Farmer returns alone Farmer takes Goat across DONE!

Explain: Hospital - Solution

The Puzzle: A Man carries his son into the hospital because his son has a nail in his foot. The Surgeon then walks in and says "I cannot operate on this boy … he is my son".

What is going on here?

The Solution . . .

The Surgeon is the boy's Mother.

Explain: Glass of Water - Solution

The Puzzle: A man walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a glass of water. 

But the bartender takes out a gun and aims it at the man's head. 

The man says "Thank You" and walks out. 

Why?

The Solution . . .

The man had hiccups. He wanted to cure it with a glass of water, but the bartender cured it by giving him a surprise.

Explain: Elevator - Solution

The Puzzle: A Man works on the 10th floor and always takes the elevator down to ground level at the end of the day.

Yet every morning he only takes the elevator to the 7th floor and walks up the stairs to the 10th floor, even when is in a hurry.

Why?

The Solution . . .

He is too short to reach the "10" button.

Explain: Dead in The Field - Solution

The Puzzle: In the middle of an otherwise empty field there lies a man wearing a pack. He is dead. There are no other clues visible. How did he die? The Solution . . . His parachute failed to open.

Deadly Choice Puzzle - Solution

The Puzzle:

A man is caught on the King's property. He is brought before the King to be punished.

The King says, "You must give me a statement. If it is true, you will killed by lions. If it is false, you will be killed by trampling of wild buffalo."

But in the end, the King has to let the man go.

What was the man's statement?

Our Solution:

"I will be killed by trampling of wild buffalo."

If you think about it carefully: the King can't say it is true, because if so the man should be killed by the lions. But if he is killed by the lions, then his statement would be false, and so should have been trampled by buffalo.

So the King can't tell if it is a lie or truth, so decides to just let him go.

Cutting Across A Cross Puzzle - Solution

The Puzzle:

Here is an ordinary cross. You are allowed to make two straight cuts across it.

                      

How do you cut it to make the most pieces?

Our Solution:

This is one way of making six pieces with two cuts. I couldn't do any better!

         

Cut Cube Puzzle - Solution

The Puzzle:

A solid, four-inch cube of wood is coated with blue paint on all six sides.

Then the cube is cut into smaller one-inch cubes.

These new one-inch cubes will have either three blue sides, two blue sides, one blue side, or no blue sides. How many of each will there be?

Our Solution:

There are 8 with three sides colored, 24 with two sides colored, 24 with one side colored, and 8 with no sides colored.

Here I have done one face, and also shown you that "inside" there are 8 with no paint at all:

               

Cards in a Square Puzzle - Solution

The Puzzle:

Take from a pack of cards all the Aces, Kings, Queens and Jacks.

Arrange them in a 4 × 4 square so that every row, column and diagonal contains one card of each value (A,J,Q,K) and one card of each suit (Heart, Spade, Diamond, Club).

Our Solution:

Here is one solution of many:

                 

Crates of Fruit - Solution

The Puzzle: You are on an island and there are three crates of fruit that have washed up in front of you. One crate contains only apples. One crate contains only oranges. The other crate contains both apples and oranges. Each crate is labeled. One reads "apples", one reads "oranges", and one reads "apples and oranges". You know that NONE of the crates have been labeled correctly - they are all wrong. If you can only take out and look at just one of the pieces of fruit from just one of the crates, how can you label ALL of the crates correctly? The Solution . . . Take a piece of fruit from the "apples and oranges" crate. If it's an apple then you know that is the "apples" crate since ALL THE CRATES ARE LABELED INCORRECTLY. This means the crate marked "apples" must be "oranges" and the crate marked "oranges" must be "apples and oranges".

Breaking Up a Chocolate Bar - Solution

The Puzzle: How many steps are required to break an m x n bar of chocolate into 1 x 1 pieces? You can break an existing piece of chocolate horizontally or vertically. You cannot break two or more pieces at once (so no cutting through stacks). The Solution . . . You need mn – 1 steps. By breaking an existing piece horizontally or vertically, you merely increase the total number of pieces by one. You already have 1 piece, so need mn – 1 steps to get to mn pieces.

Burning Island - Solution

The Puzzle: A man is stranded on an island covered in forest. One day, when the wind is blowing from the west, lightning strikes the west end of the island and sets fire to the forest. The fire is very violent, burning everything in its path, and without intervention the fire will burn the whole island, killing the man in the process. There are cliffs around the island, so he cannot jump off. How can the man survive the fire? (There are no buckets or any other means to put out the fire) The Solution . . . The man picks up a piece of wood and lights it from the fire on the west end of the island. He then quickly carries it near the east end of he island and starts a new fire. The wind will cause that fire to burn out the eastern end and he can then shelter in the burnt area. The man survives the fire, but dies of starvation, with all the food in the forest burnt.