Math riddles

cleanlogicmath

A 400 yard long train, travelling at 30 mph, enters a 4.5 mile long tunnel. How long will elapse between the moment the front of the train enters the tunnel and the moment the end of the train clears the tunnel?
9 minutes and 27.2727 seconds.
72.54 %
52 votes
logicmathcleanclever

2+3=8, 3+7=27, 4+5=32, 5+8=60, 6+7=72, 7+8=? Solve it?
98 2+3=2*[3+(2-1)]=8 3+7=3*[7+(3-1)]=27 4+5=4*[5+(4-1)]=32 5+8=5*[8+(5-1)]=60 6+7=6*[7+(6-1)]=72 therefore 7+8=7*[8+(7-1)]=98 x+y=x[y+(x-1)]=x^2+xy-x
72.54 %
52 votes
logicmath

There are 5 pirates in a ship. Pirates have hierarchy C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5. C1 designation is the highest and C5 is the lowest. These pirates have three characteristics: a. Every pirate is so greedy that he can even take lives to make more money. b. Every pirate desperately wants to stay alive. c. They are all very intelligent. There are total 100 gold coins on the ship. The person with the highest designation on the deck is expected to make the distribution. If the majority on the deck does not agree to the distribution proposed, the highest designation pirate will be thrown out of the ship (or simply killed). The first priority of the pirates is to stay alive and second to maximize the gold they get. Pirate 5 devises a plan which he knows will be accepted for sure and will maximize his gold. What is his plan?
To understand the answer,we need to reduce this problem to only 2 pirates. So what happens if there are only 2 pirates. Pirate 2 can easily propose that he gets all the 100 gold coins. Since he constitutes 50% of the pirates, the proposal has to be accepted leaving Pirate 1 with nothing. Now let's look at 3 pirates situation, Pirate 3 knows that if his proposal does not get accepted, then pirate 2 will get all the gold and pirate 1 will get nothing. So he decides to bribe pirate 1 with one gold coin. Pirate 1 knows that one gold coin is better than nothing so he has to back pirate 3. Pirate 3 proposes {pirate 1, pirate 2, pirate 3} {1, 0, 99}. Since pirate 1 and 3 will vote for it, it will be accepted. If there are 4 pirates, pirate 4 needs to get one more pirate to vote for his proposal. Pirate 4 realizes that if he dies, pirate 2 will get nothing (according to the proposal with 3 pirates) so he can easily bribe pirate 2 with one gold coin to get his vote. So the distribution will be {0, 1, 0, 99}. Smart right? Now can you figure out the distribution with 5 pirates? Let's see. Pirate 5 needs 2 votes and he knows that if he dies, pirate 1 and 3 will get nothing. He can easily bribe pirates 1 and 3 with one gold coin each to get their vote. In the end, he proposes {1, 0, 1, 0, 98}. This proposal will get accepted and provide the maximum amount of gold to pirate 5.
72.48 %
78 votes
logicmath

A women walks into a bank to cash out her check. By mistake the bank teller gives her dollar amount in change, and her cent amount in dollars. On the way home she spends 5 cents, and then suddenly she notices that she has twice the amount of her check. How much was her check amount?
The check was for dollars 31.63. The bank teller gave her dollars 63.31 She spent .05, and then she had dollars 63.26, which is twice the check. Let x be the dolars of the check, and y be the cent. The check was for 100x + y cent He was given 100y + x cent Also 100y + x - 5 = 2(100x + y) Expanding this out and rearranging, we find: 98y = 199x + 5 Which doesn't look like enough information to solve the problem except that x and y must be whole numbers, so: 199x ≡ -5 (mod 98) 98*2*x + 3x ≡ -5 (mod 98) 3x ≡ -5 ≡ 93 (mod 98) This quickly leads to x = 31 and then y = 63 Alternative solution by substitution: 98y = 199x + 5 y = (199x + 5)/98 = 2x + (3x + 5)/98 Since x and y are whole numbers, so must be (3x + 5)/98. Call it z = (3x+5)/98 so 98z = 3x + 5, or 3x = 98z - 5 or x = (98z - 5)/3 or x = 32z-1 + (2z-2)/3. Since everything is a whole number, so must be (2z-2)/3. Call it w = (2z-2)/3, so 3w = 2z-2 so z = (3w+2)/2 or z = w + 1 + w/2. So w/2 must be whole, or w must be even. So try w = 2. Then z = 4. Then x = 129. Then y = 262. if you decrease y by 199 and x by 98, the answer is the same: y = 63 and x = 31.
72.45 %
65 votes
cleanlogicsimplemath

I have 6 eggs, I broke 2 eggs, fried 2 eggs, and ate 2 eggs. How many eggs do I have left?
4 eggs are left. The two broken eggs were then fried and later eaten.
72.39 %
136 votes
logicmathcleanclever

What is the value of 1/2 of 2/3 of 3/4 of 4/5 of 5/6 of 6/7 of 7/8 of 8/9 of 9/10 of 1000?
100. Looks hard? Don't worry, just work it backwards and you'll find it very easy.
72.34 %
56 votes
logicmath

If, Fernando + Alonso + McLaren = 6 Fernando x Alonso = 2 Alonso x McLaren = 6 Then, McLaren x Fernando = ?
3 or 0.75 Explanation: Rewriting the last 2 equations in terms of Alonso, Fernando = 2/Alonso McLaren = 6/Alonso Replacing above values in equation "Fernando + Alonso + McLaren = 6" 2/Alonso + Alonso + 6/Alonso =6 (2 + Alonso^2 + 6)/Alonso = 6 8 + Alonso^2 = 6Alonso Alonso^2 - 6Alonso + 8 = 0 (Alonso - 4) (Alonso - 2) = 0 Therefore; Alonso = 4 or 2 Let's take value of Alonso as 2 Fernando = 2/2 = 1 McLaren = 6/2 = 3 Therefore; McLaren x Fernando = 3 x 1 = 3 Let's take value of Alonso as 4 Fernando = 2/4 = 0.5 McLaren = 6/4 = 1.5 Therefore; McLaren x Fernando = 1.5 x 0.5 = 0.75
72.33 %
69 votes
interviewlogicmath

A bad king has a cellar of 1000 bottles of delightful and very expensive wine. A neighboring queen plots to kill the bad king and sends a servant to poison the wine. Fortunately (or say unfortunately) the bad king's guards catch the servant after he has only poisoned one bottle. Alas, the guards don't know which bottle but know that the poison is so strong that even if diluted 100,000 times it would still kill the king. Furthermore, it takes one month to have an effect. The bad king decides he will get some of the prisoners in his vast dungeons to drink the wine. Being a clever bad king he knows he needs to murder no more than 10 prisoners – believing he can fob off such a low death rate – and will still be able to drink the rest of the wine (999 bottles) at his anniversary party in 5 weeks time. Explain what is in mind of the king, how will he be able to do so?
Think in terms of binary numbers. (now don’t read the solution, give a try). Number the bottles 1 to 1000 and write the number in binary format. bottle 1 = 0000000001 (10 digit binary) bottle 2 = 0000000010 bottle 500 = 0111110100 bottle 1000 = 1111101000 Now take 10 prisoners and number them 1 to 10, now let prisoner 1 take a sip from every bottle that has a 1 in its least significant bit. Let prisoner 10 take a sip from every bottle with a 1 in its most significant bit. etc. prisoner = 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 bottle 924 = 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 For instance, bottle no. 924 would be sipped by 10,9,8,5,4 and 3. That way if bottle no. 924 was the poisoned one, only those prisoners would die. After four weeks, line the prisoners up in their bit order and read each living prisoner as a 0 bit and each dead prisoner as a 1 bit. The number that you get is the bottle of wine that was poisoned. 1000 is less than 1024 (2^10). If there were 1024 or more bottles of wine it would take more than 10 prisoners.
72.29 %
115 votes
logicmathsimple

Every day, Jack arrives at the train station from work at 5 pm. His wife leaves home in her car to meet him there at exactly 5 pm, and drives him home. One day, Jack gets to the station an hour early, and starts walking home, until his wife meets him on the road. They get home 30 minutes earlier than usual. How long was he walking? Distances are unspecified. Speeds are unspecified, but constant. Give a number which represents the answer in minutes.
The best way to think about this problem is to consider it from the perspective of the wife. Her round trip was decreased by 30 minutes, which means each leg of her trip was decreased by 15 minutes. Jack must have been walking for 45 minutes.
72.22 %
73 votes
cleanlogicmath

Mick and John were in a 100 meter race. When Mick crossed the finish line, John was only at the 90 meter mark. Mick suggested they run another race. This time, Mick would start ten meters behind the starting line. All other things being equal, will John win, lose, or will it be a tie in the second race?
John will lose again. In the second race, Mick started ten meters back. By the time John reaches the 90 meter mark, Mick will have caught up him. Therefore, the final ten meters will belong to the faster of the two. Since Mick is faster than John, he will win the final 10 meters and of course the race.
72.22 %
73 votes