Puzzles.

These are puzzles that were originally included in my newsletters, some were created by me, some were submitted by other GM users. The answers are at the bottom of the page.


Puzzle 16.

Very tricky maths problem.

This must be done in your head only. Do Not use paper and pencil or a calculator.

Take 1000 and add 40 to it. Now add another 1000. Now add 30.

Add another 1000. Now add 20. Now add another 1000. Now add 10.

What is the total?


Highlight the contents of the box, to see the answer.

My thanks to Ratae, on the CA forum, for this head scratcher.

Puzzle 15.

Count every 'F' in the following text:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI
FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...

How many F's are there?

Puzzle 14.

You have nine small bars of gold, eight of which weigh 100 grams, the ninth bar weighs 110 grams.
The bars have got mixed up and being identical in appearance it is impossible to tell which is the 110 gram bar.
Fortunately you have a set of balance scales. But the scales can only be used twice, so using the scales to weigh two combinations of bars, how can you find the heavier bar of gold?

Puzzle adapted by Rob.

Puzzle 13.

To save money at the supermarket you have purchased an eight litre bottle of tomato ketchup. You now want to split the ketchup between you and a friend, so both of you have four litres.

Unfortunately the only empty containers you have, are a five litre bottle and a three litre bottle, none of the bottles are graduated and you have no means of weighing the bottles, so how can you divide the ketchup, so that the eight litre and five litre bottles both contain four litres.

Puzzle adapted by Rob.

Puzzle 12.

Not really a puzzle, more a brain teaser, it is quite simple, just complete the sum:

MDCLXXVIII - CDXLVII + CCCLXIX = ???

Makes you glad you didn't go to school two thousand years ago, doesn't it.


Puzzle created by Rob.

Puzzle 11.

What is the next sequence of numbers.

1
11
21
1211
111221
312211
13112221
??????????

Puzzle 10.

This is a fairly easy puzzle, all I need to know is what goes in the bottom set of brackets.

616 (8884)12
483 (6963) 9
406 (5856) 8
224 (3235) 5
98 (1428) 4
42 (????) 1


Puzzle created by Rob.

Puzzle 9.

British intelligence has reported a possible alien threat to Earth, after a member of the public reported seeing a strange creature in the lion enclosure at Woburn Safari park.

Eye witness retired Colonel Alfred. P. Nut said,
" The creature appeared to be trying to communicate with the lions, he was showing them what appeared to be a TV guide, just before they ate him"

By the time the MI6 intelligence operatives arrived few clues were left, just one slightly chewed ear with a greenish tint and a pointed end and two square pieces of printed plastic with a strange machine.
After prolonged examination by scientists the purpose of the recovered artifacts remains elusive, but the intelligence community believes they could be a communication device holding vital information regarding the security of the Earth. So in desperation they have turned to you to solve the riddle of the squares and reveal any messages they contain.

Could each square contain a message, or perhaps the combined squares hold the key, is it a letter code, or perhaps hidden in the colour wavelength is the message, the experts don't know, it is up to you to solve the puzzle. Good Luck.


Puzzle created by Rob.

Puzzle 8.

While searching for cutting edge news items, one of the newsletters investigative journalists followed up a rumour that Microsofts new version of Windows would not be Vista, but instead would be a more compact, sleeker, secure and stable operating system.

Managing to infiltrate Microsofts headquarters he discovered the projects code name and escaped back to the newsletters offices, but just as he was about to deliver the information to me, a muffled shot rang out, the window shattered and he fell gasping to the floor.

Quickly I ran to aid my fallen comrade, (Well after twenty minutes actually, when I was sure the assasin had departed.) but he was fading fast and he feebly handed me a picture of a smiley and with his dying breath said, "Use image editor to........".

So now I'm left with a picture of a smiley and no clue as to what the message is contained within it. So as a top code breaker, this is your task, search the smiley for the hidden message, you may want use an image editor as my journalist suggested.

Puzzle created by Rob.

Puzzle 7.

You are on a game show on TV. You have a choice to open of one of three doors. One of the doors has a new car behind it, the other two have cabbages as prizes.
After you select a door, the host will open one of the other two doors revealing a cabbage. You then have the choice of sticking with your original choice or switching doors.

Assuming that it is more desirable to take home a car than a cabbage.

1. Should you stick with your original door ?
2. Should you choose the other door?
3. Does it make any difference which door you choose?


This puzzle was submitted to the newsletter by QS Computing.

Puzzle 6.

As the editor of a GM based newsletter I am always looking for inside information on the development of GM, so with this in mind I despatched the company secret agent, a certain Mr Bond, ( An interesting fact, did you know that Ian Fleming chose the name James Bond as his fictional hero, because it was the name of the author of his favorite bird watching book.) to infiltrate Marks secret GM headquarters and obtain whatever interesting information he can.

However after penetrating deeply into the GM headquarters, 007 has come to a large seemingly impenetrable titanium alloy door, unable to cut through the thick metal, our heroes only hope is to crack the entry code on the electronic lock display by the door.
Fortunately Mark has rather absentmindedly entered part of the code previously and then obviously been distracted and forgot to wipe it before wandering off.
Mr Bond has transmitted the relevant code information back to base in the hope that we may be able to help him.

The code on the display consists of four numbers of four digits each.

1597 --- 2584 --- XXXX --- XXXX

The only possible clue to the missing numbers is that Mark being a computer whizz, may have chosen something computer related to help him remember the numbers.

So can you figure out the rest of the code and help 007, or are you simply baffled.


Puzzle created by Rob.

Puzzle 5.

In the picture is a ship, the ship is in the harbour and hanging over the side of the ship is a ladder, the distance between the ladders rungs is 1 metre.
The question is, if the tide is coming in and the sea is rising by 0.5 metre every ten minutes, how long will it be before the sea reaches the top of the ladder?

Puzzle 4.

No answer is provided for this puzzle, you are on your own.

Puzzle created by Rob.

Puzzle 3.

This puzzle is a bit of a brain teaser, it will appeal to those of you that wish you were secret agents. All you have to do is crack the code to reveal the message.
The code is a simple sentence and once you find the key, can be solved easily, you have just got to find the key! Each letter is seperated by a comma and each word by a dash.
I rate the puzzle difficulty as medium.

12.56, 69.08, 47.10, 47.10, -- 72.22, 37.68, 40.82, 69.08, -- 6.28, 37.68, 18.84, -- 75.36, 47.10, 69.08, 15.70, 69.08, 28.26, -- 62.80, 43.96, -- 18.84, 25.12, 69.08, 28.26


Puzzle created by Rob.

Puzzle 2.

No answer is provided for this puzzle, you are on your own.

Puzzle 1.

The puzzle took me 7 mins 45 sec's to complete, so that gives you a time frame to aim for. Although whether that is slow or fast I don't know.

David Says:
Brian, Teresa, and myself composed this logical puzzle over lunch at the school cafeteria.

Each of us likes either Hot Dogs, Chili Cheese Fries, or Nachos, and Kiwi Strawberry, Apple, or Orange juice with our lunches. Using the following clues, as well as logic, determine who's favorite lunch is who's.

Whomever likes chili cheese fries hates apple juice.
Teresa does not like orange juice.
Brian doesn't like chili cheese fries.
Teresa and myself both like either nachos or orange juice, but not both.
Brian doesn't like the kiwi strawberry juice.


This puzzle was submitted by David Millar - aka - CapnChubby.

Answers to puzzles below.



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Answers to puzzles below.

Puzzle 15 answer.

There are six F's.

Read it again!
Try to find the six F's before you scroll down.

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI
FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...









The reasoning behind is further down.









The brain cannot process "OF"

Incredible or what? Go back and look again!

Anyone who counts all six F's on the first go is a genius.

Three is normal, four is quite rare.

I got three, just stupid I guess.

Puzzle 14 answer.

Place three bars of gold in both scale pans, if they balance, remove those bars. Take the remaining three bars and place one in each of the two scale pans, if the the two bars balance, the remaining un-weighed bar is heaviest, if the bars do not balance, the heavier bar is the heaviest.

If the initial weighing did not balance, take the three bars from the heavier pan and place one in each of the two scale pans, if the the two bars balance, the remaining un-weighed bar is heaviest, if the bars do not balance, the heavier bar is the heaviest.

Puzzle 13 answer.

Pour the ketchup from container to container, in the following order

Puzzle 12 answer.

The task was to complete the sum:

MDCLXXVIII - CDXLVII + CCCLXIX = ???

The sum is in Roman numerals, so the answer is: MDC.

1678 - 447 + 369 = 1600

I = 1, V = 5, X = 10, L = 50, C = 100, D =500, M = 1000.
Note: There is no zero in Roman numerals.

Roman numerals are interesting in that they have some similarities with binary numbers, to write a number you select the largest component first and work backwards.
So for the number 1678, the largest number that goes into it is 1000 (M), leaving 678, so the next number would be 500 (D), leaving 78 and so on.
Some symbols can be combined, so CCC would be 300, while CD would be 400, essentially 500 (D) minus (C) 100. 600 hundred would be written as DC.

For more information about Roman numerals visit:
http://www.novaroma.org/via_romana/numbers.html

Puzzle 11 answer.

The question was: What's the next sequence of numbers?

1
11
21
1211
111221
312211
13112221
??????????


Solution: 1113213211

After starting the sequence with 1, each term in the sequence consists of groups of two numbers based on the previous term, the first being the quantity and the second specifying which digit.

Example: the first term is 1, which has "one 1" in it, therefore 11.
11 has "two 1's" in it, therefore 21.
21 has "one 2 and one 1" in it and therefore 1211.

Puzzle 10 answer.

The solution is quite simple, to find the next number in the sequence, simply divide the left hand number by 7 and multiple the right hand number by seven, the two results go in the bracket. The answer is 67.


616 (8884)12
483 (6963) 9
406 (5856) 8
224 (3235) 5
98 (1428) 4
42 (67) 1

Puzzle 9 answer

To solve the puzzle you require both the letter square and the colour square, save the images from the web page.

Part of the clue to solving the puzzle was in the story, the aliens ear was faintly green. So if the colour square is laid over the letter square and green set to transparent, the message can be read.

If you have a good graphics editor this is simple to do, but you can also do it in Game Maker fairly easily. (You can't just do it in the GM image editor because transparency never seems to work in the editor, or perhaps that is just my copy)

This is how to do it with GM:

Create two sprites, one using the letter square image, the other with the colour square image.
Set the colour square sprite to transparent and using the image editor, use the colour picker to pick green from the image, then use the pencil to make the bottom left pixel green, then close the form.

Create two objects, one using the letter square sprite, the other using the colour square sprite.
Now create a room and place both sprites in it at the same position, with the colour square on the top, you will have to turn off the Delete Underlying function.

Now run the game to see the message revealed, as in the image below, of course being alien writing it reads right to left, bottom to top. (Every one knows that, right?)

The message reads:
No intelligent life found begin invasion tonight

Puzzle 8 answer.

As mentioned in the clue you need to use an image editor, such as the one in GM. If you open the smily in the sprite editor and using the tool that allows you to change all the pixels with the left colour, into the right colour, select red for your right colour and then pick the left colour from the narrow part of the smily background, the three pictures below show how a pattern emerges.

Now if you use the magnifying tool, you will see the pattern is made up of thirteen rows of ones and noughts, each row being made up of eight digits.
So if we assume each row is binary number, reading left to right we get:

00010111 = 23
00001000 = 08
00000101 = 05
00001110 = 14
00000000 = 00
00010000 = 16
00001001 = 09
00000111 = 07
00010011 = 19
00000000 = 00
00000110 = 06
00001100 = 12
00011001 = 25

Now assuming that each decimal number corresponds to a letter, with zero being a space, we get:

23=W, 08=H, 05=E, 14=N, 00=Space, 16=P, 09=I, 07=G, 19=S, 00=Space, 06=F, 12=L, 25=Y

Put it altogether and the name of Microsofts secret new compact, sleeker, secure and stable operating system is, "When pigs fly".

Puzzle 7 answer.

The correct answer is 2. You should choose the other door
The reason is actually quite simple, if you imagine three doors, one with a car behind and two with cabbages.

If you choose door number 1, the host opens door number 2, so you swap to door number 3 and lose.
If you choose door number 2, the host opens door number 3, so you swap to door number 1 and win.
If you choose door number 3, the host opens door number 2, so you swap to door number 1 and win.
So you see if you swap doors you will win two thirds of the time, but if you stick with your original choice you will only win one third of the time

Puzzle 6 answer.

1597, 2584, 4181, 6765.

The numbers are a Fibonacci series, a progression of numbers in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, etc.

Discovered by Leonardo Fibonacci in the 13th century; the system is now used in computers for sorting data.

The sequence is:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181, 6765.
So its simply a matter of calculating the sequence for the last four numbers:
1597, 2584, 4181, 6765.

Puzzle 5 answer.

The water will never reach the top of the ladder, because ships float.

Puzzle 3 answer.

The message is:
Well done you clever GM user

The key is each letter is numbered 1 to 26 running backwards through the alphabet,
ie: Z = 1, A = 26.
The number is then multiplied by PI accurate to two decimal places = 3.14

So to solve it logically, I had already said that the puzzle was a simple code concerning just letters, you already had the spaces, so the letters will probably run from 1 to 26 or 26 to 1 numerically, so if you take the first four numbers which are 12.56, 69.08, 47.10 and 47.10 and systematically divide them by each number of the alphabet, you will notice a pattern.
In this case you will probably spot PI, giving the game away immediately. So divide the four numbers by PI and you get 4, 22, 15, 15, which gives you DVOO, which is obviously wrong, so reverse the alphabet and you get Well, after which you can easily solve the rest of the puzzle.

Puzzle 1 answer.

Brian's lunch is hot dogs and apple juice.
Teresa's lunch is nachos and kiwi strawberry juice.
My lunch is chili cheese fries and orange juice.

Rob Goldfish Web Site

Copyright 2005 Rob Goldfish.