Pushing Car Past Hotel Lands You in Jail

A man pushes his car by a hotel and gets sent to jail. Why?

The man is playing monopoly, and landed on the Go To Jail space. An alternative version of this is, “A man stops his car in front of a hotel and immediately knows he is bankrupt.” The answer is the same, that he’s playing Monopoly, but this time he landed on a space with a hotel and didn’t have enough money to pay the bill.

Posted in Brain Teasers

What Digit Does Each Letter Represent?

This is what you know:

1. Each letter represents a different digit from 1 to 9
2. The total of each row is 17.
3. (B × B) + B + F = A
4. C × F = EF (a 2-digit number, not their product)

A B C
D E F

What digit does each letter represent?

A = 7
B = 1
C = 9

D = 8
E = 4
F = 5

A + B + C = 17
D + E + F = 17
B2 + B + F = A
C × F = EF

To begin with, B has to be a 1 or 2 or else A wouldn’t be a single digit. Plug in B = 2, gives you 6 + F = A, meaning F and A can only be (1,7) or (3,9). To get 17, C would have to be 8 or 6, but those values don’t work for C × F = EF. So B must be 1.

2 + F = A means F and A can be (2,4), (3,5), (4,6), (5,7), (6,8) or (7,9). To get 17 on the top row, the only option that leaves C as a single digit is F = 5 and A = 7.

C × F = EF
9 × 5 = 45, so E = 4 and D = 8 to make the second row equal to 17.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Samuel the Secretive Scotsman

Fill in the blanks with four, four-letter words that all share the same first three letters.

Samuel the secretive Scotsman was dressed to ____ in his twill woven ____. Little did they know he had a ____ of marijuana stashed away as he innocently warmed his hands by the Scotch ____.

kill
kilt
kilo
kiln

Samuel the secretive Scotsman was dressed to kill in his twill woven kilt. Little did they know he had a kilo of marijuana stashed away as he innocently warmed his hands by the Scotch kiln.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Messy Math

What is the answer to this problem?

48 / 2(9 + 3) = ?

It depends. Usually, math has one right answer, but in this case, the order of operations can get a little quirky.

There are two ways to solve this. First, like so:
48 / 2 × (9 + 3) = ?
48 / 2 × (12) = ?
24 × 12 = 288

But another, arguably valid way is:
48 / 2 × (9 + 3) = ?
48 / 2 × (12) = ?
48 / 24 = 2

Thanks to KnowYourMeme for providing a great overview on this one. Math StackExchange has more discussion.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Seemingly Simple Math Problem

What is the answer to this problem?

1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1
1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1
1 + 1 × 0 + 1 = ?

30.

There are two tricks to this one. The first is 1 × 0. But it’s mostly there as a distraction. Yes, 1 × 0 is 0, but that doesn’t affect anything else in the equation. The second, far trickier element is that the lines ending with 1 don’t have a + sign next to them. That means they should be combined with the following line.

Let’s put the equation all on one line, shall we?

1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 11 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 11 + 1 × 0 + 1 = ?

And the answer to that equation is 30.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Same Three Digits with Sum of 800

When Florence and Willie finished playing darts, they proudly announced that their 3-digit scores added up to exactly 800 points. Furthermore, each of their scores shared the same 3 digits, without any repeating digits.

What were their two scores?

364 and 436.

You could figure this out mathematically, but instead, I plugged in digits that added up to 10 for the first column, 9 for the second column (since you carry the 1) and 7 for the third column (again, because you’re carrying the 1).

Posted in Brain Teasers

From Diner to Menus

How can you go from DINER to MENUS, changing one letter at a time and forming another English word in each step?

DINER
MINER
MINES
MINUS
MENUS

Another option is:
DINER
DINES
MINES
MINUS
MENUS

Posted in Brain Teasers

What is the Five Digit Number?

What 5-digit number satisfies the following requirements?

1. No zeroes
2. First two digits are the same
3. Fourth digit is twice the first
4. Last digit is twice the third
5. Sum of all digits is 18

33264.

There are several ways of solving this. One way is to represent each spot with a letter, A – E.

Then you have these equations:

A = B
D = 2 * A
E = 2 * C
A + B + C + D + E = 18

By simplifying, you get:

4 * A + 3 * C = 18

Plug in values for A and C to find that A = 3 C = 2.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Fill in the Blank and Discover the Event

Fill in the missing words to make a phrase with both the left and right hand sides. For instance, if you were given GRAPE __________ FLY, the missing word could be FRUIT, making GRAPEFRUIT and FRUIT FLY.

1. TOP __________ AGENT
2. PROXY __________ OF NO CONFIDENCE
3. SECOND-HAND __________ DETECTOR
4. THE SACK OF __________ APPLE
5. ST. LOUIS __________ SIN

Once you have the words, what event does it represent?

1. SECRET
2. VOTE
3. SMOKE
4. ROME
5. CARDINAL

The event is a Papal conclave, when a new Pope is chosen.

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Girls Like, Boys Use

What 8-letter word describes something girls like, boys use and parents are afraid of yet remember fondly?

Hint: It has these letters: macroitn

Romantic. Many girls like being romantic, boys become romantic to win the hearts of girls and parents are afraid of too much romantic activity with their kids, but remember their own romantic endeavors fondly.

Posted in Brain Teasers