From a basket of mangoes when counted in twos there was one extra, counted in threes there were two extra, counted in fours there were three extra, counted in fives there were four extra, counted in sixes there were five extra, but counted in sevens there were no extras.
At least how many mangoes were there in the basket?
119. The number has to be evenly divisible by seven for there to be no extras when counting in sevens, and it has to be odd in order for there to be one extra when counting by twos. It also can’t be evenly divisible by three through six. 119 is the first odd multiple of 7 that satisfies the requirements.
Twenty one points divide and dance, Twirling and leaping about, Ladies, Romans and knights of France, Craving a victor’s rout, Wrought of wood, ivory or bone, An exciting yet vicious pursuit, Ancient, forbidden and crooked, All in search of the loot.
A die. The standard die has 21 pips (or points), divided up on the six sides of the die which dance around when rolled. Ladies, knights and Romans all played dice as a pastime (though not together). Dice can be made of wood, ivory and bone, among other materials. Dice have been used in Asia since before recorded history and many governments tried unsuccessfully to outlaw the game. Professional gamblers were common and often used loaded dice. Desperate German chaps even bet their own liberty on a single roll of the dice.
A clock. It runs all the time, it “sings” for hourly chimes, cuckoos or alarms, it doesn’t have a head (but does have hands) and you look a clock in the face to tell the time.
Pair these words to make nine titles of books by Charles Dickens:
A LITTLE 1 RUDGE
B PICKWICK 2 COPPERFIELD
C EDWIN 3 TIMES
D BARNABY 4 CHUZZLEWIT
E NICHOLAS 5 PAPERS
F HARD 6 HOUSE
G BLEAK 7 DROOD
H DAVID 8 DORRIT
I MARTIN 9 NICKLEBY
A 8 = LITTLE DORRIT B 5 = PICKWICK PAPERS C 7 = EDWIN DROOD D 1 = BARNABY RUDGE E 9 = NICHOLAS NICKLEBY F 3 = HARD TIMES G 6 = BLEAK HOUSE H 2 = DAVID COPPERFIELD I 4 = MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT
24. If you said 12 for January 2nd, February 2nd, etc that’s close, but you forgot about January 22nd, February 22nd and so on. If you are a math whiz and didn’t need a calculator to perform 60 x 60 x 24 x 365, then 31,536,000 works too. If you used 365.25 to account for leap year, then you are a human calculator, but even that’s not entirely accurate due to the leap second. And even accounting for that, it’s only an approximation that there are 365.2422 days in a year.