It’s true I bring serenity,
And hang around the stars
But yet I live in misery;
You’ll find me behind bars
With thieves and villains I consort
In prison I’ll be found
But I would never go to court,
Unless there’s more than one
Suppose you have twelve eggs and a balance scale. All of the eggs are identical except for one whose only difference is its weight. Using the scale only three times, determine which egg is the odd egg out and whether it is heavier or lighter than the other eggs.
Weigh four against four. If they’re equal, weigh three of them against three you haven’t weighed. If they balance too, weigh the last remaining egg against any of the others to see if it is lighter or heavier. If the three suspects are heavier, weigh one of them against another and the one that goes down is it. If they balance the remaining suspect is heavy. Use the same process if they’re lighter. If the initial four vs four don’t balance, weigh two heavy eggs and a light egg against one heavy egg, one light one and a known normal egg. If they balance weigh the remaining two light eggs against each other. If they balance the unweighed heavy egg is the odd one out. If the side with two heavy eggs goes down weigh them against each other. If they balance it is the light egg on the other side. If the other side goes down it is either because of one heavy egg on that side or because the one light egg on the other side is lighter than the rest. Weigh one of them against a known normal egg to determine which is true.
In 2014, Howard returned from his football game later than normal and Trudy, his Mom, was concerned. She asked what position he played, and he said he was a lineman. She asked what team they played and he said the Bears. She asked if anything strange had happened, and he said no. She asked what the score was and he said their team won, 14-1. Satisfied, Trudy sent Howard up to bed. The next morning Trudy told her husband Mick about her conversation with Howard. Mick’s face turned red and he stormed up to Howard’s room.
Mick knew Howard was lying about being at the football game because in American football it’s impossible to score just 1 point (before the 2015 one-point safety rule). A score of 2 is the lowest possible score (awarded for a safety). In fact, 1 is the only impossible score in football. You can score 2 points for a safety, 3 points for a field goal and 6 points for a touchdown, with an extra point for the field goal. You also have the option to go for another touchdown for a 2-point conversion. With 2, 3, 6 and 7 you can generate any other number except for 1.
For example, here are ways a team could score from 2 to 10 points.
2 = safety
3 = field goal
4 = 2 + 2
5 = 3 + 2
6 = touchdown
7 = touchdown and extra point attempt
8 = touchdown and two point conversion
9 = touchdown and field goal
10 = touchdown, extra point attempt and field goal
An Arab sheikh tells his two sons to race their camels to a distant city to see who will inherit his fortune. The one whose camel is slower will win. The brothers, after wandering aimlessly for days, ask a wise man for advise. After hearing the advice they jump on the camels and race as fast as they can to the city. What did the wise man say?
Each son owns a camel, let’s call them Camel A and Camel B. If Camel A is slower, son A gets the fortune. If Camel B is slower, son B gets the fortune. Neither of the sons want to enter the city first because they won’t get the fortune.
When they switch camels, son A is now riding his brother’s camel (camel B) and son B is riding his brother’s camel (camel A). Now, they each want the camel they’re riding to get to the city first. If son A wins the race on camel B, that means his camel, camel A, was slower and he wins the fortune. The same is true for the other way around if the second son wins the race on camel A.