I’m a five-letter word that has no end, Commit a sin? One through three can amend, One, four and five are something alive, Two and three occur near to thee.
Abyss. aby is an archaic word meaning to pay the penalty for. An ass, otherwise known as a donkey, is alive and “by” is another way of saying near to you.
Ted was lost while driving around the country and saw a house. He parked under a nearby tree and started toward the house. As soon as he got out of his car a huge dog lunged at him from the opposite side of the tree. Fortunately the dog was chained and Ted managed to stay out of reach. Finding no one home at the house, Ted returned to his car, but as he approached the dog lunged at him again. The chain was so long the snarling animal could reach both car doors. How did Ted escape the dog and get back into his car?
Ted moved slowly around the tree keeping just out of the dog’s reach. The animal followed, winding its chain around the tree until it was too short to reach Ted’s car
In addition to the two hands on the end of their arms, they also have three hands of cards. Another alternative could be handwriting, of which most people have one, but that could be added into the mix.
Each letter represents a different digit. Any digit can be used, but zero can never start a word. Given W = 2 and R = 6, what do the rest of the letters represent?
You want to go on an adventure to the remote city of Chenarz, but it’s 120 miles off the Pacific coast. To conserve money, take the smallest number of people as possible. Each person can carry enough food for five days but you can only travel 30 miles a day. You want to reach Chenarz, stay overnight, and return the next day. How many people, including yourself, must you take to reach the city?
You will need three other members in your party to accomplish your mission for a total of four people.
Four people × 5 day’s rations = 20 day’s rations.
Day 1: 5 rations – Four day’s rations are used. One person goes back using one day’s ration for the return trip. Day 2: 5 rations – Remaining three members use three day’s rations. One goes back using two day’s rations for the return trip. Day 3: 5 rations – Remaining two use two day’s rations. One goes back using three day’s rations for the return trip. Day 4: 1 ration – You use one day’s rations. You reach the city and stay the night. Day 5: 4 rations – You return to the coast using up four day’s rations.
A princess is as old as the prince will be when the princess is twice the age that the prince was when the princess’s age was half the sum of their present ages.
This one took a while to figure out and there are numerous valid ways of finding the answer.
Here is the solution I came up with
I created the following table from the riddle:
Current
Future
Past
Princess
x
2z
(x+y)/2
Prince
y
x
z
I then created three equations, since the difference in their age will always be the same. d = the difference in ages x – y = d 2z – x = d x/2 + y/2 – z = d
I then created a matrix and solved it using row reduction.
x
y
z
1
-1
0
d
-1
0
2
d
.5
.5
-1
d
It reduced to:
x
y
z
1
0
0
4d
0
1
0
3d
0
0
1
5d/2
This means that you can pick any difference you want (an even one presumably because you want integer ages). Princess age: 4d Prince age: 3d
Ages that work
Princess
Prince
4
3
8
6
16
12
24
18
32
24
40
30
48
36
56
42
64
48
72
54
80
60
To see other solutions check out the comments from when I posted this on my blog.