Using just two letters, fill in the blank letters below to make five English words. The letters are not always in the same order and the same letter may of course be used more than once. What are the words?
1. _ N T _ I N _
2. V I _ _ _ R
3. _ H _ _ L
4. _ _ _ K
5. _ _ _
A boat. Boats are used to get around, they aren’t on the ground, but in the water. They rise and fall with the waves, and if they’re in the air, it may be due to rough seas and you should be careful.
Donald and Regan are married with four children, named Michael, Farley, Solomon and Larry. They just had a baby girl and are picking the name. It’s down to Olivia, Tiffany and Jasmine. Donald’s brother, a piano teacher, tells them only one of the names would be correct. Which name is it?
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.
I hesitated to add this because it’s poorly worded, ambiguous and the answer could be almost anything. I prefer teasers with a single answer, but there you go.
If you came up with a different answer and can explain how you did it, don’t think you’re wrong. It’s probably just as valid. Feel free to share yours in the comments.
My answer for the first number is 2.
Here’s how I got it.
The generic rule for a number in the sequence is: 2^(n – 1) + 1, where n is the position in the sequence.
Note: The teaser doesn’t specify the position of 17. In this case, it’s fifth.
Position 1: (so n = 1) is 2^(1 – 1) + 1 = 2
Position 2: 2^(2 – 1) + 1 = 3
Position 3: 2^(3 – 1) + 1 = 5
Position 4: 2^(4 – 1) + 1 = 9
Position 5: 2^(5 – 1) + 1 = 17
For the curious, the next 5 numbers of the sequence would be: