A similar problem can be found in L.A. Graham’s Ingenious Mathematical Problems and Methods with a range of 1 to 9, but the principle remains the same – the numbers with the smallest difference produce the largest product. You start out with the highest two digits, 7 and 6, then attach 5 and 4, putting the smaller of the two digits with the larger number, giving you 74 and 65. The next two highest digits are 3 and 2, giving you 742 and 653. Finally, you add the 1 to the lower number. Page 80 has the details of that solution.
Stars awash in a sheen of light It calls out loud in vile delight. Listeners endure in fright. Vicious brute that reigns at night, Evil whelped of heinous bite, Renewed by wax, it regains might. A leading way to slay the beast, Get the hidden weapon thus released.
What is this describing? Hint: The first letter of each line has a clue
When Julian and Penelope met, one was half the others age plus seven years. Ten years later when they married, Penelope was thirty, but this time one was nine tenths the age of the other. How old was Julian? (No fractions or partial years, whole numbers only).
Your right elbow. You can try it yourself if you’re not convinced, but unless you have a broken arm or an incredibly flexible ulna, you won’t reach it.
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.
What looks like food, tastes like food, smells like food, sounds like food when you cook it, is grown in dirt like food, fills up your stomach like food, but is not food?
A poisonous mushroom. Since some types of mushrooms are edible, it can be very hard to distinguish between a safe mushroom and one that will kill you. Food is defined as a substance consumed to provide nutrition, therefore a poisonous mushroom that kills you doesn’t qualify as food, even though it shares all of the traits of a regular mushroom.
Other valid answers include anything that’s edible, resembles food, but is poisonous.
These are names given to groups of creatures or things, but they have been scrambled. What is the correct arrangement?
Colony of Birds Horde of Spiders Den of Wild Pigs Clutter of Crows Nest of Snakes Park of Elks Doylt of Ferrets Gang of Machine Guns Business of Swine Volery of Artillery Hover of Gnats Drift of Frogs
Colony of Frogs Horde of Gnats Den of Snakes Clutter of Spiders Nest of Machine Guns Park of Artillery Doylt of Swine Gang of Elks Business of Ferrets Volery of Birds Hover of Crows Drift of Wild Pigs