It’s against the rules for you to play fair,
I always win but you don’t care,
I’ve ruined lives and crushed dreams,
But the allure is too much it seems.
A casino. If you use methods to make the odds more fair to you, they kick you out. The house always wins, yet people continue to play. Gambling has ruined countless lives and crushed dreams of making millions, but the hope of winning continues to draw people in.
I’m not the sort that’s eaten, I’m not the sort you bake,
Don’t put me in an oven, I don’t taste that great,
But when applied correctly, around me you will find,
Problems are so simple when my digits come to mind.
You are given eight coins and told that one of them is counterfeit. The counterfeit one is slightly heavier than the other seven. Otherwise, the coins look identical. Using a simple balance scale, how can you determine which coin is counterfeit using the scale only twice?
First weigh three coins against three others. If the weights are equal, weigh the remaining two against each other. The heavier one is the counterfeit. If one of the groups of three is heavier, weigh two of those coins against each other. If one is heavier, it’s the counterfeit. If they’re equal weight, the third coin is the counterfeit.
Malcolm is the number of weeks of his father’s age treated as days and his grandfather’s age in months. All three of their ages add up to 120 years. How old is Malcolm, his father and his grandfather?