A snail or a measuring device (like a yard stick or tape measure). A snail’s foot is a muscle that allows it to move, and measuring devices have feet on them to measure distance.
This word starts with the same letter it ends with and there are two of the same along the way. There is another pair and one each of two more, just to make you smile. What is the word?
Giggling. It starts and ends with ‘g’ and there are two more ‘g’s in the middle. It also has a pair of ‘i’s and one ‘l’ and ‘n’. Plus, giggling makes you smile ;)
Bill buys three items at the store for exactly $100. The second item costs half as much as the first item, and the third item is half as much as the second.
Find a six-digit number containing no zeros and no repeated digits that satisfies the following conditions:
1. The first and fourth digits sum to the last digit, as do the third and fifth digits.
2. The first and second digits when read as a two-digit number equal one quarter the fourth and fifth digits.
3. The last digit is four times the third digit.
If you call the number ABCDEF, then you get the following equations.
1. A + D = F and C + E = F
2. AB = DE / 4
3. F = 4 × C
The only numbers that work for C and E are 2 and 6 or 4 and 8, and in order to make F a single-digit number, we can deduce that C = 2, E = 6 and F = 8.
So far, our number is AB2D68.
We know A + D = 8 so A and D are both odd numbers. The only odd number less than 8 that we can use for D to make one-quarter of two-digit number D6 also be a two-digit number is 7, so D = 7 and A is 1. This makes the two-digit number AB 19.
On a dark, stormy Halloween night, four kids named Luke, John, Sarah and Bob walk into a haunted house during a blackout. Only one can escape. They take a staircase to the second floor, a trapdoor on the left, then go up the ladder to the right, followed by a 28-foot slide to the basement through the mouth of a Giant Panda. In one corner of the murky cellar is a chainsaw, a dagger, a rope with a noose and an electric chair. Written on the wall in blood are the words, “Only one will survive – choose your death!” Bob takes the rope, Sarah picks up the dagger, John chooses the chainsaw and Luke uses the chair.
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:
I never was, am always to be. No one ever saw me, nor ever will. And yet I am the confidence of all, To live and breathe on this terrestrial ball. What am I?