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Puzzles Galore A collection of 72 mathematical and logic puzzles collected over the last 30 years by Ian Humphreys. The document is in Microsoft Word format and can be downloaded from here. It is in two sections. The first section contains the puzzles and the second section detailed solutions. Here is a taste of what's in store: 2. Who Is The Engineer?
Smith, Jones and Robinson are engineer, brakeman and fireman on a train
but not necessarily in that order. Also
riding the train are three passengers with the same three surnames, to be
identified in the following premises with a “Mr.” before their names. ·
Mr.
Robinson lives in Los Angeles. ·
The
brakeman lives in Omaha. ·
Mr. Jones
long ago forgot all the algebra he ever learnt at High School. ·
The
passenger with the same name as the brakeman lives in Chicago. ·
The
brakeman and one of the passengers, a distinguished mathematical physicist,
attend the same church. ·
Smith
beat the fireman at billiards. What is the name of the engineer? 7. The Early Commuter
A commuter is in the habit of arriving at his suburban station each
evening at exactly five o’clock. His
wife always meets the train and drives him home.
One day he takes an earlier train and arrives at his station at four
o’clock. The weather is pleasant so instead of telephoning home, he
starts walking along the route always taken by his wife. They meet somewhere along the way. He gets into the car and they drive home arriving ten minutes earlier than they usually do. Assuming that the wife always drives with a constant speed, and on this particular occasion she left just in time to meet the five o’clock train, can you determine how long the husband walked before he was picked up? 65. The Way To The Village
A logician vacationing in the South Seas, finds himself on an island
inhabited by two tribes, one tribe always tells the truth whilst the other tribe
invariably lies. He is walking one
day and comes to a fork in the road. He
knows that one road leads to the village, but which one?
Luckily there is a native nearby but the logician cannot tell from his
appearance whether he is from the tribe of truth-tellers or from the tribe of
liars. He thinks for a moment and
then asks the native just ONE question, and from the native’s reply he knows
which road to take. What is his
question? |
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