A Lowly Thing

I am just a lowly thing, object of much derision,
I am odd because I multiply by division.

What am I?

Does This Seem Out of Order

1)
eiln pu

2)
arrest
you're

3)
minI'llbethereute

In case you haven't seen these before, they're rebus. Can you figure out the common phrases hidden inside?

Nothing Like a Little Math to Wake You Up

The local kids basketball team has seven kids. From that group of seven, there are 21 different starting teams of five players. If Joey plays on the team (he's one of the seven), what's the likelihood that he is one of the starting five?

Assume that the coach feels that all kids deserve a shot at starting, no matter their ability.

Killed By a What?

Aeschylus is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive, the others being Sophocles and Euripides.

Speaking of a tragedy (or perhaps it was more of a comedy), how was Aeschylus killed?

What Was in That

The following jumbled up words can be translated into a common phrase. Can you tell me what they mean?

1)
JOBINJOB

2)
PumPkinPie

3)
1.
2. Blame
3. Blame

4)
timing ti ming

Shakespeare Was No Scientist

What major scientific blunder did Shakespeare include in his play Twelth Night?

Drink Some Wine

A man says, "I am going to drink water because I don't have water. If I had it, I would drink wine." What does he do for a living?

Sporty Anagrams

Which of the following anagrams is not a sport?

1. luncigr
2. bigbacer
3. roasdcsel
4. lwstnrieg
5. gyubr
6. ceryarh

Hidden Phrase

Can you find the hidden phrase in the following rebus?

1)
G
N lost
I lost 6:17
K lost PM
A lost
M

2)
OVER...OVER

Dinner Party Trick

Using four glasses and three knives, you too can impress your friends (if you have friends who are amused by such tricks)

The trick goes like this:
Form an equilateral triangle with three identical glasses so that they are just slightly further apart than the length of three identical knives. Now, using just those three knives, and without moving the glasses, form a bridge so that one more glass can be supported a fourth glass full of water.

You can't place the fourth glass directly on top of one of the other three glasses.

You May Need a Search Engine For This One

Two trivia questions today:
1. What does a sphygmomanometer measure? (Bonus points if you can say that out loud, too!)

2. What language was invented by Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof?




Hopefully, I spelled those right!

Gumballs in the Bowl

In order to win a free trip, contestants had to guess the exact number of gumballs in a fish bowl. The contestants guessed 45, 41, 55, 50, and 43; but no one won. The guesses were off (in no particular order!) by 3, 7, 5, 7, and 2.

Do you know how many gumballs there were in the bowl?



BTW, Sorry there was no post yesterday!

What Went Wrong?

In case you don't know: i = √-1

-1 = -1
-1/1 = -1/1
-1/1 = 1/-1
√(-1/1) = √(1/-1)
i/1 = 1/i
i = 1/i
i * i = 1
-1 = 1

Are You on the List

Notice anything special about this list of names?

Dennis, Nell, Edna, Leon, Nedra, Anita, Rolf, Nora, Alice, Carol, Leo, Jane, Reed, Dena, Dale, Basil, Rae, Penny, Lana, Dave, Denny, Lena, Ida, Bernadette, Ben, Ray, Lila, Nina, Jo, Ira, Mara, Sara, Mario, Jan, Ina, Lily, Arne, Bette, Dan, Reba, Diane, Lynn, Ed, Eva, Dana, Lynne, Pearl, Isabel, Ada, Ned, Dee, Rena, Joel, Lora, Cecil, Aaron, Flora, Tina, Arden, Noel, and Ellen sinned.

Gambling Problem

The house is always determined to make sure you walk out with less money than what you entered in. But Ted feels he's found a strategy for roulette that works. He tells you:

"In each round, I always bet half of the money I have at the time on red. Yesterday, I counted and I had won as many rounds as I had lost."

Over the course of the night, did Ted win, lose or break even?


In case you're not aware, if red comes up, you win as much money as you bet. So, if you bet $100, you win $100. If black comes up, you lose the $100.

Missing Letters

What are the missing letters?

a j e f .
l c h g .

Find the Path

Say we have a 4x5 board. Your job is to mark a pathway on that board such that the square you start on is 01. The next square you move to is 02 and the following one is 03 and so on to 20. You may move one square vertically or horizontally, but not diagonally. You may enter each space only once. A simple path would go like this:

01 02 03 04 05
10 09 08 07 06
11 12 13 14 15
20 19 18 17 16

Can you figure out a working path for the following board:

- - - - x
- - x - -
- x - - -
- - - - -

Each of the x's represent 5, 10 and 15 in some unknown order.

Words in a Square

What nine letter word is written in the square? You may start at any letter and go in any direction (one space, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal). You may not use any letter twice.

T E M
R C O
I G E

And while you're at it, decipher the following cryptogram:

SALTS LA ELLG

Series of Question Marks

What are the two missing numbers in the series below?

8, 15, 10, 13, 12, 11, 14, 9, 16, 7, ?, ?

Ed and Edd, But Not Eddy

Ed and Edd decided to build competing roller coasters. Ed built his roller coaster 40 feet high that will travel down on a straight slope. Edd built his roller coaster 40 feet high, but his travels down a curved slope (steep at the beginning, levels out at the end with no bumps).

If both cars are released at the same time (they cars are identical), which one will arrive at the bottom first?