Digging Away

It takes one day for ten workers to dig ten holes.
It takes two days for five workers to dig ten holes.

How much does it take for one man to dig HALF a hole?

Another Carroll Riddle

'First, the fish must be caught.'

That is easy: a baby, I think, could have

caught it.

'Next, the fish must be bought.' That is easy: a penny, I think, would have

bought it.

'Now cook me the fish!'

That is easy, and will not take more than a minute.

'Let it lie in a dish!'

That is easy, because it already is in it.

'Bring it here! Let me sup!'

It is easy to set such a dish on the table.

'Take the dish-cover up!'

Ah, that is so hard that I fear I'm unable!

For it holds like glue-

Holds the lid to the dish, while it lies in the

middle:

Which is easiest to do,

Un-dish-cover the fish, or dishcover the

riddle?

Ravens and Desks

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

                                                           - Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll Box

John gave his brother James a box:
About it there were many locks.
James woke and said it gave him pain;
So gave it back to John again.
The box was not with lid supplied
Yet caused two lids to open wide:
And all these locks had never a key
What kind of box, then, could it be?

Back in School Counting

Image via Wikipedia

Of 28 students taking at least one subject, the number taking Math and English but not History equals the number taking Math but not History or English. No student takes English only or History only, and six students take Math and History but not English. The number taking English and History but not Math is 5 times the number taking all three subjects.

If the number taking all three subjects is even and non-zero, how many are taking English and Math but not History?

Can You Solve the Pattern

7	4	8
3	9	7
6	5	10
?	8	4

Can you figure out the pattern? What is the missing number?

River Crossing

I have posted more complicated crossing problems before, but with another six inches of snow to shovel outside, this seems good enough to me.

A dad and two sons needed to cross the river.  They have a canoe and paddles, but no other equipment.  The canoe has a weight limit of 150 lbs.  Luckily, dad weighs 150 lbs.  The two sons weigh 75 lbs each.  How can the all get across the river using the canoe?

Snowed In

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

It snowed last night! Four couples woke up to a winter wonderland this morning. Due to the high winds during the storm, the snow drifted as it fell. The plows were out early but still, it took awhile to get all the streets in town cleared. Determine the full name of each couple, how much snow they got form the storm (between 6 and 10 inches), and what time the road they lived on was plowed out (between 8:30 am and 10:00 am).

1. Rebecca, whose last name isn’t Heart, was plowed out before Greg but after the couple who got eight inches of snow.

2. Mr. and Mrs. Shephard have two inches more snow than the couple who were plowed out at 8:30 am.

3. Karl and Debbie weren’t plowed out at 9:00 am though they were plowed out before Peter.

4. Stan Grant, who isn’t married to Martha, got one inch more snow than Greg did.

5. The couples were plowed out, from earliest to latest, in the following order: the couple who got eight inches of snow, Alice, Peter, Mr. and Mrs. White.

(ice)^3

Rebus are puzzles you need to solve by looking at the words, their relationships to each others and trying to imagine how it represents a common phrase.

For instance,  BIRD can mean Big bird or pa per can mean paper cut.

1.

dinner dinner

table

2.
wosteplf

3.
ware
mholey

4.
(ice)^3

I'M you

1.
Dribble Dribble

2.
long
do

3.
Math The

4.
my own heart a person

5.
Must get here
Must get here
Must get here

injury + insult

1.
search

and

2.
injury + insult

3.
welieight

4.
belt
hitting

5.
EZ
iii

Image via Wikipedia

During the recent Fast Track Cup, the first four horses did well to finish ahead of the field. After Dinner was not last and the horse wearing blue was not third. Bitter Twist was before the horse in green. Dare Devil came first. Bitter Twist finished before After Dinner. Catch Me wore red but Bitter Twist did not wear yellow.

Can you determine where each horse finished and the colours they wore?

Corn Can Be Fractionalized

Image by kairoinfo4u via Flickr

Ahmes's Papyrus
About 1650 B. C., Egyptian scribe Ahmes, made a transcript of even more ancient mathematical scriptures dating to the reign of the Pharaoh Amenemhat III. In 1858 Scottish antiquarian, Henry Rhind came into possession of Ahmes's papyrus. The papyrus is a scroll 33 cm wide and about 5.25 m long filled with funny math riddles. One of the problems is as follows:

100 measures of corn must be divided among 5 workers, so that the second worker gets as many measures more than the first worker, as the third gets more than the second, as the fourth gets more than the third, and as the fifth gets more than the fourth. The first two workers shall get seven times less measures of corn than the three others.

How many measures of corn shall each worker get? (You can have fractional measures of corn.)

May Not See it For a While

I am around long before dawn.
But by lunch I am usually gone.
You can see me summer, fall, and spring.
I like to get on everything.
But when winter winds start to blow;
Burr, then it's time for me to go!
What am I?








Oh, and Happy New Year everyone!