Home » General Chat » Circular File » Puzzle Thread May 14, 2005 (updated)
 Puzzle Thread May 14, 2005 (updated) |
Sat, 14 May 2005 23:45  |
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 Ron |
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Here is a weekly puzzle thread. (UPDATED)
You have 24 hours to PM me the answers. Show how you arrived at your answers.
Answer any 5 questions correctly to get one chance to win, any 6 to get 2 chances, or all 7 to get 4 chances to win.
Winner will become this week's Puzzle Master, and receive a cool Puzzle Master graphic next to their name, or add a bar to their existing graphic. (For newbies, see Ashlyn's posts for an example of the graphic)
1. A cart is being pulled around a circular track. The outer wheels of the cart make two turns to the inner wheel's one. The wheels of the cart are 5 feet apart. What is the circumference of the track?
2. (riddle)From a number that's odd cut off its head,
It then will even be,
Its tail, I pray, next take away,
Your mother then you'll see.
3. What is it that is once in a minute, twice in a moment, and not once in a thousand years?
4. Ball of wire 24 inches in diameter, wire is only 1/100 of an inch thick. How long is the wire? (in miles, feet, and inches)
5. "Mr. Chairman," said the secretary, "the call for a standing vote showed the motion to be carried by a majority equal to one-third of the opposition, but as that result was due to a lack of chairs to permit eleven members from sitting down so as to record their votes in the negative, we wish to report that we find the minority has defeated the motion by a majority of one vote." How many votes were cast at this meeting?
6. There were X number of men who used to march in a parade 10 abreast. Alas, one year one of them died so there was only 9 men in the last row. The leader of the parade tried to reorganize the marchers by placing 9 men in each row, as 11 would not do, but there was still one less man in the last row. He tried again with 8, then 7, then 5, 4, 3, and even 2, but always there was one vacant space in the last row. Finally, the leader just had them all march in single file so no one would see that one was missing. How many men were marching? (The ba
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[Updated on: Sun, 15 May 2005 23:54]
Ron Miller
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| Re: Puzzle Thread May 14, 2005 (updated) |
Mon, 16 May 2005 00:36  |
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| Ron |
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Messages: 1231
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Out of 7 people who sent in answers, only gible, ashlyn, and wumpus sent in 5 or more correct answers.
gible and wumpus got 6 puzzles right, while ashlyn got 5 right.
The random number program picks wumpus as the latest Weekly Puzzle Master.
1. The outer wheels are making twice the distance the inner wheels are doing. Let x be the distance of the inner wheels to the center of the track:
2*(2x*pi) = (2x+10)*pi <=> 4x = 2x+10 <=> x = 5
The inner circumference of the track is 10*pi, and the outer circumference of the track is 20*pi which equals 62.832 feet.
2.
SEVEN
EVEN
EVE
3. The letter 'm'.
4. "A cylinder contains exactly 1/2 more than a sphere which it would hold. Therefore, if a sphere is 24 inches in diameter, it occupies 2/3 of the interior of a 24 inch high cylinder. Therefore, the ball would be equal to a cylinder 2/3 that height (24 inches in diameter), but only 16 inches high. That converts the ball into a cylinder, and as wire is really nothing but an extended cylinder, we can easily find out the relative proportion between 24 inches and the 1/100 of an inch, as one is 2400 times larger in diameter than the other, so 2400x2400 gives 5,760,000 as the number of little cylinders 1/100 of an inch thick, contained in the big cylinder, and as they would be 16 inches long, we multiply by 16 and find that there would be 92,160,000 inches, which is 1454 miles, 2880 feet, and 2.88 inches."
5. Let x be the number of votes, y be the number of yes votes, and of course x-y
be the number of no votes:
y-(x-y) = 1/3(x-y) <=> 2y-x = 1/3x-1/3y <=> y = 4/7x
y-11+1 = x-y+11 <=> 4/7x-10 = x-4/7x+11 = 3/7x+11 <=>
1/7x = 21 <=> x = 147, y = 84
So the number of votes cast is 147.
5. I just now see there is an error in #5. The puzzle skips '6' men in a row, but it should have been included. It doesn't seem to have messed anyone up however.
It involves finding the least common multiple of 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 which is 2520 (2519 after death
...
Ron Miller
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| Re: Puzzle Thread May 14, 2005 (updated) |
Mon, 16 May 2005 01:37 |
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| wumpus |
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Messages: 114
Registered: September 2004 | |
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4> 92,160,000 inches, which is 1454 miles, 2880 feet,
4> and 2.88 inches.
Where do the left over 2,88 inches come from? Aren't there *exactly* 5280 feet in a mile and *exactly* 12 inches in a foot? And the answer in inches is a whole number... (the Pis fall out very early if you solve it symoblically as far as reasonable, and the fraction denominators cancel, primarily with the 24s).
(I did it by doing volume_of_sphere / cross_sectional_area_of_wire...)
Doing this "right" is, incidentally, a LOT harder, since the 'cylindrical' wire does not pack perfectly, there's a bit of air in there as well that should be taken into account  But I have only the vaguest idea of how to take that (numerically) into account. (I suspect "The Answer" would be 10-20ish% lower though)
5> It involves finding the least common multiple of
5> 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 which is 2520 (2519 after death of one man),
5> but all but one of you missed the clue "as 11 would not do",
5> as 2519 can be divided by 11. Therefore the correct answer
5> is 5039 men.
I interpreted "as 11 would not do" as mostly a red-herring; "11 would not do" in the same sense as "wearing a playboy bunny 'suit' to the opera gala opening would not do".  Which makes no judgement about whether it would be techincally *possible*, or not, just "not acceptable" by some outside influence.
The 'missing' 6 is covered by both 2 and 3 being there incidentally (2, 3, 4, and 6 could all have been skipped without changing the answer, being accounted for by 8, 9, 8, and (8 and 9) respectively).
Michael "Wumpus" Zinn
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| Re: Another puzzle |
Thu, 19 May 2005 05:49 |
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There's an alternative answer to question 1.
It'd make for a very small track though.
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been a while!!! 
Now everybody will be scared to answer differently to the great puzzle master! 
(Or think you are mad 
