Brainteasers: January 2007

Compiled by Julianne Scibetta, Albany College of Pharmacy

A belated entry for October’s teasers - thanks to Bruce Epps for his epic lists of answers!

November/December saw many more people eager/dreading the holidays, and place settings… A great big shout-out to Karen Carmichael, Cyndi Levis, James Jesse, Robert Biviano, and Christine Lashua for all correct answers to the brainteasers.

  1. The snowman melted! (Here in the Northeast it seems to be a thing of the past.)
  2. The man had already put his milk and/or sugar in the coffee.
  3. Cathy’s Thanksgiving Problem: I found at least five different ways to solve this problem, not including the solutions presented by everyone above. Perhaps it was, as James Jesse wrote, “deceptively easy” on purpose.

Next round….

  1. At the end of 2006 we saw the price of the metal of coins become more valuable than the coins themselves. What’s the largest amount of money you can have in change and still not have change for a dollar?
  2. DIY Sudoku: Arrange the numbers 1 through 9 on a tic-tac-toe board such that the numbers in each row, column, and diagonal add up to 15.
  3. You've been sentenced to death in an obscure foreign country which has a strange law. Before the sentence is carried out, two papers -- one with "LIFE" written on it and one with "DEATH" written on it -- are folded up and placed in a hat. You are permitted to pick out one of the papers (without looking), and if you choose the one with "LIFE" written on it, you are set free. Otherwise, the death sentence is carried out. On this occasion, a mean-spirited guard, bent on your demise, has substituted the paper with "LIFE" written on it with another one with "DEATH" written on it. This person gleefully informs you of what he has done and that you are doomed to die. You are not permitted to speak to anyone about this misdeed, nor will you have a chance to switch the papers or the hat yourself in time. How will you avoid certain death?

Please submit your answers to scibettj@acp.edu. If you have a great riddle or teaser you’d like to share here, send them here!

Questions taken from Brain Food.