GregR
Footballguy
Mostly puzzles, a couple borderline trivia. Please put potential answers in spoilers so others still working on one don't have it ruined for them by seeing the correct answer.
1) Jay was a goat farmer who lived in an extremely rural area. One morning he got up and found tire tracks in his pasture, and two of his goats had been run over and killed. He went down the road to the only nearby gas station and asked the overnight clerk there if anyone had been by that night. The clerk said a car had stopped by in the dead of night. The driver bought gas and also a bottle of Coke, but he wore a hat and sunglasses and was otherwise nondescript. The clerk didn't see the make of car but he caught a glimpse of a vanity license plate which read "4x4x8".
Jay continued on to the office of the county sheriff and told him what had transpired. The sheriff told Jay, "Our connection to the state license database is down so we can't get the driver's identity yet, but at least know the make and model of his car. We'll be on the lookout for it."
What make and model were the culprit's car, and how did the sheriff know?
(Answered by D in the D in post #23)
2) Sound travels at about 768 miles per hour. The sound barrier refers to increased drag and other effects experienced by objects traveling that fast. What was the first man made object to break the sound barrier?
(Answered by Blind Tiger in post #6)
3) Mark went for a meal at a local diner. While he was sitting there eating, he watched a mother helping her son with some arithmetic. The pair were adding up some numbers, and Mark saw the next set of numbers was 5.2, 2.1, 4.2, and 6.2. Mark quickly added them in his head and got 17.7. He was surprised to hear the mother tell her son the answer was 19.1, but after looking at the paper more closely, Mark realized the woman was right and he was wrong. Why was 19.1 the correct answer?
(Answered by heckmanm in post #27.)
4) A blind man with a seeing-eye dog walks up to a window where tickets for a local trolley are being sold. A sign above the window reads: Trolley Tickets: 45 cents each. The blind man holds out a dollar towards the window, and the clerk takes the money and gives him two tickets and 10 cents change. No words were spoken, and no other gestures or other communication took place. The two had never seen each other before. How did the clerk know how many tickets the man wanted?
(Answered by Gawain in post #18)
5) A boy is given money as a birthday present by his aunt. He rides the bus down to the sporting goods store and buys himself the best fishing pole in the store. He returns to the bus and tries to board it but the bus driver stops him. "You're what about 4 and a half feet tall?" the driver asks, resulting in a nod from the boy. "4 feet 5 inches," the boy replies.
"That's a problem," the driver says. "That fishing pole is about three inches taller than you, and there's a city ordnance that no one can carry an object longer than 4 feet long onto a city bus. I'm afraid you can't board with it."
The disappointed boy turned and went back to the sporting goods store, but the store had a policy against refunds and would not return his money. But a friendly clerk found out what the problem was, and gave the boy something to help him. With it, the boy returned to the bus and was allowed to board and get his fishing pole home without breaking the city ordinance.
The fishing pole was not altered in any way, including being bent, broken, taken apart, or the like. The pole was not strapped to the side of the bus, held outside the window, or the like.
What was the object that let the boy get the pole home?
(Answered by Walking Boot in post #30)
6) Think of any three digit number. Now repeat the digits again in the same order to make a six digit number. That is, if your three digit number is 682, then your six digit number is 682682.
Take your 6 digit number and divide it by 7. If it does not divide evenly, make a note of the remainder (whole number not decimal), then drop it so you have an integer to continue with.
Take the result without remainder, and divide by it 11. Again, if you have any remainder, note it before continuing on without it.
Take that result and divide it by 13. As before, make a note of any remainder.
Now add your final result to the three remainders. The result will be your original number.
This works for any three digit number you might have chose. Why?
(Answered by Road Warriors in post #4)
7) Bart's brother calls and says he is having car trouble and asks if Bart can come give him a tow to the mechanic. Bart gets his tow rope and climbs in his car with a tow hitch, and drives to where his brother is broken down. Bart checks out the issue and tells his brother, "There's no way I can tow your car." His brother replies, "Right, that's why I'll tow your car." Bart's brother then proceeds to tow Bart's car to the mechanic where the brother gets his car fixed.
No parts were exchanged between the cars. What's wrong with the brother's car?
(Answered by Gawain in post #17).
8) A man boards an airplane flying from Miami to Los Angeles. He sits in his seat in coach and then partway through the flight, hijacks the plane with a weapon he's smuggled aboard, taking all of the passengers hostage. He makes the pilot, who is from Miami, land the plane in Dallas.
While on the ground in Dallas, the hijacker contacts the authorities and says he will release half of the hostages if they deliver three parachutes and $10 million to the airplane. The authorities comply and the hijacker releases half of the passengers before having the plane take off again
Further along, the hijacker has the pilot slow down and fly at a suitable altitude for jumping out of the plane. He transfers the money to a suitcase resulting in a heavy load. He attaches one parachute to the suitcase and puts a second parachute on himself, then jumps from the plane with the money, leaving the third parachute on the plane.
Why did the hijacker request three parachutes from the authorities?
(Answered by Fat Nick in post #54)
9) "9, 2, 7, 2, 12". That series of numbers represents the number 7. "4, 0, 8" represents the number 2.
Given this, how would you represent the number 10?
(Answered by Sein Fein in post #21)
10) It's the ninth inning of the World Series. The hitter is at the plate. The pitcher looks in and gets his signal from the catcher, then throws a fastball across the plate. The batter hits the ball, a deep fly into the right field corner.
The right fielder runs under the ball and makes the catch but at the last second intentionally drops the ball to the ground. Why?
(solved by Road Warriors in post #2)
1) Jay was a goat farmer who lived in an extremely rural area. One morning he got up and found tire tracks in his pasture, and two of his goats had been run over and killed. He went down the road to the only nearby gas station and asked the overnight clerk there if anyone had been by that night. The clerk said a car had stopped by in the dead of night. The driver bought gas and also a bottle of Coke, but he wore a hat and sunglasses and was otherwise nondescript. The clerk didn't see the make of car but he caught a glimpse of a vanity license plate which read "4x4x8".
Jay continued on to the office of the county sheriff and told him what had transpired. The sheriff told Jay, "Our connection to the state license database is down so we can't get the driver's identity yet, but at least know the make and model of his car. We'll be on the lookout for it."
What make and model were the culprit's car, and how did the sheriff know?
(Answered by D in the D in post #23)
2) Sound travels at about 768 miles per hour. The sound barrier refers to increased drag and other effects experienced by objects traveling that fast. What was the first man made object to break the sound barrier?
(Answered by Blind Tiger in post #6)
3) Mark went for a meal at a local diner. While he was sitting there eating, he watched a mother helping her son with some arithmetic. The pair were adding up some numbers, and Mark saw the next set of numbers was 5.2, 2.1, 4.2, and 6.2. Mark quickly added them in his head and got 17.7. He was surprised to hear the mother tell her son the answer was 19.1, but after looking at the paper more closely, Mark realized the woman was right and he was wrong. Why was 19.1 the correct answer?
(Answered by heckmanm in post #27.)
4) A blind man with a seeing-eye dog walks up to a window where tickets for a local trolley are being sold. A sign above the window reads: Trolley Tickets: 45 cents each. The blind man holds out a dollar towards the window, and the clerk takes the money and gives him two tickets and 10 cents change. No words were spoken, and no other gestures or other communication took place. The two had never seen each other before. How did the clerk know how many tickets the man wanted?
(Answered by Gawain in post #18)
5) A boy is given money as a birthday present by his aunt. He rides the bus down to the sporting goods store and buys himself the best fishing pole in the store. He returns to the bus and tries to board it but the bus driver stops him. "You're what about 4 and a half feet tall?" the driver asks, resulting in a nod from the boy. "4 feet 5 inches," the boy replies.
"That's a problem," the driver says. "That fishing pole is about three inches taller than you, and there's a city ordnance that no one can carry an object longer than 4 feet long onto a city bus. I'm afraid you can't board with it."
The disappointed boy turned and went back to the sporting goods store, but the store had a policy against refunds and would not return his money. But a friendly clerk found out what the problem was, and gave the boy something to help him. With it, the boy returned to the bus and was allowed to board and get his fishing pole home without breaking the city ordinance.
The fishing pole was not altered in any way, including being bent, broken, taken apart, or the like. The pole was not strapped to the side of the bus, held outside the window, or the like.
What was the object that let the boy get the pole home?
(Answered by Walking Boot in post #30)
6) Think of any three digit number. Now repeat the digits again in the same order to make a six digit number. That is, if your three digit number is 682, then your six digit number is 682682.
Take your 6 digit number and divide it by 7. If it does not divide evenly, make a note of the remainder (whole number not decimal), then drop it so you have an integer to continue with.
Take the result without remainder, and divide by it 11. Again, if you have any remainder, note it before continuing on without it.
Take that result and divide it by 13. As before, make a note of any remainder.
Now add your final result to the three remainders. The result will be your original number.
This works for any three digit number you might have chose. Why?
(Answered by Road Warriors in post #4)
7) Bart's brother calls and says he is having car trouble and asks if Bart can come give him a tow to the mechanic. Bart gets his tow rope and climbs in his car with a tow hitch, and drives to where his brother is broken down. Bart checks out the issue and tells his brother, "There's no way I can tow your car." His brother replies, "Right, that's why I'll tow your car." Bart's brother then proceeds to tow Bart's car to the mechanic where the brother gets his car fixed.
No parts were exchanged between the cars. What's wrong with the brother's car?
(Answered by Gawain in post #17).
8) A man boards an airplane flying from Miami to Los Angeles. He sits in his seat in coach and then partway through the flight, hijacks the plane with a weapon he's smuggled aboard, taking all of the passengers hostage. He makes the pilot, who is from Miami, land the plane in Dallas.
While on the ground in Dallas, the hijacker contacts the authorities and says he will release half of the hostages if they deliver three parachutes and $10 million to the airplane. The authorities comply and the hijacker releases half of the passengers before having the plane take off again
Further along, the hijacker has the pilot slow down and fly at a suitable altitude for jumping out of the plane. He transfers the money to a suitcase resulting in a heavy load. He attaches one parachute to the suitcase and puts a second parachute on himself, then jumps from the plane with the money, leaving the third parachute on the plane.
Why did the hijacker request three parachutes from the authorities?
(Answered by Fat Nick in post #54)
9) "9, 2, 7, 2, 12". That series of numbers represents the number 7. "4, 0, 8" represents the number 2.
Given this, how would you represent the number 10?
(Answered by Sein Fein in post #21)
10) It's the ninth inning of the World Series. The hitter is at the plate. The pitcher looks in and gets his signal from the catcher, then throws a fastball across the plate. The batter hits the ball, a deep fly into the right field corner.
The right fielder runs under the ball and makes the catch but at the last second intentionally drops the ball to the ground. Why?
(solved by Road Warriors in post #2)
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