A merchant can place 8 large boxes or 10 small boxes into a carton for shipping.

In one shipment, he sent a total of 96 boxes. If there are more large boxes than small boxes, how many cartons did he ship? 11 cartons total 7 large boxes (7 * 8 = 56 boxes) 4 small boxes (4 10 = 40 boxes 11 total cartons and 96 boxes
Predictably, Bobby Braingle is once again waiting for the Puzzle Shop to open (he always gets there early). This time, he has arrived over an hour early, and as a consequence stands looking at his watch and counting the seconds and minutes until the shop opens. He noticed something strange about his watch: The minute and the hour hands of his watch meet exactly every 65 minutes. How much time would Bobby's watch gain or lose in an hour, if any? A:::On a normal watch, the minute and hour hands should meet 11 times in 12 hours, at 12:00, 1:05, 2:11, 3:16, 4:22, 5:27, 6:33, 7:38, 8:44, 9:49, and 10:55. To figure out how much time this leaves between each meeting of the hands, multiply 12 (the number of hours) by 60 (the number of minutes in an hour) and divide by 11 (the number of times the hands meet).(12 60) 11 = 65.45 minutes, or 65 minutes and 27.27 seconds. In Bobby's case, the hands meet after every 65 minutes, which means the watch is gaining 27.27 seconds per hour.

Long ago, the king of Puzzleonia lost the combination to the safe where the secret pretzel recipe is held. He sent for Al Krakit, the most prolific safecracker in the prison system, and offered him a royal pardon if he succeeded in opening the safe. After several attempts at bypassing the combination, Al Krakit has realized that the only way to open the safe safely is to try every possible combination by hand. The special lock has a four-character code. Two of the characters must be letters, and the lock is case sensitive (with AB not the same as ab). The other two must be digits, anything from 0 to 9. What is the maximum number of combinations that Al Krakit would have to try before finding the correct code?

A:::: 1,622,400. There are 52 possible letters (26 lower- and 26 upper-case) and 10 possible numbers. Per try, four
characters can be selected, each try consisting of two letter characters and two number characters. These four characters can be arranged six different ways. (If @ is a letter and # is a number, these arrangements are ##@@, @@##, #@#@, @#@#, @##@, and #@@#.) Hence, the required answer is 52 52 10 10 6 = 1,622,400 attempts. In the general meeting of Puzzleonia's secret society of athletes, Chairman Bobby Braingle said, The repairs to the club after the last all-night wrestling match will come to a total of $3,120.I propose that this amount should be met by the members, each paying an equal amount. The proposal was immediately agreed upon, more out of embarrassment than anything else. However, four members of the society chose to resign, leaving the remaining members to pay an extra $26 each. How many members did the secret society originally have?

Answer
The club originally had 24 members. We can set up two equations, with two unknowns, which can easily be solved using algebra. $3,120 = Cost Members $3,120 = (Cost + 26) (Members 4)

In a five-day workweek, Bobby Braingle manufactures 1,000 pogo sticks at the factory. Each day he builds 30 more sticks than the day before. How many pogo sticks did Bobby build on Monday?

Answer :140 pogo sticks. The equation that defines this problem is x + (x + 30) + (x + 60) + (x + 90) + (x + 120) =
1000. Solve this equation to get x = 140.

Tom, Karin, and Sherri decide to see who can do the most pushups. Together, Tom and Karin complete 43 pushups. The sum of Karin and Sherri's pushups is 41. If you add Sherri's pushups to Tom's, you will have 38. Who did the most pushups?

Answer :You can set up the following three equations and solve them to determine that Karin did the most
pushups, at 23. T + K = 43 K + S = 41 S + T = 38 Solve the first and second equations so T = 43 K and S = 41 K. Plug these into the third equation, and solve for K. Now plug this answer back into the first two equations to derive S and T.

Santa Claus sometimes helps the elves make toys. He's not as fast as they are, but he can still make 30 toys each hour. In order to keep from getting bored he starts each day by building 50 trains and then switches to building 50 airplanes. Then he switches back to trains and keeps switching back and forth doing 50 of each until the day is finished. If Santa starts work at 8:00 A.M., when will he finish his 108th train?

Because Santa started with trains, the 108th train will occur during his fifth batch of toys, for a total of 208. At 2 minutes a toy, he will complete his 108th train 416 minutes after he starts work, at 2:56 P.M.

A 10-foot rope is tied from a hook on the ceiling to a hook on the floor. There is no slack in the rope. Bobby Braingle wants to tie up his dog so he can go do a little shopping. He detaches the rope from the hook on the floor and attaches the free end to the dog's collar, which happens to be 2 feet off the floor. (It's a big dog.) The dog can now run around in a circle, and because the rope goes to the ceiling the dog won't trip or get tangled up in the rope. What a good idea! What is the radius of the circle in which the dog can wander?

The dog can run in a 6-foot radius circle.

To get the answer, first draw a right triangle. The long side (hypotenuse) is the length of the rope when fully stretched by the dog, 10 feet. The medium side is the distance from the ceiling to the dog's collar, 8 feet. The short side is the radius of the circle. Using the Pythagorean theorem, a2 + b2 = c2, we get a2 + 82 = 102 or a = 6.

In my entire life, I have blown out 528 birthday candles. How old am I? (See if you can do it without adding them all up.)

I am 32 years old. The sum of all numbers 1 through x can be represented by the equation x(x + 1)/2. Since we know that this equation is equal to 528, we now have an easily solvable quadratic equation. Do you remember your algebra?

A perfect square is made by multiplying a number by itself. A perfect cube is made by multiplying a number by itself twice. What two-digit number sits exactly between a perfect square and a perfect cube?

26. Write down the two digit perfect squares and perfect cubes (it's a short list). It should be apparent from this list that 26 sits between 25 (a perfect square) and 27 (a perfect cube).

Bobby Braingle just got one of those new hybrid automobiles that get great gas mileage. He tests out the car on his drive to work. To get to work, Bobby must drive 10 miles uphill and 5 miles on flat land; to get home, it's 5 miles flat, and 10 miles downhill. After several weeks of testing, he determines that his new car gets 35 miles per gallon (mpg) going uphill, 80 mpg downhill, and 50 mpg on level terrain. What is the average mileage Bobby gets on his complete round trip?

Going uphill for 10 miles, Bobby burns 0.286 gallons of gas. On the 5 miles of level land, Bobby burns 0.1 gallon each way. Going downhill the 10 miles back home, his car only consumes 0.125 gallons. That's a total of 0.611 gallons for the 30-mile trip. 30 divided by 0.611 is 49.1 mpg for the complete trip.

Using the same termites and the same wooden sticks, how would you measure 61 minutes?

Start the slow termite on the longer stick. It will take the slow termite 16 minutes to eat 4 inches and make the sticks the same size. When the sticks are the same size, let the slow termite keep going, and start the fast termite on the other stick. This termite will finish his 12-inch stick in 36 minutes. That's 52 minutes elapsed so far, and the slow termite still has 3 inches left on his stick. Remove the slow termite, and let the fast termite finish off the 3 inches in nine minutes for a total of 61 minutes.

You have two very hungry termites and two sticks of wood. One stick of wood is 12 inches long, and the other is 16 inches long. One termite can eat wood at the rate of 1 inch every three minutes. The slower termite can eat 1 inch of wood in four minutes. How would you use both of the termites and wooden sticks to measure 48 minutes?

Start the fast termite on the short stick and the slow termite on the long stick. When the fast termite has finished the short stick, 36 minutes will have elapsed (12 inches at 1 inch every three minutes). At this point, the long stick will have 7 inches remaining. If you put the fast termite at the other end of the remaining stick, the 7 inches will be eaten by both termites in 12 minutes the slow termite will eat 3 inches and the fast termite will eat 4 inches. This totals 48 minutes.

What nine-digit number is divisible by 11 and has no repeating digits?

987,652,413 The best way to solve this puzzle is by trial and error. Write down all the nine digit numbers you can think of until you find one that satisfies both conditions.

You have a bag of pennies, and you are arranging them on the table. You notice that you can make a solid triangle with six pennies and a solid square with nine pennies. What is the smallest number of pennies that you can use, with none left over, that can be used to make either a triangle or a square?

36 pennies can make a square and triangle. Write down the number of pennies that can make a triangle (3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, etc.) and the number that can make a square (4, 9, 16, 25, 36, etc.). The first number both sets have in common is 36.

I just bought $1,024 worth of concert tickets for my gardening club. We're going to go see the Roots Down Under next week at the concert hall. Each ticket was the same price, and interestingly, the cost of an individual ticket is exactly the number of tickets that I bought. How many did I buy?

Each ticket costs $32, and I bought 32 of them. If the number of tickets is the same as the ticket price, the total price is a perfect square. All we have to do is calculate the square root.

Bobby Braingle has just gotten a new watch from his wife. He looks at the watch and sees that it is already set to the correct time of 8:00 p.m. Over the next few hours, he notices that his new watch is losing six minutes per hour. When will his watch again read the correct time?

The watch must lose 24 hours total before it is back on correct time. Since it loses 6 minutes per hour, it will take 240 hours for it to lose 24 hours. 240 hours is exactly 10 days later at 8:00 P.M.

A baby squirrel can dig an acorn hole in 10 seconds. A mommy squirrel can dig an acorn hole in 5 seconds, and a daddy squirrel can dig an acorn hole in 2.5 seconds. If the entire family works together, how quickly can they dig one acorn hole?

1.4 seconds. The squirrels can dig at speeds of 1/10th, 2/10ths, and 4/10ths of a hole per second, respectively. This means that if they work together, they can dig 7/10ths of a hole in one second, or 1.4 seconds for an entire hole.

Several contestants were in a chocolate-bunny-eating contest. After the contestants stuffed their faces for 20 minutes, all of the bunnies were eaten. One of the contestants remarked, Isn't it interesting that there were seven times as many bunnies as contestants, but that each of us ate a different number of bunnies? Another contestant replies, That certainly is interesting. I always eat the ears first, and I noticed that when we had eaten a third of the bunnies, there were four fewer than 10 times as many bunny ears as human noses in the contest. How many bunnies and contestants were in the contest?

There are 6 contestants who ate a total of 42 bunnies. From what the first contestant says, we know that Bunnies = 7 Contestants. From the second contestant we know that 2 (2/3) Bunnies = 10 Contestants 4. Just plug the first equation into the second equation and you can solve for Contestants, of which there are 6. Plug this back into the first equation to determine that there are 42 bunnies.

A monk has a very specific ritual for climbing up the steps to the temple, which for religious reasons are odd in number. First he climbs up to the middle step and meditates for one minute. Then he climbs up eight steps and faces east until he hears a bird singing. Then he walks down 12 steps and picks up a pebble. He takes one step up and tosses the pebble over his left shoulder. Now, he walks up the remaining steps two at a time, which only takes him 14 paces. How many steps are there at the temple?

There are 51 steps. The first thing the monk does is meditate on the middle step, which means the number of steps above him is equal to the number below. The easiest way to picture this is on a number line, with the middle step at 0. The monk's various rituals move his position up and down the number line like so: 0 + 8 12 + 1 + 2(14) = 25. This final value tells us how many steps the monk had to climb from the middle point to reach the top. Add the equal number that were below him, plus the middle step itself, for a total of 51.

If you take all the prime numbers under 1,000,000 and multiply them together, what digit will be in the ones place?

The ones digit will be 0. Both 2 and 5 are prime numbers. Anything multiplied by 2 and 5 will have a 0 in the ones place.

You enter a strange contest in which you pay one penny to start a clock. The clock always starts at noon, and once it starts, your money will begin doubling every minute. You can stop the clock whenever you want and take your money out. However, you can only keep your money if the digits of your total include two consecutive 8s and the total is less than $1 million. At what time should you stop the clock?

The maximum amount that you can win is $671,088.64. One more doubling, and you will have gone over the $1 million maximum. This winning amount occurs between 12:26 and 12:27, so stop the clock then. To arrive at the answer, start writing down the doublings starting with 1, 2, 4, 8, etc. (A calculator may help.) There are only 27 values below $1 million. Of these, only 3 of these have consecutive 8s. Pick the largest one.

Bobby Braingle works at the Freshest Donut Store. The donut machine normally produces one fresh donut every 18 seconds, but it broke some time ago. The last nine donuts produced are still sitting on the tray. The oldest donut is five times older than the freshest donut. Bobby is trying to figure out how long ago the machine broke. What is the shortest amount of time it could have been broken?

It broke at least 18 seconds ago. With 18 seconds between every donut, the age difference between the oldest and freshest is 144 seconds, so Old = Fresh + 144. We also know that Old = Fresh 5. Plug the second equation into the first: Fresh 5 = Fresh + 144, which solves to Fresh = 36. The age of the freshest donut is 36 seconds. Since the next donut was not produced on schedule 18 seconds later, the machine must have been broken for at least 18 seconds.

As the newest faculty member of the Advanced Materials Department of the College of Puzzleonia, you are in charge of examining new materials and sending them along to the appropriate department. One day you receive a piece of cloth exactly 10 cm by 10 cm square. You are told that it is a special fabric that cannot be cut or torn. You immediately recognize that this cloth belongs in the textiles department so you prepare to send it by interoffice robot courier. For some silly reason the robot can only accept square envelopes with an area of exactly 50 cm. How can you fold the cloth so that it fits into the appropriate envelope?

Fold each corner into the center of the cloth. This cuts the area in half (from 100 cm2 to 50 cm2), and the robot will now accept the package.

Bobby Braingle and Hyde Enceek are on a backpacking trip. Bobby carried the heavy backpack for the first 4 miles, and Hyde carried it the rest of the way into the campsite. The next morning they fished a bit and packed up to return home along the same

trail they had used yesterday. This time Bobby started again with the heavy backpack, and Hyde finished off by carrying it out the last 5 miles. Who carried the backpack the most and by how much?

Hyde carried the heavy backpack 2 miles longer than Bobby did. It doesn't matter how long the actual hike was. On the way there, Hyde carried it for x miles, and on the way home he carried it for 5 miles, for a total of x + 5 miles. Bobby carried it for 4 miles on the way there and for x 1 miles on the way back (due to the extra mile Hyde carried it) for a total of x + 3 miles. If you subtract (x + 3) from (x + 5) you get 2, which is the answer.

In Puzzleonia, every horse is required to be licensed. A horse license-number is made up of one letter and one digit. What is the maximum number of horses that can be licensed in Puzzleonia under this system?

520. There are 26 letters and 10 digits, for 260 possible combinations with the letter first and 260 more when the letter is last. That's a total of 520 possible horses.

There has been a shipwreck, and Bobby Braingle, Smelly Pickels, and an Elvis impersonator named Elmer McPresley are washed ashore on a small island. Reaching the shore, exhausted, they all fall asleep. Bobby awakes first and sees that a box of donuts has been washed ashore. Greedy as he is, he eats a third of the donuts and goes back to sleep. Next Smelly wakes up. Seeing the box of donuts, he eats a third of what is left and goes back to sleep. Elmer wakes up next. Assuming that the other two haven't eaten any donuts, he eats a third of what remains. When Elmer has finished, there are eight donuts left. How many donuts were in the box originally?

The box originally contained 27 donuts. When Elmer finishes his third, the box contains just eight donuts, which means that when Smelly finished, he must have left 12 donuts. From this we can also tell that the remaining 12 donuts represented two-thirds of the amount left after Bobby finished. This tells us that Bobby must have left 18 donuts. We know that the box originally contained a third again more than that, which would equal nine more donuts. So there were originally 27 donuts in the box.

Wally Rus and Rod Lightning decide to race each other to the Puzzle Shop, exactly one mile away, and then back again. Wally, being on the chubby side, runs at 10 mph to the shop, but he manages a whopping 30 mph on the way back (downhill with a tailwind). Rod Lightning, on the other hand, being less weight-challenged than Wally, runs at a constant rate of 20 mph each way. Who wins the race?

Rod does. At the point Rod reaches the Puzzle Shop, Wally is only halfway there. By the time Rod has run home again, Wally will have just made it to the shop.

Bobby Braingle is at his local newsstand, looking at the various magazines on display. He picked up a copy of Pretzels and Me, a copy of Wooden Puzzles Digest, and a copy ofIndoor Hang Gliding. He passes the magazines to the shopkeeper, who enters the amounts of each magazine into the cash register. Hang on a minute! says Bobby. You just pressed the multiplication button each time between amounts instead of the addition button. The shopkeeper smiles with new false teeth and replies, It doesn't matter. Either way, it comes to $5.70. What were the prices of the magazines?

2.85 1.60 1.25 = 5.70 2.85 + 1.60 + 1.25 = 5.70 You can simplify this to 3 equations which can be solved using algebra. A + B + C = 5.70, A B C = 5.7, and A + B + C = A B C.