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TheGoodGuy
9th September 2005, 23:12
3 brain teasers of varying difficulty, I'm afraid, this time folks...

RULES: No blatant guessing....only answers with explanations/reasoning will be responded to.

Here goes...and good luck....

1. Mr. Black, Mr. White and Mr. Grey were exchanging messages in an internet chat room. They were wearing a black suit, a white suit and a grey suit, not necessarily in that order.
Mr. Grey sent a message, "We all are wearing suits that are of the same colour as our names but none of us is wearing a suit that is the same colour as his name."
On that the person wearing the white suit replied, "What difference does that make?"
Can you tell what colour suit each of the three men had on?

ANSWER
Mr. Grey- black suit
Mr. White- grey suit
Mr. Black- white suit

Mr. Grey couldn't have had the white suit because the man with the white suit responded to something that he had said. He also couldn't have had the grey suit because no suit matched the name of the person wearing it. So, Mr. Grey must have had the black suit. That leaves Mr. White and Mr. Black with the white suit and the grey suit. Mr. White couldn't be wearing the white suit because no suits matched the name of the person wearing them. He must have been wearing the grey suit. That leaves Mr. Black wearing the white suit.




2. The Vice Girls are a new pop group from cities around the UK. Their nicknames are Old Vice (the eldest), Cold Vice (never gives anything away), Gold Vice (all rings and bangles), Bold Vice (the leader), and Told Vice (the youngest, at 18, and always bossed around).

Mary comes from Edinburgh and is not best friends with Karen, who is from London. The girl from Cardiff is 20, a year older than the girl addicted to jewellery. Bold Vice and Gold Vice are the best of friends. Laura is 3 years older than Jane. Although the girls are all different ages the eldest is still only 22. Nadia is younger than Cold Vice. Mary is 2 years older than the leader who is older than the girl from Manchester.

What is the name, nickname & age of the girl from Belfast?

ANSWER
Old Vice - Mary - Edinburgh - 22
Cold Vice – Laura - Belfast - 21
Bold Vice – Nadia - Cardiff - 20
Gold Vice – Karen - London - 19
Told Vice – Jane - Manchester - 18

The youngest is 18 and the oldest is 22, and they all have different ages. So obviously there is one from each age between 18 and 22.
The girl from Cardiff is 20, and Gold Vice is 19 (mentioned in 2nd sentence).
Bold Vice must be 20 and Mary must be 22, because Mary is 2 years older than Bold Vice, and Bold Vice must be older than at least 1 person. We now know that Mary is Old Vice, and is from Edinburgh.
Laura is 21 and Jane is 18, because we know that Mary is the oldest, and this is the only other way someone can be 3 years older than another. Jane is Told Vice (the youngest).
Laura must be Cold Vice (no other nicknames left) and the only names left are Nadia and Karen. We already know that the 20 yr old is from Cardiff, so the one remaining must be Karen from London.
Process of elimination reveals that Nadia is Bold Vice.
All that is left is the native cities of Laura and Jane. The last sentence tells us that Bold Vice is older than the girl from Manchester, so Jane must be from Manchester. That leaves Laura, she must be from Belfast.



3. What is the 5-digit number in which the sum of the first two digits is one less than the third, the third is double the fourth, the fourth is double the last, the third is the product of the fourth and fifth, the second is five more than the first, and the first is one-eighth of the third and also one-quarter of the fourth?

ANSWER
16842
Being as each digit must be a whole number, if the first is 1/8 the third, the first must be 1 and the third 8, any other combination would include double digits.
1=1/4 of digit 4, establishing the first digit as 1 makes the forth digit 4
If the fourth is double the last digit, the last digit is 2
If the second is 5 more than the first, the second is 6



Ada.

tophatter
10th September 2005, 02:39
Mr grey sent the message so if the bloke wearing white answered him that means he can not be wearing white. If he is mr Grey he cant be wearing grey either so he must be wearing black. If Mr.Grey is wearing black that means Mr. White must be wearing Grey because he can not be wearing black or white. That leaves Mr. Black who must be wearing white

tophatter
10th September 2005, 03:34
The vice girls one was harder. its near half three and it took me about an hour but here is the answer:)

We know the eldest girl is 22 and the youngest is 18. so the five ages must be 18,19,20,21 and 22. We know TOLD spice is youngest so she must be 18. We know OLD spice is oldest so she must be 22. We know GOLD spice must be 19 due to the clue telling us the girl from cardiff is 20 and is a year older than GOLD Spice. This means we have two girls left we do not know the ages of which are BOLD and COLD spice. We know these girls are either 21 or 20 because they are the only ages left. Now we know that the girl called MARY is 2 years older than BOLD due to the clue so that means BOLD can only be 20 because if she was 21 MARY would have to be 23 which is too old. That means COLD must be 21.

We now know the girls ages

TOLD = 18
GOLD = 19
BOLD = 20
COLD = 21
OLD = 22

If Mary is Two Years older than BOLD Spice then she must be 22 which means she is OLD spice. If BOLD spice is 20 then we know she is from CARDIFF because we were told the 20yr old comes from CARDIFF. LAURA must be 21 because that is the oldest age available left now that we know MARY is 22 and if she is 3 years older then JANE and the youngest age is 18 then LAURA can only be 21. That also Obviously means JANE is 18. We know MARY comes from EDINBURGH which means LAURA Cannot come form EDINBURGH, CARDIFF or MANCHESTER brcause we know she is older than BOLD spice who comes From CARDIff and the girl from MANCHESTER is younger than BOLD spice. We know she can not come from LONDON either because we were told KAREN comes from there so LAURA must come From BELFAST.

So there is the Answer - the girl from BELFAST is LAURA aka COLD SPICE who is 21 years old :)

tophatter
10th September 2005, 03:37
I will leave the last one for now because me head hurts!

MarcusMel
10th September 2005, 11:24
I must be interpriting the words wrong third one does not make sense. I am assuming that "the first" means the leftmost digit.

What is the 5-digit number
ABCDE
in which the sum of the first two digits is one less than the third
A+B=C+1(Eq1)
, the third is double the fourth,
C=2*D (Eq2)
the fourth is double the last,
D=2*E (Eq3)
the third is the product of the fourth and fifth,
C=D*E (Eq4)
the second is five more than the first,
B=A+5 (Eq5)
and the first is one-eighth of the third
8*A=C (Eq6)
and also one-quarter of the fourth?
4*A=D (Eq7)

Then A=2 divided By 3:doh

TheGoodGuy
10th September 2005, 12:34
Marcus,

Yes 'the first' does mean the leftmost number.

Shouldn't your Eq 1 read 'A+B=C-1'

I would say your equation 6 would be the best place to start.

Ada.

TheGoodGuy
10th September 2005, 12:55
Sorry TH

Forgot to say...

Well done....spot on so far.

Ada. :wink

MarcusMel
10th September 2005, 12:57
Yep that is it the rest after that is Obivious since you can work out that A+A+5=8A-1 and therefore 6A=6 so A=1 etc.

TheGoodGuy
10th September 2005, 13:01
So the answer to No.3 is...........?

Ada.

MarcusMel
10th September 2005, 13:07
16842 ;fire

TheGoodGuy
10th September 2005, 17:22
That's it.

All done.

Thanks to Marcus & TH for your participation.

Ada.

tophatter
10th September 2005, 21:13
That's it.

All done.

Thanks to Marcus & TH for your participation.

Ada.

You're welcome Ada and many thanks for setting the questions - I really enjoyed getting my teeth into them.

MarcusMel
10th September 2005, 23:55
Yep thanks for the entertainment Ada

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The Countess Lovelace amoung the old computer fraternity is also known as the first lady programer and has a programming language named after her. :D
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