some puzzle questions

 A banana plantation is located next to a desert. The plantation owner has 3000 bananas that he wants to transport to the market by camel, across a 1000 kilometre stretch of desert. The owner has only one camel, which carries a maximum of 1000 bananas at any moment in time, and eats one banana every kilometre it travels. What is the largest number of bananas that can be delivered at the market?



 Assume that you have a number of long fuses, of which you only know that they burn for exactly one hour after you lighted them at one end. However, you don't know whether theyburn with constant speed, so the first half of the fuse can be burnt in only ten minutes while the rest takes the other fifty minutes to burn completely. Also assume that you have a lighter. How can you measure exactly three quarters of an hour with these fuses? Hint: 2fuses are sufficient to measure three quarter of an hour Hint: A fuse can be lighted from both ends at the same time(which reduces its burning time significantly)


 A light bulb is hanging in a room. Outside of the room there are three switches, of which only one is connected to the lamp. In the starting situation, all switches are 'off' and the bulb is not lit. If it is allowed to check in the room only once to see if the bulb is lit or not (this is not visible from the outside), how can you determine with which of the three switches the light bulb can be switched on?


 Tom has three boxes with fruits in his barn: one box with apples, one box with pears, and one box with both apples and pears. The boxes have labels that describe the contents, but none of these labels is on the right box. How can Tom, by taking only one piece of fruit from one box, determine what each of the boxes contains?


 Richard is a strange liar. He lies on six days of the week, but on the seventh day he always tells the truth. He made the following statements on three successive days: Day 1: "I lie on Monday and Tuesday." Day 2: "Today, it's Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday." Day 3: "I lie on Wednesday and Friday." On which day does Richard tell the truth?



 General Gasslefield, accused of high treason, is sentenced to death by the court-martial. He is allowed to make a final statement, after which he will be shot if the statement is false or will be hung if the statement is true. Gasslefield makes his final statement and is released. What could he have said?



 A man has a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. He must cross a river with the two animals and the cabbage. There is a small rowing-boat, in which he can take only one thing with him at a time. If, however, the wolf and the goat are left alone, the wolf will eat the goat. If the goat and the cabbage are left alone, the goat will eat the cabbage. How can the man get across the river with the two animals and the cabbage?


 Joyce has bought ten trees for her garden. She wants to plant these trees in five rows, with four trees in each row. The Question :How must Joyce plant the trees?


 The legendary king Midas possessed a huge amount of gold. He hid this treasure carefully: in a building consisting of a number of rooms. In each room there were a number of boxes; this number was equal to the number of rooms in the building. Each box contained a number of golden coins that equaled the number of boxes per room. When the king died, one box was given to the royal barber. The remainder of the coins had to be divided fairly between his six sons. Is a fair division possible in all situations?



 An old farmer died and left 17 cows to his three sons. In his will, the farmer stated that his oldest son should get 1/2, his middle son should get 1/3, and his youngest son should get 1/9 of all the cows. The sons, who did not want to end up with half cows, sat for days trying to figure out how many cows each of them should get. One day, their neighbour came by to see how they were doing after their father's death. The three sons told him their problem. After thinking for a while, the neighbour said: "I'll be right back!" He went away, and when he came back, the three sons could divide the cows according to their father's will, and in such a way that each of them got a whole number of cows. What was the neighbour's solution?



 From a book, a number of pages are missing. The sum of the page numbers of these pages is 9808. Which pages are missing?


 A cable, 16 meters in length, hangs between two pillars that are both 15 meters high. The ends of the cable are attached to the tops of the pillars. At its lowest point, the cable hangs 7 meters above the ground. How far are the two pillars apart?


 Using the ciphers 1 up to 9, three numbers (of three ciphers each) can be formed, such that the second number is twice the first number, and the third number is three times the first number. Which are these three numbers?



 A long, long time ago, two Egyptian camel drivers were fighting for the hand of the daughter of the sheik of Abbudzjabbu. The sheik, who liked neither of these men to become the future husband of his daughter, came up with a clever plan: a race would determine who of the two men would be allowed to marry his daughter. And so the sheik organized a camel race. Both camel drivers had to travel from Cairo to Abbudzjabbu, and the one whose camel would arrive last in Abbudzjabbu, would be allowed to marry the sheik's daughter. The two camel drivers, realizing that this could become a rather lengthy expedition, finally decided to consult the Wise Man of their village. Arrived there, they explained him the situation, upon which the Wise Man raised his cane and spoke four wise words. Relieved, the two camel drivers left his tent: they were ready for the contest! Which 4 wise words did the Wise Man speak?



 It's always 1 to 6, it's always 15 to 20, it's always 5, but it's never 21, unless it's flying. What is this?



 Here are three answers: Answer A Answer A or B Answer B or C There is only one correct answer to this question. Which answer is this?



 Of all the numbers whose literal representations in capital letters consists only of straight line segments (for example, FIVE), only one number has a value equal to the number of segments used to write it. Which number has this property?


 Here is a sequence of numbers: 1 11 21 1211 111221 It seems to be a strange sequence, but yet there is a system behind it... What is the next term in this sequence?


 The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 must be put in the depicted triangle, in such a way that the sums of the numbers on each side are equal. How should the numbers be arranged in the triangle?


 A boy leaves home in the morning to go to school. At the moment he leaves the house he looks at the clock in the mirror. The clock has no number indication and for this reason the boy makes a mistake in interpreting the time (mirror-image) . Just assuming the clock must be out of order, the boy cycles to school, where he arrives after twenty minutes. At that moment the clock at school shows a time that is two and a half hours later than the time that the boy saw on the clock at home. At what time did he reach school?


 Below are a number of statements: 1. Precisely one of these statements is untrue. 2. Precisely two of these statements are untrue. 3. Precisely three of these statements are untrue. 4. Precisely four of these statements are untrue. 5. Precisely five of these statements are untrue. 6. Precisely six of these statements are untrue. 7. Precisely seven of these statements are untrue. 8. Precisely eight of these statements are untrue. 9. Precisely nine of these statements are untrue. 10. Precisely ten of these statements are untrue. Which of these statements is true?


 The poor have it, the rich want it, but if you eat it you will die. What is this?


 In the middle of a round pool lies a beautiful water-lily. The water-lily doubles in size every day. After exactly 20 days the complete pool will be covered by the lily. After how many days will half of the pool be covered by the water-lily?
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 Below is an equation that isn't correct yet. By adding a number of plus signs and minus signs between the ciphers on the left side (without changes the order of the ciphers), the equation can be made correct. 123456789 = 100 How many different ways are there to make the equation correct?


 There is a unique number of which the square and the cube together use all ciphers from 0 up to 9 exactly once. Which number is this?
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In Miss Miranda's class are eleven children. Miss Miranda has a bowl with eleven apples. Miss Miranda wants to divide the eleven apples among the children of her class, in such a way that each child in the end has an apple and one apple remains in the bowl. Can you help Miss Miranda?


 A banana plantation is located next to a desert. The plantation owner has 3000 bananas that he wants to transport to the market by camel, across a 1000 kilometre stretch of desert. The owner has only one camel, which carries a maximum of 1000 bananas at any moment in time, and eats one banana every kilometre it travels. What is the largest number of bananas that can be delivered at the market?
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 William lives in a street with house-numbers 8 up to and including 100. Lisa wants to know at which number William lives. She asks him: "Is your number larger than 50?" William answers, but lies. Upon this Lisa asks: "Is your number a multiple of 4?" William answers, but lies again. Then Lisa asks: "Is your number a square?" William answers truthfully. Upon this Lisa says: "I know your number if you tell me whether the first digit is a 3." William answers, but now we don't know whether he lies or speaks the truth. Thereupon Lisa says at which number she thinks William lives, but (of course) she is wrong. What is Williams real house-number?
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 In front of you are 10 bags, filled with marbles. The number of marbles in each bag differs, but all bags contain ten marbles or more. Nine of the ten bags only contain marbles of 10 grams each. One bag only contains marbles of 9 grams. In addition, you have a balance which can weigh in grams accurate, and you are allowed to use it only once (i.e. weigh a single time). How can you find out in one weighing, which bag contains the marbles of 9 grams?


 A traveler, on his way to Eindhoven, reaches a road junction, where he can turn left or right. He knows that only one of the two roads leads to Eindhoven, but unfortunately, he does not know which one. Fortunately, he sees two twin-brothers standing at the road junction, and he decides to ask them for directions. The traveler knows that one of the two brothers always tells the truth and the other one always lies. Unfortunately, he does not know which one always tells the truth and which one always lies. How can the traveler find out the way to Eindhoven by asking just one question to one of the two brothers?
4519


 You are standing next to a well, and you have two jugs. One jug has a content of 3 liters and the other one has a content of 5 liters. How can you get just 4 liters of water using only these two jugs?
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 Consider a road with two cars, at a distance of 100 kilometers, driving towards each other. The left car drives at a speed of forty kilometers per hour and the right car at a speed of sixty kilometers per hour. A bird starts at the same location as the right car and flies at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour. When it reaches the left car it turns its direction, and when it reaches the right car it turns its direction again to the opposite, etcetera. What is the total distance that the bird has traveled at the moment that the two cars have reached each other?


 Yesterday evening, Helen and her husband invited their neighbours (two couples) for a dinner at home. The six of them sat at a round table. Helen tells you the following: "Victor sat on the left of the woman who sat on the left of the man who sat on the left of Anna. Esther sat on the left of the man who sat on the left of the woman who sat on the left of the man who sat on the left of the woman who sat on the left of my husband. Jim sat on the left of the woman who sat on the left of Roger. I did not sit beside my husband." What is the name of Helen's husband?


 Two friends, Alex and Bob, go to a bookshop, together with their sons Peter and Tim. All four of them buy some books; each book costs a whole amount in shillings. When they leave the bookshop, they notice that both fathers have spent 21 shillings more than their respective sons. Moreover, each of them paid per book the same amount of shillings as books that he bought. The difference between the number of books of Alex and Peter is five. Who is the father of Tim?


 A cyclist drove one kilometer, with the wind in his back, in three minutes and drove the same way back, against the wind in four minutes. If we assume that the cyclist always puts constant force on the pedals, how much time would it take him to drive one kilometer without wind?
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 Three salesmen went into a hotel to rent a room. The manager stated that he had only one room left, but all three could use it for $30.00 for the night. The three salesmen gave him $10.00 each and went up to their room. Later, the manager decided that he had charged the salesmen too much so he called the bellhop over, gave him five one-dollar bills, and said: 'Take this $5.00 up to the salesmen and tell them I had charged them too much for the room'. On the way up, the bellhop knew that he could not divide the five one-dollar bills equally so he put two of the one-dollar bills in his pocket and returned one one-dollar bill to each of the salesmen. This means that each salesman paid $9.00 for the room. The bellhop kept $2.00. Three times nine is 27 plus two is 29....... What happened to the extra dollar?


 A snail is at the bottom of a 20 meters deep pit. Every day the snail climbs 5 meters upwards, but at night it slides 4 meters back downwards. How many days does it take before the snail reaches the top of the pit?
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 In the Tour de France, what is the position of a rider, after he passes the second placed rider?


 This is a most unusual paragraph. How quickly can you find out what is so unusual about it? It looks so ordinary that you would think that nothing is wrong with it at all, and, in fact, nothing is. But it is unusual. Why? If you study it and think about it, you may find out, but I am not going to assist you in any way. You must do it without any hints or coaching. No doubt, if you work at it for a bit, it will dawn on you. Who knows? Go to work and try your skill. Good luck! What is unusual about the above paragraph?


 Hans is standing behind Gerrie and at the same time Gerrie is standing behind Hans. How is this possible


 On the market of Covent Garden, mrs. Smith and mrs. Jones sell apples. Mrs. Jones sells her apples for two per shilling. The apples of Mrs. Smith are a bit smaller; she sells hers for three per shilling. At a certain moment, when both ladies both have the same amount of apples left, Mrs. Smith is being called away. She asks her neighbour to take care of her goods. To make everything not too complicated, Mrs. Jones simply puts all apples to one big pile, and starts selling them for two shilling per five apples. When Mrs. Smith returns the next day, all apples have been sold. But when they start dividing the money, there appears to be a shortage of seven shilling. Supposing they divide the amount equally, how much does mrs. Jones lose with this deal?


 The fraction EVE/DID = 0,TALKTALKTALKTALK. .. is a normal fraction that can also be written as a recurring decimal. Which fraction is this (equal letters are equal ciphers)?
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 A number is called a palindrome when it is equal to the number you get when all its digits Postman Pat delivers the mail in the small village Tenhouses. This village, as you already suspected, has only one street with exactly ten houses, numbered from 1 up to and including 10. In a certain week, Pat did not deliver any mail at two houses in the village; at the other houses he delivered mail three times each. Each working day he delivered mail at exactly four houses. The sums of the house numbers where he delivered mail were: on Monday: 18 on Tuesday: 12 on Wednesday: 23 on Thursday: 19 on Friday: 32 op Saturday: 25 on Sunday: he never works Which two houses didn't get any mail that week?


 On the market of Covent Garden, mrs. Smith and mrs. Jones sell apples. Mrs. Jones sells her apples for two per shilling. The apples of Mrs. Smith are a bit smaller; she sells hers for three per shilling. At a certain moment, when both ladies both have the same amount of apples left, Mrs. Smith is being called away. She asks her neighbour to take care of her goods. To make everything not too complicated, Mrs. Jones simply puts all apples to one big pile, and starts selling them for two shilling per five apples. When Mrs. Smith returns the next day, all apples have been sold. But when they start dividing the money, there appears to be a shortage of seven shilling. Supposing they divide the amount equally, how much does mrs. Jones lose with this deal?


 There is a whole number n for which the following holds: if you put a 4 at the end of n, and multiply the number you get in that way by 4, the result is equal to the number you get if you put a 4 in front of n. In other words, we are looking for the number you can put on the dots in the following equation: 4... = 4 × ...4 Which number must be put on the dots to get a correct equation?


 Postman Pat delivers the mail in the small village Tenhouses. This village, as you already suspected, has only one street with exactly ten houses, numbered from 1 up to and including 10. In a certain week, Pat did not deliver any mail at two houses in the village; at the other houses he delivered mail three times each. Each working day he delivered mail at exactly four houses. The sums of the house numbers where he delivered mail were: on Monday: 18 on Tuesday: 12 on Wednesday: 23 on Thursday: 19 on Friday: 32 op Saturday: 25 on Sunday: he never works Which two houses didn't get any mail that week?


 Greengrocer C. Carrot wants to expose his oranges neatly for sale. Doing this he discovers that one orange is left over when he places them in groups of three. The same happens if he tries to place them in groups of 5, 7, or 9 oranges. Only when he makes groups of 11 oranges, it fits exactly. How many oranges does the greengrocer have at least?


 A swimmer jumps from a bridge over a canal and swims 1 kilometer stream up. After that first kilometer, he passes a floating cork. He continues swimming for half an hour and then turns around and swims back to the bridge. The swimmer and the cork arrive at the bridge at the same time. The swimmer has been swimming with constant speed. How fast does the water in the canal flow?
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 A man decides to buy a nice horse. He pays $60 for it, and he is very content with the strong animal. After a year, the value of the horse has increased to $70 and he decides to sell the horse. But already a few days later he regrets his decision to sell the beautiful horse, and he buys it again. Unfortunately he has to pay $80 to get it back, so he loses $10. After another year of owning the horse, he finally decides to sell the horse for $90. What is the overall profit the man makes?
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 The gentlemen Dutch, English, Painter, and Writer are all teachers at the same secondary school. Each teacher teaches two different subjects. Furthermore: Three teachers teach Dutch language There is only one math teacher There are two teachers for chemistry Two teachers, Simon and mister English, teach history Peter doesn't teach Dutch language Steven is chemistry teacher Mister Dutch doesn't teach any course that is tought by Karl or mister Painter. What is the full name of each teacher and which two subjects does each one teach?
4521


 On a sunny morning, a greengrocer places 200 kilograms of cucumbers in cases in front of his shop. At that moment, the cucumbers are 99% water. In the afternoon, it turns out that it is the hottest day of the year, and as a result, the cucumbers dry out a little bit. At the end of the day, the greengrocer has not sold a single cucumber, and the cucumbers are only 98% water. How many kilograms of cucumbers has the greengrocer left at the end of the day?
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 A cyclist drove one kilometer, with the wind in his back, in three minutes and drove the same way back, against the wind in four minutes. If we assume that the cyclist always puts constant force on the pedals, how much time would it take him to drive one kilometer without wind?


 Jack and his wife went to a party where four other married couples were present. Every person shook hands with everyone he or she was not acquainted with. When the handshaking was over, Jack asked everyone, including his own wife, how many hands they shook. To his surprise, Jack got nine different answers. How many hands did Jack's wife shake?


 Barbara has boxes in three sizes: large, standard, and small. She puts 11 large boxes on a table. She leaves some of these boxes empty, and in all the other boxes she puts 8 standard boxes. She leaves some of these standard boxes empty, and in all the other standard boxes she puts 8 (empty) small boxes. Now, 102 of all the boxes on the table are empty. How many boxes has Barbara used in total?


 On a nice summer day two tourists visit the Dutch city of Gouda. During their tour through the center they spot a cosy terrace. They decide to have a drink and, as an appetizer, a portion of hot "bitterballs" (bitterballs are a Dutch delicacy, similar to croquettes). The waiter tells them that the bitterballs can be served in portions of 6, 9, or 20. What is the largest number of bitterballs that cannot be ordered in these portions?


 Two friends, Alex and Bob, go to a bookshop, together with their sons Peter and Tim. All four of them buy some books; each book costs a whole amount in shillings. When they leave the bookshop, they notice that both fathers have spent 21 shillings more than their respective sons. Moreover, each of them paid per book the same amount of shillings as books that he bought. The difference between the number of books of Alex and Peter is five. Who is the father of Tim?


 Greengrocer C. Carrot wants to expose his oranges neatly for sale. Doing this he discovers that one orange is left over when he places them in groups of three. The same happens if he tries to place them in groups of 5, 7, or 9 oranges. Only when he makes groups of 11 oranges, it fits exactly. How many oranges does the greengrocer have at least?


 On a sunny morning, a greengrocer places 200 kilograms of cucumbers in cases in front of his shop. At that moment, the cucumbers are 99% water. In the afternoon, it turns out that it is the hottest day of the year, and as a result, the cucumbers dry out a little bit. At the end of the day, the greengrocer has not sold a single cucumber, and the cucumbers are only 98% water. How many kilograms of cucumbers has the greengrocer left at the end of the day?


 A number is called a palindrome when it is equal to the number you get when all its digits are reversed. For example, 2772 is a palindrome. We discovered a curious thing. We took the number 461, reversed the digits, giving the number 164, and calculated the sum of these two numbers: 461 164 + ------- 625 We repeated the process of reversing the digits and calculating the sum two more times: 625 526 + ------- 1151 1511 + ------- 2662 To our surprise, the result 2662 was a palindrome. We decided to see if this was a pure coincidence or not. So we took another 3-digit number, reversed it, which gave a larger number, and added the two. The result was not a palindrome. We repeated the process, which resulted in another 3-digit number which was still not a palindrome. We had to repeat the process twice more to finally arrive at a 4-digit number which was a palindrome. What was the 3-digit number we started with the second time?


 A number is called a palindrome when it is equal to the number you get when all its digits are reversed. For example, 2772 is a palindrome. We discovered a curious thing. We took the number 461, reversed the digits, giving the number 164, and calculated the sum of these two numbers: 461 164 + ------- 625 We repeated the process of reversing the digits and calculating the sum two more times: 625 526 + ------- 1151 1511 + ------- 2662 To our surprise, the result 2662 was a palindrome. We decided to see if this was a pure coincidence or not. So we took another 3-digit number, reversed it, which gave a larger number, and added the two. The result was not a palindrome. We repeated the process, which resulted in another 3-digit number which was still not a palindrome. We had to repeat the process twice more to finally arrive at a 4-digit number which was a palindrome. What was the 3-digit number we started with the second time?

 You walk upwards on an escalator, with a speed of 1 step per second. After 50 steps you are at the end. You turn around and run downwards with a speed of 5 steps per second. After 125 steps you are back at the beginning of the escalator. How many steps do you need if the escalator stands still?