I've recently bought a "Puzzle a Day" - it's a block of 365 single-sheet puzzles (intended to be one a day for a year) on a charity shop visit. It was new and unopened (I should have taken the hint and walked away immediately), but I thought it might stretch my brain in new ways, and some of them will probably be blog-worthy.
Some are, some aren't.
The first couple don't translate well to a blog article, but Puzzle 3 is interesting:
"If it takes Big Ben six seconds to strike six o'clock, how long will it take to strike twelve o'clock?"
The immediate (and wrong) answer is twelve seconds; the trick is this: there is no time to be measured after the sixth ring. The duration of the rings is not one second between the first and second, then another between the 2nd and 3rd, 3rd and 4th, 4th and 5th, 5th and sixth, and then a second after the sixth ring. In fact, there are six fifths (1.2 seconds) between each chime. The sixth chime occurs after the previous five have rung out, = 5 * 1.2 seconds = 6 seconds.
Now that we know that there are 1.2 seconds between each chime, we need to calculate the length of 11 chimes (knowing that the 12th chime will occur immediately afterwards).
11 * 1.2 = 13.2 seconds, or 13 1/5 seconds.
Not 12 seconds (as you may have immediately guessed).
Sorry ;-)
Some are, some aren't.
The first couple don't translate well to a blog article, but Puzzle 3 is interesting:
"If it takes Big Ben six seconds to strike six o'clock, how long will it take to strike twelve o'clock?"
The immediate (and wrong) answer is twelve seconds; the trick is this: there is no time to be measured after the sixth ring. The duration of the rings is not one second between the first and second, then another between the 2nd and 3rd, 3rd and 4th, 4th and 5th, 5th and sixth, and then a second after the sixth ring. In fact, there are six fifths (1.2 seconds) between each chime. The sixth chime occurs after the previous five have rung out, = 5 * 1.2 seconds = 6 seconds.Now that we know that there are 1.2 seconds between each chime, we need to calculate the length of 11 chimes (knowing that the 12th chime will occur immediately afterwards).
11 * 1.2 = 13.2 seconds, or 13 1/5 seconds.
Not 12 seconds (as you may have immediately guessed).
Sorry ;-)
