Web Puzzles

A horse breeder goes to a horse show with a certain number of horses. The first buyer comes by and purchases half of the horses the breeder brought plus half a horse. The second buyer comes by and purchases half of what remains plus half a horse. The third buyer comes by and purchases half of what remains plus half a horse. The breeder leaves, satisfied that he has sold all the horses he brought.

All three buyers have purchased whole horses, and there is no shared ownership among them.

How many horses did the breeder bring to the show?

Solution

I walk in a straight line in the forest. As I walk, I leave a repeating pattern of 1's and 0's behind me.

What is the length of the shortest pattern such that if you happen along my trail, you can determine with certainty which direction I was going?

Solution

The time had come when the father of two sons was to decide who would receive his fortune.
They both kneeled before the aged man as he spoke. "You will both race your camels to the nearest city. The owner of whichever camel arrives at the gates second will receive my fortunes."

Confused, both men rode their camels toward the city, step by step, as slow as they could. As luck would have it, the Great Sage was passing by. Seeing him, they pleaded for his wisdom.

"How might we resolve this such that it doesn't take the rest of our lives," said the first man.
"And yet it must be in a competitive manner," added the second. "Neither of us are willing to concede."

The Great Sage stroked his beard and shared his wisdom.

On hearing his advice, both men ran back to the camels and raced toward the city as fast as they could.


What was the Great Sage's suggestion?

Solution

"This," started the guide, "is the Buttons Room."

The Druggar of Bongo Ghango - the chief of a large country by the River Ghango - looked around. "It's a nice room, but where are the buttons? The only ones I see are, ahem, the ones on your shirt."
"Your Highness. The buttons, which could start a nuclear armageddon in a matter of seconds, are there, behind that panel," replied the guide, while pointing at a large panel at the end of the room.
"How can that be??? Why? Anybody - a madman, for example - could come here and press those terrible buttons?"

"Your Highness, it is very safe actually: for every button there is a slot, where a magnetic card must be inserted to activate the corresponding button. No card, no button. To launch the missiles, all buttons must be activated and pressed, and only a handful of people have the magnetic cards, and each card contains a different code from all the other ones."

"But it's the same thing! Any of these persons could go completely ballistic and start a nuclear war."
"In that case, the only dangerous man is the President of the United States, as he is the only person that holds all the codes, which would allow him to press all the buttons. The other people that hold some codes are the Vice-President of the United States, the President of the Senate, the Secretary of State, the Chief of the Armed Forces, and the Dean of Harvard University. Each of these gentlemen holds an incomplete set of magnetic cards, and the distribution of the codes is such that, if the President of the United States is not available, the entire set of buttons can be activated by the Vice-President, together with anyone of the other four men. If both the President and the Vice-President of the United States are unavailable, the buttons can still be activated by any three of the other four men. Therefore, to launch the missiles, it is needed either the President, or the Vice-President plus anyone of the other four men, or any three of the other four men."

"What if someone tried to press randomly many buttons, one after the other?" asked the Chief.
"Nothing would happen with the missiles, but the room would fill up with a narcotic gas, and an alarm would alert the guards and the CIA."

"So, how many buttons are there, and how are they distributed between the Vice-President and the other four personalities?"

And that's the question we'll ask the reader: what is the minimum number of buttons, and how are they distributed?

Solution

"This is terrible," the customs officer shouted. "It's impossible to count all these people and animals that keep moving around constantly. I can't count the same number twice! There are zebras, lions, giraffes, horses, elephants, rhinos, tigers, cheetas, flamingos, storks, doves and hummingbirds! I can't keep them under control, I just can't!"

"Count the heads, officer," the circus owner advised. "Every animal has got a head and, as the documentation shows, I can count 112 of them."

"Count the legs, officer, that's the way," the clown said. "There are 310 legs; if you subtract the number of heads from the number of legs, you'll be able to tell how many bipeds and how many four-legged animals there are."

"Wait a second, I've just counted the legs just now, and there's 297 of them," the cook said.

"This is driving me mad," the officer muttered. "One of them tells me there are 112 heads, another one talks about 310 legs, and that mentally-disturbed cook tells me that the number of legs is only 297. How many animals, including humans, are there?

To be more precise, how many bipeds and how many four-legged animals are there? And is the cook completely mad?

Solution