19 March 2008

All the answers you'll ever need

What a deceiving title, huh? If only life's riddles were as easy as Professor Layton's.... (note: they're not). Anyway, remember those puzzles I posted yesterday? At least for these I could find the solutions, so here they are:






1) A glass jar holds a single germ. After one minute, the germ slits into two germs. One minute after that, the two germs each split again, forming a total of four germs. Continuing at this rate, a single germ can multiply to fill a whole jar in exactly one hour. Knowing this, how long in minutes would it take to fill the jar if you had started with two germs?
Solution: No, the jar won't fill up twice as fast, duh!! You only save the one minute that required the first germ to split into two. So, the answer is 60-1 minutes (or 59 minutes).


2) Mice are famous for their ability to multiply at breakneck speeds. The type of mouse we have here gives birth once a month, birthing 12 babies each time. Baby mice mature and can give birth two months after they are born. You picked up one of these darling baby mice at the pet shop and brought it home the day after it was born. In 10 months from now, how many mice will you have?
Solution : Only 1! The mouse can't breed with any other mouse to produce babies, now can he/she?!

3) Three identical-looking umbrellas are sitting upright in a stand. Assuming the owners don't check their umbrella's labels, what percentage chance is there that only two people will walk off with their own umbrella?
Solution : 0%! If two people walk away with their own umbrella, the third must have his/her own umbrella aswell!


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i got the umbrellas puzzle right!