25/12/2013 - Christmas Pudding (*)

This puzzle is rated 1 star (easy).

Description

Father Christmas spends 364 days of the year as a taster of Christmas puddings (which is why he is so round and jolly). Recently he came across a Magic Pudding. 

If you eat some of this pudding, the next thing you say comes out in a magic code.

Father Christmas tried it, liked it, and said:

"IP! IP! IP! XIBU B MPWFMZ QVEEJOH! NFSSZ DISJTUNBT BOE B IBQQZ OFX ZFBS UP ZPV BMM!"

Puzzle
What did Father Christmas Say?

Check the solutions page for the correct answer.

18/03/2013 - Strawberry Picking (*)

This puzzle is rated 1 star (easy).

Description

A gardener planted a row of 10 strawberry plants in his garden, setting them exactly 1 m apart.

Each plant produced just one strawberry.

When picking time came, the stupid gardener placed a basket 1 m from the end of the row, and then proceeded to pick and carry each strawberry to the basket one by one.

Puzzle
How far did the gardener have to walk when picking his strawberries?

Check the solutions page for the correct solution.

17/03/2013 - Four Times Table (*)

This puzzle is rated 1 star (easy).

Description

For this puzzle you need to know your 4 times table.

The sequence is 4 + 8 + 12 + 16, etc (adding multiples of 4).  Giving totals of 4, 12, 24, 40, etc.

Puzzle
What is the first number past 200 that you reach?

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13/03/2013 - Old News (***)

This puzzle is rated 3 star (hard)

Description

A newspaper is printed on 8 large sheets of paper that are laid on top of each other and folded in half. 

This means that the newspaper has 32 pages altogether.
The first sheet contains pages 1, 2, 31 and 32.

Puzzle
I pick up a sheet containing page 25. What are the other pages that this sheet contains?

Check the solutions page for the correct answer.

05/03/2013 - Adding It Wrong! (**)

This puzzle is rated 2 star (medium).

Description

This is an additional table that seems to follow a different pattern.

Puzzle
Work out the missing number.

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21/02/2013 - Golden Payment (**)

This puzzle is rated 2 star (medium).

Description

You have a solid gold bar, marked into 7 equal parts.

You need to pay an employee each day for one week. 

He charges exactly 1/7 of the gold bar per day. 

You are only allowed to make 2 cuts into the bar (and this is gold so don’t even think about “folding” the bar). 

Puzzle
How can you make the cuts to pay your worker one gold piece every day?

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18/02/2013 - Missing Number (**)

This puzzle is rated 2 star (medium).

Description

The above 4 triangles are completed by using the same rules.

Puzzle
What is the missing number from the centre of the forth triangle?

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09/02/2013 - Trains (**)

This puzzle is rated 2 star (medium).

Description

The red engine is behind the yellow engine.
The yellow engine is behind the green engine.
The blue engine is between the purple engine and the red engine.
The orange engine is last.

Puzzle
Put the engines in order.

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30/01/2013 - Four in a Row (**)

This puzzle is rated 2 star (medium).

Description

For this puzzle you need to draw or visualise a 4 by 4 grid.

Puzzle
On the gird, how many squares can be shaded without having 4 shaded squares connected in a straight line (either horizontally, vertically or diagonally)?

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20/01/2013 - Flipping Coins (**)

This puzzle is rated 2 stars (medium).

Description

Four coins are laid out in a row, all with the "heads" showing.

You take any 3 coins and flip them over, so that 1 coin remains with the "heads" showing and 3 now have the "tails" showing.  This is classed as turn number 1.

Puzzle
Making sure that you always flip exactly 3 coins each turn, how many turns in total (including the one completed in the description) will it take to have all the coins showing their "tails"?

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16/01/2013 - Heavy Apples (***)

This puzzle is rated 3 star (hard)

Description

Someone has mixed up some apples:

• There are 10 baskets containing apples.

• There are various amounts of apples in each basket ranging from 10 to 20.

• 9 of the baskets contain apples weighing 4 ounces each.

• 1 of the baskets contains apples weighing 5 ounces each.

• All the apples look the same.

• The equipment you have is a set of scales and an empty basket.

• It is late and the lorry is waiting to take the apples to market. You only have time to make one measurement using the scales.

Puzzle

How can you tell which basket has the 5 ounce apples in it?

Check the solutions page for the correct answer.

02/01/2013 - Triangles (**)

This puzzle is rated 2 stars (medium).

Description

A triangle is created using 10 tokens in the layout shown above.

Some tokens are moved to re-arrange the triangle in the layout shown below.

Puzzle
What is the minimum number of tokens to change from one layout to the other?

Check the solutions page for the correct answer.