• Here are some puzzles, projects, activities, anything that I think might be interesting or fun for you.

    Try any, all, or none.

     

    If you do try any, keep track of your solutions.  If you want to check an answer, send me an email.  (I may be creating a little 3D prize for those PEnsters who get 85% or better correct, but you must show you tried to solve all of them.)

     

    3/26

    Two PEnster's were running as hard as they could. They averaged 6 mph, and then had to rest. On the way back, they averaged only 4 mph for the same distance. Not counting resting time, what was their average speed?

     

    Billy had a coin container with 50 coins, totaling exactly one dollar. Unfortunately, while counting them, he dropped one coin behind the radiator. What is the probability that it was a penny?

     

    3/25

    If six puzzle makers can compose nine puzzles in a day and a half, how many puzzle makers does it take to compose 270 puzzles in 30 days?

     

    It is nice in real life, but it's much easier on paper. Can you go from POOR to RICH in seven steps, changing one letter at a time, and making a good English words each time? (There are several solutions.)


                P O O R

                _  _  _  _

                _  _  _  _

                _  _  _  _

                _  _  _  _

                _  _  _  _

                _  _  _  _

                R I C H

    3/24

    1.  Using all the digits from 1 to 9, you can construct many different additions(For example, 317 + 628 equals 945).  There are four such examples which have a total of 468.  Find the missing numbers. You may not simply reverse the top and bottom numbers; new combinations must be found.

            1xx            xx5            x9x            xxx

         + xxx          +xxx          +xxx          +x7x

            468            468           468            468

     

    2.  Harper and Rose Lee were debating the major purchase of some candy. They found out, by looking at the prices, that they could get three tiny bags of jellybeans and two tiny bags of chocolate chips for $.24, which was under their limit of a quarter. They also could get four tiny bags of chocolate and two tiny bags of jelly beans for the same $.24 cents.  How much did each tiny bag of chocolates cost?

     

     

    3/22

    1.  How many common English words can you make from the letters D R I B A? Use all the letters each time.

     

    2.  After paying all of your bills, you're very short of cash. You have a total of $9.60 in your pocket. The money is composed of equal numbers of quarters, dimes, and nickels, but no other coins. How many of each of those three coins do you have?

     

     

    3/19 - Here are two new puzzles.

    1.  All of the vowels (A, E, I, O, and U, but not Y) has been removed from the following proverb, and the remaining letters broken into groups of three letters each. Replaced the vowels to find the proverb.

    BRD    SFF   THR   FLC   KTG   THR

     

    2.  What is the four-digit number in which the first digit is one-third the second, the third is the sumof the first and second, and the last is three times the second?

     

     

    3/18 - For those of you who like a good problem, here are two. One is math, one is based in language.

     

    1.  My wife and I can't seem to get our watches to work properly. Hers consistently runs one minute per hour fast, and mine runs two minutes per hour slow. This morning we nearly missed an event because our watches were an hour apart and we looked at the slower one. How many hours had elapsed since we set both of them properly?

    2.  This type of puzzle used to be very popular among puzzlers who thought they were poets, and poets who thought they were puzzlers. The verse spells out a word letter by letter, and often defines that word as well."My first" refers to the word's first letter, and so on. Can you discover the word that this verse describes?

    My first is in fish but not in snail

    My second in rabbit but not in tail

    My third in up but not in down

    My fourth in tiara not in crown

    My fifth in tree you plainly see

    My whole a food for you and me

     

     

    Here is a problem to start you off:

    Margot likes knights but not battlers; she likes writing, but not typing; she likes to listen but not to sing.  Does she like an unknownor a famous author?

    You have all the information you need to answer this correctly and explain the correct thinking for the answer.  Explain your answer.