INFOSYS
1. The legendary king Midas possessed a huge amount of gold. He hid this treasure carefully: in a building consisting of a number of rooms. In each room there were a number of boxes; this number was equal to the number of rooms in the building. Each box contained a number of golden coins that equaled the number of boxes per room. When the king died, one box was given to the royal barber. The remainder of the coins had to be divided fairly between his six sons. Is a fair division possible in all situations?
A fair division of Midas' coins is indeed possible. Let the number of rooms be N. This means that per room there are N boxes with N coins each. In total there are NxNxN = N^3 coins. One box with N coins goes to the barber. For the six brothers, N^3 - N coins remain. We can write this as: N(N^2 - l), or: N(N - 1)(N + l). This last expression is divisible by 6 in all cases, since a number is divisible by 6 when it is both divisible by 3 and even. This is indeed the case here: whatever N may be, the expression N(N - 1)(N + l) always contains three successive numbers. One of those is always divisible by 3, and at least one of the others is even. This even holds when N=1; in that case all the brothers get nothing, which is also a fair division!
2. On a sunny morning, a greengrocer places 200 kilograms of cucumbers in cases in front of his shop. At that moment, the cucumbers are 99% water. In the afternoon, it turns out that it is the hottest day of the year, and as a result, the cucumbers dry out a little bit. At the end of the day, the greengrocer has not sold a single cucumber, and the cucumbers are only 98% water. How many kilograms of cucumbers has the greengrocer left at the end of the day?
In the morning, the 200 kilograms of cucumbers are 99% water. So the non-water part of the cucumbers has a mass of 2 kilograms. At the end of the day, the cucumbers are 98% water. The remaining 2% is still the 2 kilograms of non-water material (which does not change when the water evaporates). If 2% equals 2 kilograms, then 100% equals 100 kilograms. So, the greengrocer has 100 kilograms of cucumbers left at the end of the day.
3. A swimmer jumps from a bridge over a canal and swims 1 kilometer stream up. After that first kilometer, he passes a floating cork. He continues swimming for half an hour and then turns around and swims back to the bridge. The swimmer and the cork arrive at the bridge at the same time. The swimmer has been swimming with constant speed. How fast does the water in the canal flow?
If you have written down a full paper of mathematical formulas, you have been thinking too complicated...It is obvious that the cork does not move relatively to the water (i.e. has the same speed as the water). So if the swimmer is swimming away from the cork for half an hour (up stream), it will take him another half hour to swim back to the cork again. Because the swimmer is swimming with constant speed (constant relatively to the speed of the water!) you can look at it as if the water in the river doesn't move, the cork doesn't move, and the swimmer swims a certain time away from the cork and then back. So in that one hour time, the cork has floated from 1 kilometer up stream to the bridge. Conclusion: The water in the canal flows at a speed of 1 km/hr.
4. Consider a road with two cars, at a distance of 100 kilometers, driving towards each other. The left car drives at a speed of forty kilometers per hour and the right car at a speed of sixty kilometers per hour. A bird starts at the same location as the right car and flies at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour. When it reaches the left car it turns its direction, and when it reaches the right car it turns its direction again to the opposite, etcetera. What is the total distance that the bird has traveled at the moment that the two cars have reached each other?
If you have written down a full paper of mathematical formulas, you haven't been thinking in the right direction. It is obvious that the two cars meet each other after one hour. On that moment, the bird has flown for one hour. Conclusion: The bird has flown 80 km/h x 1 h = 80 km.
5. A number is called a palindrome when it is equal to the number you get when all its digits are reversed. Postman Pat delivers the mail in the small village Tenhouses. This village, as you already suspected, has only one street with exactly ten houses, numbered from 1 up to and including 10. In a certain week, Pat did not deliver any mail at two houses in the village; at the other houses he delivered mail three times each. Each working day he delivered mail at exactly four houses. The sums of the house numbers where he delivered mail were: on Monday: 18 on Tuesday: 12 on Wednesday: 23 on Thursday: 19 on Friday: 32 op Saturday: 25 on Sunday: he never works Which two houses didn't get any mail that week?
If postman Pat would have delivered mail three times at each house, then the total sum of the house numbers per day would be (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10)×3=165. Now that sum is 18+12+23+19+32+25=129. The difference is 165-129=36; divided by 3 this is 12. The sum of the house numbers where no mail was delivered is therefore 12. The following combinations are possible: 2+10
3+9
4+8
5+7
Each day at four houses the mail was delivered. On Tuesday the sum was 12. 12 can only be made from four house numbers in 2 ways:
1+2+3+6
1+2+4+5
The same holds for Friday with the sum of 32
5+8+9+10
6+7+9+10
From this we can conclude that the house numbers 1, 2, 9 and 10 for sure have received mail, which means that the combinations 2+10 and 3+9 are not possible. Also the combination 5+7 is not possible, because mail was delivered either at house 5 or at house 7. Thus the only remaining solution is: houses 4 and 8.
N.B.: there are various possibilities for the actual post delivery of the whole week. For example: Monday houses 1, 3, 5 and 9
Tuesday houses 1, 2, 3 and 6
Wednesday houses 1, 5, 7 and 10
Thursday houses 2, 3, 5 and 9
Friday houses 6, 7, 9 and 10
Saturday houses 2, 6, 7 and 10 .
6. You walk upwards on an escalator, with a speed of 1 step per second. After 50 steps you are at the end. You turn around and run downwards with a speed of 5 steps per second. After 125 steps you are back at the beginning of the escalator. How many steps do you need if the escalator stands still?
Let v be the speed of the escalator, in steps per second. Let L be the number of steps that you need to take when the escalator stands still. Upwards (along with the escalator), you walk 1 step per second. You need 50 steps, so that takes 50 seconds. This gives: L - 50 × v = 50. Downwards (against the direction of the escalator), you walk 5 steps per second. You need 125 steps, so that takes 25 seconds. This gives: L + 25 × v = 125. From the two equations follows: L = 100, v = 1. When the escalator stands still, you need 100 steps.
7. A number is called a palindrome when it is equal to the number you get when all its digits are reversed. For example, 2772 is a palindrome. We discovered a curious thing. We took the number 461, reversed the digits, giving the number 164, and calculated the sum of these two numbers: 461 164 + ------- 625 We repeated the process of reversing the digits and calculating the sum two more times: 625 526 + ------- 1151 1511 + ------- 2662 To our surprise, the result 2662 was a palindrome. We decided to see if this was a pure coincidence or not. So we took another 3-digit number, reversed it, which gave a larger number, and added the two. The result was not a palindrome. We repeated the process, which resulted in another 3-digit number which was still not a palindrome. We had to repeat the process twice more to finally arrive at a 4-digit number which was a palindrome. What was the 3-digit number we started with the second time?
Because the reverse of the starting number is greater than the starting number itself, the first digit of the starting number must be less than the last digit. Therefore, the starting number must be at least 102. Secondly, we know that after two summations, the result has still only 3 digits.
abc
cba +
-------
def
fed +
-------
ghi
8. General Gasslefield, accused of high treason, is sentenced to death by the court-martial. He is allowed to make a final statement, after which he will be shot if the statement is false or will be hung if the statement is true. Gasslefield makes his final statement and is released. What could he have said?
General Gasslefield said: "I will be shot." If this statement was true, he would have been hung and thus not be shot. But then his statement would be false, which implies that he should be shot, making the statement true again, etc... In other words: the verdict of the court-martial could not be executed and the general was released.
9. On a nice summer day two tourists visit the Dutch city of Gouda. During their tour through the center they spot a cosy terrace. They decide to have a drink and, as an appetizer, a portion of hot "bitterballs" (bitterballs are a Dutch delicacy, similar to croquettes). The waiter tells them that the bitterballs can be served in portions of 6, 9, or 20. What is the largest number of bitterballs that cannot be ordered in these portions?
Every natural number is member of one of the following six series:
0, 6, 12, 18, ...
1, 7, 13, 19, ...
2, 8, 14, 20, ...
3, 9, 15, 21, ...
4, 10, 16, 22, ...
5, 11, 17, 23, ...
If for a number in one of these series holds that it can be made using the numbers 6, 9, and 20, then this also holds for all subsequent numbers in the series (by adding a multiple of 6). To find out what the largest number is that cannot be made using the numbers 6, 9, and 20, we therefore only need to know, for every series, what the smallest number is that can be made in that way. In the series 0, 6, 12, 18, ... the smallest number that can be made is 0 so there is no number that cannot be made.In the series 1, 7, 13, 19, ... the smallest number that can be made is 49 (20+20+9) so 43 is the largest number that cannot be made.
In the series 2, 8, 14, 20, ... the smallest number that can be made is 20 so 14 is the largest number that cannot be made.In the series 3, 9, 15, 21, ... the smallest number that can be made is 9 so 3 is the largest number that cannot be made.In the series 4, 10, 16, 22, ... the smallest number that can be made is 40 (20+20) so 34 is the largest number that cannot be made.In the series 5, 11, 17, 23, ... the smallest number that can be made is 29 (20+9) so 23 is the largest number that cannot be made.Therefore, 43 is the largest number that cannot be made using the numbers 6, 9, and 20..
10. Two friends, Alex and Bob, go to a bookshop, together with their sons Peter and Tim. All four of them buy some books; each book costs a whole amount in shillings. When they leave the bookshop, they notice that both fathers have spent 21 shillings more than their respective sons. Moreover, each of them paid per book the same amount of shillings as books that he bought. The difference between the number of books of Alex and Peter is five. Who is the father of Tim?
For each father-son couple holds: the father bought x books of x shillings, the son bought y books of y shillings. The difference between their expenses is 21 shillings, thus x2 - y2 = 21. Since x and y are whole numbers (each book costs a whole amount of shillings), there are two possible solutions: (x=5, y=2) or (x=11, y=10). Because the difference between Alex and Peter is 5 books, this means that father Alex bought 5 books and son Peter 10. This means that the other son, Tim, bought 2 books, and that his father is Alex.
11. A man decides to buy a nice horse. He pays $60 for it, and he is very content with the strong animal. After a year, the value of the horse has increased to $70 and he decides to sell the horse. But already a few days later he regrets his decision to sell the beautiful horse, and he buys it again. Unfortunately he has to pay $80 to get it back, so he loses $10. After another year of owning the horse, he finally decides to sell the horse for $90. What is the overall profit the man makes?
Consider the trade-story as if it describes two separate trades, where: In the first trade, the man buys something for $60 and sells it again for $70, so he makes a profit of $10.
In the second trade, the man buys something for $80 and sells it again for $90, so he makes again a profit of $10.
Conclusion: The man makes an overall profit of $10 + $10 = $20.
You can also look at the problem as follows: the total expenses are $60 + $80 = $140 and the total earnings are $70 + $90 = $160. The overall profit is therefore $160 - $140 = $20.
12. Yesterday evening, Helen and her husband invited their neighbors (two couples) for a dinner at home. The six of them sat at a round table. Helen tells you the following: "Victor sat on the left of the woman who sat on the left of the man who sat on the left of Anna. Esther sat on the left of the man who sat on the left of the woman who sat on the left of the man who sat on the left of the woman who sat on the left of my husband. Jim sat on the left of the woman who sat on the left of Roger. I did not sit beside my husband." What is the name of Helen's husband?
From the second statement, we know that the six people sat at the table in the following way (clockwise and starting with Helen's husband):
Helen's husband, woman, man, woman, man, Esther Because Helen did not sit beside her husband, the situation must be as follows: Helen's husband, woman, man, Helen, man, Esther The remaining woman must be Anna, and combining this with the first statement, we arrive at the following situation:Helen's husband, Anna, man, Helen, Victor, Esther Because of the third statement, Jim and Roger can be placed in only one way, and we now know the complete order:Helen's husband Roger, Anna, Jim, Helen, Victor, Esther Conclusion: the name of Helen's husband is Roger.
13. In the middle of a round pool lies a beautiful water-lily. The water-lily doubles in size every day. After exactly 20 days the complete pool will be covered by the lily. After how many days will half of the pool be covered by the water-lily?
Because the water-lily doubles its size every day and the complete pool is covered after 20 days, half of the pool will be covered one day before that, after 19 days. Conclusion: After 19 days half of the pool will be covered by the water-lily
14. Jack and his wife went to a party where four other married couples were present. Every person shook hands with everyone he or she was not acquainted with. When the handshaking was over, Jack asked everyone, including his own wife, how many hands they shook. To his surprise, Jack got nine different answers. How many hands did Jack's wife shake?
Because, obviously, no person shook hands with his or her partner, nobody shook hands with more than eight other people. And since nine people shook hands with different numbers of people, these numbers must be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. The person who shook 8 hands only did not shake hands with his or her partner, and must therefore be married to the person who shook 0 hands. The person who shook 7 hands, shook hands with all people who also shook hands with the person who shook 8 hands (so in total at least 2 handshakes per person), except for his or her partner. So this person must be married to the person who shook 1 hand. The person who shook 6 hands, shook hands with all people who also shook hands with the persons who shook 8 and 7 hands (so in total at least 3 handshakes per person), except for his or her partner. So this person must be married to the person who shook 2 hands. The person who shook 5 hands, shook hands with all people who also shook hands with the persons who shook 8, 7, and 6 hands (so in total at least 4 handshakes per person), except for his or her partner. So this person must be married to the person who shook 3 hands. The only person left, is the one who shook 4 hands, and which must be Jack's wife. The answer is: Jack's wife shook 4 hands.
15. Hans is standing behind Gerrie and at the same time Gerrie is standing behind Hans. How is this possible
Hans and Gerrie are standing with their backs towards each other!
16. A cyclist drove one kilometer, with the wind in his back, in three minutes and drove the same way back, against the wind in four minutes. If we assume that the cyclist always puts constant force on the pedals, how much time would it take him to drive one kilometer without wind?
The cyclist drives one kilometer in three minutes with the wind in his back, so in four minutes he drives 1 1/3 kilometer. Against the wind, he drives 1 kilometer in four minutes. If the wind helps the cyclist during four minutes and hinders the cyclist during another four minutes, then - in these eight minutes - the cyclist drives 2 1/3 kilometers. Without wind, he would also drive 2 1/3 kilometers in eight minutes and his average speed would then be 17.5 kilometers per hour. So it will take him 3 3/7 minutes to drive one kilometer.
17. Three salesmen went into a hotel to rent a room. The manager stated that he had only one room left, but all three could use it for $30.00 for the night. The three salesmen gave him $10.00 each and went up to their room. Later, the manager decided that he had charged the salesmen too much so he called the bellhop over, gave him five one-dollar bills, and said: 'Take this $5.00 up to the salesmen and tell them I had charged them too much for the room'. On the way up, the bellhop knew that he could not divide the five one-dollar bills equally so he put two of the one-dollar bills in his pocket and returned one one-dollar bill to each of the salesmen. This means that each salesman paid $9.00 for the room. The bellhop kept $2.00. Three times nine is 27 plus two is 29....... What happened to the extra dollar?
The calculation just makes no sense. The three salesman paid $27, of which the manager got $25 and the bellhop $2. Conclusion: There's no dollar missing at all.
18. Below is an equation that isn't correct yet. By adding a number of plus signs and minus signs between the ciphers on the left side (without changes the order of the ciphers), the equation can be made correct. 123456789 = 100 How many different ways are there to make the equation correct?
There are 11 different ways:
123+45-67+8-9=100
123+4-5+67-89=100
123-45-67+89=100
123-4-5-6-7+8-9=100
12+3+4+5-6-7+89=100
12+3-4+5+67+8+9=100
12-3-4+5-6+7+89=100
1+23-4+56+7+8+9=100
1+23-4+5+6+78-9=100
1+2+34-5+67-8+9=100
1+2+3-4+5+6+78+9=100
Remark: if it is not only allowed to put plus signs and minus signs between the ciphers, but also in front of the first 1, then there is a twelfth possibility:
-1+2-3+4+5+6+78+9=100.
19. Tom has three boxes with fruits in his barn: one box with apples, one box with pears, and one box with both apples and pears. The boxes have labels that describe the contents, but none of these labels is on the right box. How can Tom, by taking only one piece of fruit from one box, determine what each of the boxes contains?
Tom takes a piece of fruit from the box with the labels 'Apples and Pears'. If it is an apple, then the label 'Apples' belong to this box. The box that said 'Apples', then of course shouldn't be labeled 'Apples and Pears', because that would mean that the box with 'Pears' would have been labeled correctly, and this is contradictory to the fact that none of the labels was correct. On the box with the label 'Appels' should be the label 'Pears'. If Tom would have taken a pear, the reasoning would have been in a similar way.
20. Richard is a strange liar. He lies on six days of the week, but on the seventh day he always tells the truth. He made the following statements on three successive days: Day 1: "I lie on Monday and Tuesday." Day 2: "Today, it's Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday." Day 3: "I lie on Wednesday and Friday." On which day does Richard tell the truth?
We know that Richard tells the truth on only a single day of the week. If the statement on day 1 is untrue, this means that he tells the truth on Monday or Tuesday. If the statement on day 3 is untrue, this means that he tells the truth on Wednesday or Friday. Since Richard tells the truth on only one day, these statements cannot both be untrue. So, exactly one of these statements must be true, and the statement on day 2 must be untrue. Assume that the statement on day 1 is true. Then the statement on day 3 must be untrue, from which follows that Richard tells the truth on Wednesday or Friday. So, day 1 is a Wednesday or a Friday. Therefore, day 2 is a Thursday or a Saturday. However, this would imply that the statement on day 2 is true, which is impossible. From this we can conclude that the statement on day 1 must be untrue. This means that Richard told the truth on day 3 and that this day is a Monday or a Tuesday. So day 2 is a Sunday or a Monday. Because the statement on day 2 must be untrue, we can conclude that day 2 is a Monday. So day 3 is a Tuesday. Therefore, the day on which Richard tells the truth is Tuesday.
21. Assume that you have a number of long fuses, of which you only know that they burn for exactly one hour after you lighted them at one end. However, you don't know whether they burn with constant speed, so the first half of the fuse can be burnt in only ten minutes while the rest takes the other fifty minutes to burn completely. Also assume that you have a lighter. How can you measure exactly three quarters of an hour with these fuses? Hint: 2fuses are sufficient to measure three quarter of an hour Hint: A fuse can be lighted from both ends at the same time(which reduces its burning time significantly)
With only two fuses that burn exactly one hour, one can measure three quarters of an hour accurately, by lighting the first fuse at both ends and the other fuse at one end simultaneously. When the first fuse is burnt out after exactly half an hour (!) you know that the second fuse still has exactly half an hour to go before it will be burnt completely, but we won't wait for that. We will now also light the other end of the second fuse. This means that the second fuse will now be burnt completely after another quarter of an hour, which adds up to exactly three quarters of an hour since we started lighting the first fuse!
22. A banana plantation is located next to a desert. The plantation owner has 3000 bananas that he wants to transport to the market by camel, across a 1000 kilometre stretch of desert. The owner has only one camel, which carries a maximum of 1000 bananas at any moment in time, and eats one banana every kilometre it travels. What is the largest number of bananas that can be delivered at the market?
The Solution: 533 1/3 bananas.
Explanation: Since there are 3000 bananas and the camel can carry at most 1000 bananas, at least five trips are needed to carry away all bananas from the plantation P (three trips away from the plantation and two return trips):
P (plantation)
===forth==>
<===back=======forth===>
<===back=======forth===>
A
Point A in the above picture cannot be the market. This is because the camel can never travel more than 500 kilometres into the desert if it should return to the plantation (the camel eats a banana every kilometre it travels!). So point A lies somewhere in the desert between the plantation and the market. From point A to the next point, less than five trips must be used to transport the bananas to that next point. We arrive at the following global solution to the problem (P denotes the plantation, M denotes the market):
P (plantation)
===forth===>
<===back=======forth===>
<===back=======forth===>
A
===forth===>
<===back=======forth===>
B
===forth===>
M (market)
Note that section PA must be in the solution (as explained above), but section AB or section BM might have a length of 0. Let us now look at the costs of each part of the route. One kilometre on section PA costs 5 bananas. One kilometre on section AB costs 3 bananas. One kilometre on section BM costs 1 banana. To save bananas, we should make sure that the length of PA is less than the length of AB and that the length of AB is less than the length of BM. Since PA is greater than 0, we conclude that AB is greater than 0 and that BM is greater than 0.
The camel can carry away at most 2000 bananas from point A. This means the distance between P and A must be chosen such that exactly 2000 bananas arrive in point A. When PA would be chosen smaller, more than 2000 bananas would arrive in A, but the surplus can't be transported further. When PA would be chosen larger, we are losing more bananas to the camel than necessary. Now we can calculate the length of PA: 3000-5*PA=2000, so PA=200 kilometres. Note that this distance is less than 500 kilometres, so the camel can travel back from A to P.
The situation in point B is similar to that in point A. The camel can't transport more than 1000 bananas from point B to the market M. Therefore, the distance between A and B must be chosen such that exactly 1000 bananas arrive in point B. Now we can calculate the length of AB: 2000-3*AB=1000, so AB=333 1/3. Note that this distance is less than 500 kilometres, so the camel can travel back from B to A. It follows that BM=1000-200-333 1/3=466 2/3 kilometres. As a result, the camel arrives at the market with 1000-466 2/3=533 1/3 bananas.
The full scenario looks as follows: first, the camel takes 1000 bananas to point A. There it drops 600 bananas and returns with 200 bananas. Then the camel takes again 1000 bananas to point A. Again, it drops 600 bananas and returns with 200 bananas. After this, the camel takes the last 1000 bananas from the plantation to point A. From point A, it leaves with 1000 bananas to point B. In point B, it drops 333 1/3 bananas and returns with 333 1/3 bananas. Then it takes the second load of 1000 bananas from point A to point B. Finally, it carries the 1000 bananas from point B to the market, where it arrives with 533 1/3 bananas.
23. Barbara has boxes in three sizes: large, standard, and small. She puts 11 large boxes on a table. She leaves some of these boxes empty, and in all the other boxes she puts 8 standard boxes. She leaves some of these standard boxes empty, and in all the other standard boxes she puts 8 (empty) small boxes. Now, 102 of all the boxes on the table are empty. How many boxes has Barbara used in total?
By putting 8 boxes in a box, the total number of empty boxes increases by 8 - 1 = 7. If we call x the number of times that 8 boxes have been put in a box, we know that 11 + 7x = 102. It follows that x=13. In total, 11 + 13 x 8 = 115 boxes have been used.
24. Here is a sequence of numbers: 1 11 21 1211 111221 It seems to be a strange sequence, but yet there is a system behind it... What is the next term in this sequence?
Again, the system behind the sequence is that each number (except the first one of the sequence) "describes" the previous number. Now, however, the number of occurrences of each cipher is counted. So 1231 means one "2" and three times a "1", and 131221 means one "3", one "2", and two times a "1". The number following on 131221 is therefore 132231 (one "3", two times a "2", and three times a "1"). The complete sequence is as follows: 1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, 312211, 13112221, etc.
25. A light bulb is hanging in a room. Outside of the room there are three switches, of which only one is connected to the lamp. In the starting situation, all switches are 'off' and the bulb is not lit. If it is allowed to check in the room only once to see if the bulb is lit or not (this is not visible from the outside), how can you determine with which of the three switches the light bulb can be switched on?
To find the correct switch (1, 2, or 3), turn switch 1 to 'on' and leave it like that for a few minutes. After that you turn switch 1 back to 'off', and turn switch 2 to 'on'. Now enter the room. If the light bulb is lit, then you know that switch 2 is connected to it. If the bulb is not lit, then it has to be switch 1 or 3. Now touching for short the light bulb, will give you the answer: if the bulb is still hot, then switch 1 was the correct one; if the bulb is cold, then it has to be switch 3.
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