Each month, a new set of puzzles will be posted. Come back next month for the solutions and a new set of puzzles, or subscribe to have them sent directly to you.
Puzzle OneIn a guessing game, five friends had to guess the exact number of balls in a box. The guesses were 31, 35, 39, 49, and 37, but none of guesses were correct. The guesses were off by (in random order) 1, 9, 5, 3, and 9. Can you determine the number of balls in the box? |
Puzzle TwoA man wanted to get into his locked office building, but he had forgotten his five number unlocking code. However, he did remember five clues. The following clues were: a) The fifth number plus the third number equals fourteen. With these clues, can you determine the five numbers in the unlocking sequence? |
Puzzle ThreeIn this puzzle, each row, column & diagonal is a mathematical expression or calculation. Use the numbers 1 to 9 to satisfy each calculation (each number can be used only once). Find the combination of numbers that satisfy all the resulting answers as shown. Note: multiplication ( *) & division (/) are performed before addition (+) and subtraction (-) when calculating.
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Last month's solutions
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Puzzle OneEach of the four symbols stands for a difference number. In order to satisfy the totals at the end of each row, each column and the diagonal, find the value of the heart, club, diamond & spade symbols.. To do this, you will also need to determine the symbols that are required to replace the three ? symbols.
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Puzzle TwoA school security door code is a 5-digit number. The digits are ordered from highest to lowest and their product ls 336. What is the sum of the five digits? Solution: The five, single digit divisors for the number 336 that when multiplied together equals 336 are 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7. Therefore, the security code is 76421 and their sum is 20. |
Puzzle ThreeIn my office desk, the number of pencils and pens was in the ratio 4 to 5 (4 : 5). I t took out a pen and replaced it with a pencil and now the ratio is 7 to 8 (7 : 8). What is the total number of pencils and pens in my desk? Solution: As the original ratio of the number of pencils to the number of pens was 4 : 5 (or 4 pencils for every 5 pens) and when a pen is replaced with a pencil, the ratio of pencils to pens becomes 7 : 8. The following approach and answer is provided in the following diagram.
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Solution: 
