PUZZLES

1.Three friends Pablo, Edvard, and Henri are talking to each other about the art collection of Leonardo.
Pablo says: "Leonardo has at least four paintings of Rembrandt." Edvard says: "No, he has less than four
paintings of Rembrandt." "According me," says Henri, "Leonardo has at least one Rembrandt." If you
known that only one of the three friends is right, how many Rembrandts does Leonardo possess?

Ans: Take a look at the statements about the number of paintings of Rembrandt. If Pablo would be right
("at least four"), then Henri ("at least one") would also be right. If Henri would be right ("at least one"),
then or Pablo ("at least four") or Edvard ("less than four") would also be right. So this means only Edvard
can be right and Leonardo possesses less than one Rembrandt, so no Rembrandt at all.

2.In your bedroom you have a drawer with 2 red, 4 yellow, 6 purple, 8 brown, 10 white, 12 green, 14
black, 16 blue, 18 grey, and 20 orange socks. It is dark in your bedroom, so you can't distinguish
between the colors of the socks. The Question: How many socks do you need to take out of the
drawer to be sure that you have at least three pairs of socks of the same color?

Ans: In the worst case in which you didn't take three pairs of socks of the same color, you took 2 red
socks, 4 yellow socks, and 5 of each of the other colors. That's a total of 46 socks. Then if you take one
more sock, you are sure to have 6 socks of at least one color. So you have to take 47 socks from the .

3.Here are three answers:

A. Answer A
B. Answer A or B
C. Answer B or C

The Question: There is only one correct answer to this question. Which answer is this?

Ans: If answer A would be correct, then answer B ("Answer A or B") would also be correct. If
answer B would be correct, then answer C ("Answer B or C") would also be correct. This leads
to the conclusion that if either answer A or answer B would be the correct answer, there are at
least two correct answers. This contradicts with the statement that "there is only one correct
answer to this question". If answer C would be correct, then there are no contradictions.

So the solution is: answer C.

4. The following four cards sit on a table:
Each card has a digit on one side and a letter on the other side.

The Question: Which cards should you turn around to test the following statement:
"when there is a vowel on one side of a card, then there is an even digit on the other
side"?

Ans: You should turn the cards with the "E" and the "7".

The "E" should be turned to verify that there is an even digit on the other side. When there is an
odd digit on the other side, the statement is not true.

The "7" should be turned to verify that there is no vowel on the other side. When there is a vowel
on the other side, the statement is not true.

The "V" does not need to be turned; it is not a vowel and therefore it doesn't matter what kind of
digit is on the other side.

The "2" also doesn't need to be turned. Whether there is a vowel or a consonant on the other side,
the card always satisfies the statement: after all, it is not stated that only cards with a vowel have
an even digit on the other side!

5. Martin has one of the numbers 1, 2, or 3 in mind. Sophie is allowed to ask one question to Martin to
find out which of these three numbers he has in mind. Martin will answer this question only with the
answers "yes", "no", or "I don't know". The Question: Which question should Sophie ask Martin to
find out in one time which number he has in mind?

Ans: Sophie could for example ask Martin the following: "I have the number 1 or 2 in mind. Is the
number that you have in mind larger than the number I have in mind?" The answer "yes" means that
Martin has the number 3 in mind, "I don't know" means 2, and "no" means 1.
6. A rather silly car thief stole, without knowing it, the car of the chief of police. The police
immediately started an investigation and on the basis of witness depositions, four suspects were
arrested that were seen near the car at the time of the crime. Because the chief of police took the
case very seriously, he decided to examine the suspects personally and use the new lie-detector
of the police station. Each suspect gave three statements during the examinations, that are listed
below:

Suspect A:
 1. In high-school I was in the same class as suspect C.
2. Suspect B has no driving license.
3. The thief didn't know that it was the car of the chief of police.

Suspect B:

1. Suspect C is the guilty one.

2. Suspect A is not guilty.
3. I never sat behind the wheel of a car.

Suspect C:

1. I never met suspect A until today.

2. Suspect B is innocent.
3. Suspect D is the guilty one.

Suspect D:

1. Suspect C is innocent.
2. I didn't do it.
3. Suspect A is the guilty one.

With so many contradicting statements, the chief of police lost track. To make things worse, it
appeared that the lie-detector didn't quite work yet as it should, because the machine only
reported that exactly four of the twelve statements were true, but not which ones. The
Question: Who is the car thief?

Ans: There are five statements in which nothing is said about the possible offender: A1, A2, A3,
B3, and C1.

The statements A1 and C1 seem to be completely contradictory, but that is not the case!
Although at most one of these statements can be true, they can also be both false! For example,
suspects A and C might only know each other from primary school.

About the statements A2 and B3 not much can be said (although it seems unlikely that statement
A2 would be false and at the same time statement B3 would be true).

In addition, it follows from the introduction that statement A3 is true.

On the basis of an assumption about which suspect is the offender, we can count how many of
the remaining statements are true:

A is the B is the C is the D is the None of the suspects is

Statement:
offender: offender: offender: offender: the offender:
B1 false false true false false
B2 false true true true true
C2 true false true true true
C3 false false false true false
D1 true true false true true
D2 true true true false true
D3 true false false false false
Total: 4 true, 3 false 3 true, 4 false 4 true, 3 false 4 true, 3 false 4 true, 3 false

Combined with the fact that statement A3 is true, this gives:

A is the B is the C is the D is the None of the suspects is

 
offender: offender: offender: offender: the offender:
Total: 5 true, 3 false 4 true, 4 false 5 true, 3 false 5 true, 3 false 5 true, 3 false

Because it was given that exactly four statements were true, the statements A1, A2, B3, and C1
must be false, and suspect B must be the offender.

7. 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. The Question: How many hands did Jack's wife shake?

Ans: Because, obviously, no person shook hands with himself or herself, or 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, shook hands with all other persons (who therefore shook each at
least 1 hand), except with his or her partner. Therefore, the partner of the person who shook 8
hands, must be the person who shook 0 hands.

The person who shook 7 hands, shook hands with all other persons (who therefore shook each at
least 2 hands), except with his or her partner and the person who shook 0 hands. Therefore, the
partner of the person who shook 7 hands, must be the person who shook 1 hand.

The person who shook 6 hands, shook hands with all other persons (who therefore shook each at
least 3 hands), except with his or her partner and the persons who shook 1 and 0 hands.
Therefore, the partner of the person who shook 6 hands, must be the person who shook 2 hands.

The person who shook 5 hands, shook hands with all other persons (who therefore shook each at
least 4 hands), except with his or her partner and the persons who shook 2, 1, and 0 hands.
Therefore, the partner of the person who shook 5 hands, must be 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.
8. 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. The Question: How can Tom, by taking only one piece of fruit from one box,
determine what each of the boxes contains?

Ans: 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.

9. 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."

The Question: On which day does Richard tell the truth?

Ans: 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.
10. Given are the following three equations:

1.  = 
2.  = 
3.  = 
 The Question: How many circles is a square, if you take the ratios in the three given
equations; in other words: how many circles should be on the dots below?

Ans.

= { according to equation 2 }

= { sorting }

= { according equation 3 }

= { according equation 1 }

= { sorting }

So:  = 

from which follows that  = 

Therefore the answer is: 5 circles.

11. The gentlemen Dutch, English, Painter, and Writer are all teachers at the same secondary
school. Each teacher teaches two different subjects. Furthermore:

 Three teachers teach Dutch language

 There is only one math teacher
 There are two teachers for chemistry
 Two teachers, Simon and mister English, teach history
 Peter doesn't teach Dutch language
 Steven is chemistry teacher
 Mister Dutch doesn't teach any course that is tought by Karl or mister Painter.
 The Question: What is the full name of each teacher and which two subjects does each one
teach?

Ans. Since Peter as only one doesn't teach Dutch language, and mister Dutch doesn't teach any
course that is tought by Karl or mister Painter, it follows that Peter and mister Dutch are the
same person and that he is at least math teacher. Simon and mister English both teach history,
and are also among the three Dutch teachers. Peter Dutch therefore has to teach next to math,
also chemistry. Because Steven is also chemistry teacher, he cannot be mister English or mister
Painter, so he must be mister Writer. Since Karl and mister Painter are two different persons, just
like Simon and mister English, the names of the other two teachers are Karl English and Simon
Painter.

Summarized:
Peter Dutch, math and chemistry
Steven Writer, Dutch and chemistry
Simon Painter, Dutch and history
Karl English, Dutch and history.