World's 200 Hardest Brain Teasers

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Book: Read World's 200 Hardest Brain Teasers for Free Online
Authors: Dr. Gary R. Gruber
than 354 x 357.
    There are more than seven ways to answer this question depending on how your mind works. One strategy is to find a way you can divide to make the problem simpler. The simple way is to divide both quantities by 356 x 354. You then get to compare 357/356 with 355/354. 357/356 = 1 1/356 and 355/354 = 1 1/354. So, the original second quantity is greater than the original first quantity.
    11.   A single 50 percent discount is better.
    It is better to get a single discount of 50 percent. Do not get lured into a process that sounds superficial. In fact, it is always better to get a single discount of the sums of the successive discounts than to get the successive discounts. For example, suppose the item was originally $100. A single discount of 50 percent would give you the item at $50. Now, if I had successive discounts of 20 percent and 30 percent, the first 20 percent discount would give me $80. The second 30 percent discount on $80 would give me $56.
    12.   If the client died in his sleep, there would be no way of knowing what he was dreaming.
    13.   Look for something that does not link smoking to cancer directly, but indirectly. That is, something that causes one to smoke and the same thing that causes cancer. So research could find that there is a certain condition that causes one to smoke and the same condition causes one to have cancer. Thus, smoking does not cause cancer; it is the condition that causes it. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
    14.   (b) 3
    Do this problem in steps by starting with two socks. If you get only two socks, they could be different colors, but getting three guarantees that you will have a pair. The strategy is to realize that in order to be sure of what you get, you have to consider the worst-case scenario. The worst case is that if you reach in the drawer, you’ll get two different color socks the first two tries—let’s say a blue sock and a brown sock the first two tries. But the third try you’ll have to get either a blue or a brown sock, which will make a pair with one of the first two socks.
    15.   Thursday
    The key is to realize that “now” must be Friday. Look for the phrase in the problem that tells you something you can work with and use that with another part of the problem to gradually and stepwise lead to a solution. In the phrase “Two days from now will be Sunday,” you can see that now must be Friday, since two days from Friday is Sunday. Now look at the phrase “the day before yesterday.” Yesterday is Thursday since now (today) is Friday. “The day before yesterday” is Wednesday, and the “day that follows the day before yesterday” is Thursday.
    16.   (d) furniture : carpentry tools
    Put MUSIC and VIOLIN in a sentence relating the two words. Music is played on a violin by someone who knows how to play a violin, just as furniture is created by carpentry tools by a person who knows how to use carpentry tools. A crayon is not done with a drawing (drawing is done with a crayon). Note: a symphony is not played on a piano—it is played by an orchestra.
    17.   (c) 10
    There are two alternating sequences: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 0, 2, 4, 6, 8.
    18.   (e) John Hancock : signature
    Look at what is superficial and what is not. George Washington was superficially identified with the cherry tree as John Hancock was superficially identified with his flamboyant signature. All the other people were not superficially identified in the phrase with their name.
    19.   (b) C minus B is always less than A
    Subtract the same thing from both sides. Since the sum of two sides of a triangle must be greater than the third side, A + B > C, so subtracting B from both sides, A > C - B.
    20.   (c) 19
    Use a Venn diagram or write down all the possibilities.
    Total number of people:
    (a) Blonds without blue eyes (14 - 5 = 9).
    (b) Blue-eyed people who are not blond (8 - 5 = 3).
    (c) Blue-eyed blonds (5).
    (d) People with neither blue eyes or blond

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