My Favorite Logic Puzzles

by John P. Pratt
last updated 17 Feb 2007
None of the following puzzles have trick answers, or unwarranted assumptions. They
are arranged approximately in order of difficulty; the first few can be done by
elementary school children, but they may need to be taught how to think. I tried to
include a wide variety of types of puzzles, so that each would teach a new lesson in
either logical thinking or finding creative solutions by breaking a variety of kinds of
mental blocks. Moreover, most of them can be solved mentally by using a judicious
point of view. Link to answers is found at the end, but don't go there until you've
sweat plenty!
1. Brown, Jones and Smith are a doctor, a lawyer, and a teacher. The teacher, who
is an only child, earns the least money. Smith, who married Brown's sister,
earns more than the lawyer. What is each man's job?
2. A farmer has a fox, goose and a bag of grain, and one boat to cross a stream,
which is only big enough to take one of the three across with him at a time. If
left alone together, the fox would eat the goose and the goose would eat the
grain. How can the farmer get all three across the stream?
3. A drawer contains 10 black and 10 brown socks that are all mixed up. What is
the fewest number of socks you can take from the drawer without looking and
be sure to get a pair of the same color?
4. There are three boxes which each contains two marbles: one has two white, one
has two black and one has one white and one black marble. Each of the boxes
also is labeled as to its contents, but each label is incorrect. What is the fewest
number of marbles you could remove from the boxes and look at in order to
definitely determine the contents of all three boxes?
5. When asked her 3 children's ages, Mrs. Muddled said that Alice is the youngest
unless Bill is, and that if Carl isn't the youngest then Alice is the oldest. Who is
the oldest and who is the youngest?
6. Two fathers and two sons went fishing. Each caught exactly one fish and yet
there were only three fish caught. Why?
7. Mr. and Mrs. Smith and their two children form a typical American family. If
exactly two of the following statements are true, what is the first name of the
father, mother, son and daughter:

George and Dorothy are blood relatives.

Howard is older than George.

Virginia is younger than Howard.

Virginia is older than Dorothy.

8. Three men were standing in a row, all facing the same direction, so that there
was one in back who could see the two in front of him, one in the middle, and
one in front who could not see either of the other two. There were three blue
and two red hats. One hat was placed on each man, without them seeing which
two were left over. Each man was told the total number of each color of hat.
First the man in the back was asked if he could deduce what color hat he had
on, but he said he couldn't. Neither could the man in the middle, when he was
next asked. But then man in the front, who could see neither of those behind
him but could hear their answers, correctly deduced by logic what color hat he
was wearing. What color was it and why?
9. While a red mark was placed on the forehead of each of three blindfolded
women seated facing each other in a circle, they were told that the the mark
might be either red or white. Upon removal of the blindfolds, each was to raise
her hand if she saw at least one red mark, and then to take it down if she could
logically deduce the color of her own mark. All three hands were quickly
raised, but then one of them lowered her hand. How did she know?
10.Mr. Reader's five daughters each gave books for Christmas to one or more of
her sisters. Each presented four books and each received four books, but no two
girls allocated her books in the same way. That is, only one gave two books to
one sister and two to another. Beth gave all her books to Alice; Christy gave
three to Edith. Which sisters gave the four books to Deborah?
11. How can you connect nine dots in three straight rows of three with four straight
lines without raising the pencil from the paper?
12.A man needed to pay his rent and was out of money, but found that his rent was
worth about one gold link on his chain per day. What is the fewest number of
cuts he can make in his 23-link chain to pay the rent daily for up to 23 days?
13.An explorer wishes to cross a barren desert that requires 6 days to cross, but
one man can only carry enough food for 4 days. What is the fewest number of
other men required to help carry enough food for him to cross?
14.A traveler meets a native in the jungle at a the fork in the trail, where only one
path goes to the village. The traveler does not know which path to take and

knows that the native could be either from the tribe of Truth-tellers, who always
tell the truth, or from the Liars, who always lie. What is one question he could
ask the native to discover the path to the village?
15.Twelve billiard balls all weigh the same, except for one that is either light or
heavy. Determine in three weighings on a balance scale which is the "odd ball",
and whether it is light or heavy.
16.A prisoner was given a chance to be blindfolded and pick one ball from two
bowls that would contain a total of 50 white and 50 black balls. Choosing white
meant freedom, black meant death. He asked if he could divide the balls
between the bowls before he was blindfolded and his request was granted.
What is the best way to divide the balls between the bowls?
17.How can three missionaries and three cannibals cross a river in a canoe that
holds at most two people if the cannibals must never outnumber the
missionaries on either side?
18.What is an English word that contains the five vowels a,e,i,o,u in order?
19.The following puzzle is about two actual historial people.
George and Evelyn never met but they carried on writing until late in life. It has
been said that Evelyn loved George, but she was too old for him. George
married in 1880. He converted to Catholicism in 1930. During World War II, he
served with the Royal Marines. Partly in recognition of this, Evelyn's
subsequent writings analyzed the character of that war.
Evelyn died in 1966 in Somerset. Her first full-length novel had been published
in 1859. She is buried in Highgate Cemetery. He died at age 62, after having
published his autobiography in 1964. He lived one year longer than she did.
How could these statements all be true?
20.The following is the only puzzle in this list which I created. It was a birthday
gift for Brent, a nutty friend who reminds me of a big, rambling bear. Can you
find his first, middle and last name spelled out in the verse, using a simple
arithmetic code?
"Dizzy Bear" Brent: neater, no nuttiest
Brent; rambling,
Big and ageless.

ANSWERS

1. Brown, Jones and Smith are a doctor, a lawyer, and a teacher. The teacher, who
is an only child, earns the least money. Smith, who married Brown's sister,
earns more than the lawyer. What is each man's job?
Smith earns more than the lawyer and also more than the teacher (who earns
the least) so Smith must be the doctor. Brown has a sister but the teacher has
none, so Brown must be the lawyer. That means Jones must be the teacher.
One way to solve almost any of this whole class of problems (which can get
extremely complicated) is to make a grid with the names in one direction and
the occupations in the other. Then one by one eliminate cells in each row or
column from the facts given. When all but one of a row or column is filled in,
then fill in the rest of the corresponding row and then continue. I have seen
whole books of just these kinds of problems, which seems boring to me
because once one learns this technique, they can all be solved the same way. I
only include one of these problems and this is it. Let's do this problem to see
how it works.
For example, start with the following table:
Doctor Lawyer Teacher
Brown
Jones
Smith

Then mark an X in impossible cells. Smith cannot be the lawyer, nor the
teacher.
Doctor Lawyer Teacher
Brown
Jones
Smith

Then, when only one possible cell remains in a row or column, mark an O there
and then fill in the rest of the remaining column or row. That is, once we know
that Smith is the doctor, we know that Brown and Jones are not the doctor.

Doctor Lawyer Teacher

Brown

Jones

Smith

Now continue crossing off impossible cells. Brown cannot be the teacher:
Doctor Lawyer Teacher
Brown

Jones

Smith

X
X

Now that only one cell remains possible in both row one and column three,
each must be an O.
Doctor Lawyer Teacher
Brown

Jones

Smith

X
O

The puzzle is now solved because there is an O in each row and column. If you
really feel the need to, you may place an X in the middle cell, but the puzzle is
already solved at this point. That is, from the table you can see that Brown is
the lawyer, Jones is the teacher, and Smith the doctor. This method might seem
like overkill for this simple problem, but once you learn how to draw these
grids, you can solve the hard puzzles, like identifying the positions of nine
named players on a baseball team. Let's move on to another whole class of
problem.
2. A farmer has a fox, goose and a bag of grain, and one boat to cross a stream,
which is only big enough to take one of the three across with him at a time. If
left alone together, the fox would eat the goose and the goose would eat the
grain. How can the farmer get all three across the stream?
Before I try to solve any problem I usually draw a picture and even though I
don't here, I did when I solved it (highly recommended). The first trip requires
the farmer to take the goose across, because it cannot be left with either grain or
the fox. On the next trip, the farmer may take either fox or grain, but then he
must bring back the goose. On the third trip, the farmer takes the remaining

item, but leaves the goose on the first shore. He then makes a fourth trip to
bring the goose. Thus, four trips are required, and the goose ends up crossing
three times.
3. A drawer contains 10 black and 10 brown socks that are all mixed up. What is
the fewest number of socks you can take from the drawer without looking and
be sure to get a pair of the same color?
In this problem, it is very important to notice that the color required is not
specified. It is only necessary to pick three socks to be guaranteed of getting at
least two black or two brown socks.
4. There are three boxes which each contains two marbles: one has two white, one
has two black and one has one white and one black marble. Each of the boxes
also is labeled as to its contents, but each label is incorrect. What is the fewest
number of marbles you could remove from the boxes and look at in order to
definitely determine the contents of all three boxes?
Solving this problem again involves reading it very carefully and knowing that
it means just what it says. We are told exactly what is in each box and also that
all three labels are wrong (not just possibly wrong). That is so a lot of
information, so let's draw a grid as in problem 1, crossing off the possibilities
that any box is label correctly:
Labeled B-B Labeled B-W Labeled W-W
Contains B-B
Contains B-W
Contains W-W

X
X
X

This problem now differs from the first in that we must choose judiciously to
fill in the rest of the table in the fewest number of looks inside the boxes. The
best way I know to discover the answer is to look for a choice where you are
guaranteed to learn something new. If you look first in the box labeled B-B and
you pull out a white marble, you still haven't learned what that box contains
because it might be B-W or W-W. Similarly if you look in the W-W box, a
choice of B does not allow you even to fill in one more cell of the table. But if
you choose the B-W box, then you are guaranteed to be able to fill in one more
cell, because if you draw out a white marble, then that box must be the W-W. If
you draw out a black, then it must be the B-B. Let's suppose it is white, and fill
in the table:

Labeled B-B Labeled B-W Labeled W-W

Contains B-B

Contains B-W

Contains W-W

Now we can fill in the rest of column two and row three because only one cell
is left:
Labeled B-B Labeled B-W Labeled W-W
Contains B-B

Contains B-W
Contains W-W

X
X

And now, wonder of wonders, the first column only has one empty cell, as does
the first row, so we can fill them in too:
Labeled B-B Labeled B-W Labeled W-W
Contains B-B

Contains B-W

Contains W-W

O
X

So the amazing thing is that by drawing only one marble out of the box labeled
B-W, we can deduce what is in all three boxes!
If we had been bright enough to solve it without the table we could have said
that the B-W box must be the W-W because we drew a white marble out of it.
That would mean the box labeled B-B must contain the B-W because it is
mislabeled and cannot contain two black marbles. That leaves the box labeled
W-W to contain two black marbles. Thus, the puzzle can be solved without
using a grid, but to me the grid method is more convincing because the logic is
so clear at each step.
5. When asked her 3 children's ages, Mrs. Muddled said that Alice is the youngest
unless Bill is, and that if Carl isn't the youngest then Alice is the oldest. Who is
the oldest and who is the youngest?
Again, let's resort to the grid method, because works so well. If you are already
getting bored with it, note that every one of these problems introduces a new

twist. This one is that Mrs. Muddled is confusing us with statements with the
word "unless" in it. How do we mark that in a grid? First, let's set up the grid.
Alice Bill Carl
Oldest
Middle
Youngest

Okay to start, we are told that the youngest may be either Alice or Bill. How
can we use that information? Well, we can deduce that Carl cannot the
youngest, so we can cross off that cell:
Alice Bill Carl
Oldest
Middle
Youngest

Next we are told that if Carl isn't the youngest (which he's not) the Alice is the
oldest. So Alice must be the oldest and we can fill in that box:
Alice Bill Carl
Oldest

Middle
Youngest

Now we can fill in the rest of the first column and first row because no one else
can be oldest and Alice cannot be anything but oldest:
Alice Bill Carl
Oldest

Middle

Youngest

X
X

Finally we can fill row three and column three which both have only one
remaining cell available:
Alice Bill Carl
Oldest

Middle

Youngest

O
O

Thus, Alice is oldest, Carl is Middle and Bill is the youngest.

6. Two fathers and two sons went fishing. Each caught exactly one fish and yet
there were only three fish caught. Why?
This is a classic in creative thinking. Many problems are set up to get you to
expect one thing and then shock you be having the obvious be false. At first we
think that two fathers and two sons means four people. But each caught a fish
and yet only three fish were caught. Hence, there were only three people. How
could that be? It must be that one of the three people fulfills a dual role of being
both a father and a son. Is that possible? Of course. So it must have been a
grandfather, a father and his son who went fishing.
7. Mr. and Mrs. Smith and their two children form a typical American family. If
exactly two of the following statements are true, what is the first name of the
father, mother, son and daughter:
o George and Dorothy are blood relatives.
o

Howard is older than George.

Virginia is younger than Howard.

Virginia is older than Dorothy.

We could draw a 4x4 grid to solve this but it may not be a great idea because
we don't even know which statements are true. Besides, all we need to find out
is whether the father is George or Howard, and whether the mother is Dorothy
or Virginia. We might be as well off with two 2x2 grids, one for the males and
one for the females. But the spirit of this problem is more to determine which
statements are true and which false, so let's try doing this one without grids.
We could try starting with each pair of statements and testing to see whether if
two are true, are the others necessarily false. Or we could just guess each of the
four answers in turn to see which one works. Because other similar problems
might have too many solutions to try, let's do it the first way. The secret to
doing the problems with some true and some false statements is to try totally
believing a statement and determining whether it leads to a logical
contradiction.

First let's try believing the first two statements to be true and see if that works.
Statement #1 means that George and Dorothy are not both parents, #2 means
that Howard is that father. So far so good; now we need the last two statements
to be false. #3 could be false only if Virginia is the mother, so that would mean
Howard and Virginia are the parents. But then #4 would also be true, so this is
not the solution because that would be 3 true statements.
So now let's suppose #1 is false. Then George and Dorothy are the parents. This
would mean that #2 is also false because George would be older than his son
Howard. Can the last two statements be true? Statement #3 could be true
because Virginia could be Howard's younger sister. But, alas, #4 would be
false, which is too many false statements.
Thus we have deduced that #1 must be true and #2 must be false if this puzzle
is to have any solution at all. Statement #2 false means that George is that
father, and #1 true then means that Virginia is the mother. That is the only
possible solution left, so it had better work. Statement #3 must then be false
because Virginia must be older than her son Howard. That means #4 needs to
be true, and YES, it is: Virginia would be older than her daughter Dorothy. So
there is exactly one solution: George and Virginia are the parents of Howard
and Dorothy.
8. Three men were standing in a row, all facing the same direction, so that there
was one in back who could see the two in front of him, one in the middle, and
one in front who could not see either of the other two. There were three blue
and two red hats. One hat was placed on each man, without them seeing which
two were left over. Each man was told the total number of each color of hat.
First the man in the back was asked if he could deduce what color hat he had
on, but he said he couldn't. Neither could the man in the middle, when he was
next asked. But then man in the front, who could see neither of those behind
him but could hear their answers, correctly deduced by logic what color hat he
was wearing. What color was it and why?
This is one of my all time favorite problems and the one I saw as a child which
got me interested on these puzzles. Many people really struggle with it, but it is
a totally staightforward problem. The trick is to REALLY put yourself in the
place of these men.
Okay, here goes. Suppose you are the man in the back, could you deduce what
color hat you have on by looking at the two in front of you? Well, if they were
both red, you would know you had a blue hat on. That man didn't know, and so
if we assume he had at least a little sense, we can deduce that the two hats in

front were not both red, that is, at least one of them was blue. Most people get
this far in the puzzle and are then stumped because they think there is no way to
tell which one is blue, or perhaps both. The trick to solving the puzzle is to now
put yourself in the place of the second man. If you were in his shoes and heard
the first answer, you would also know that at least one of that front two hat was
blue. If you saw a red hat in front of you, you would know you had a blue hat.
But he did not know. The only thing that could have prevented him from
knowing is that the first hat must have been blue.
9. While a red mark was placed on the forehead of each of three blindfolded
women seated facing each other in a circle, they were told that the the mark
might be either red or white. Upon removal of the blindfolds, each was to raise
her hand if she saw at least one red mark, and then to take it down if she could
logically deduce the color of her own mark. All three hands were quickly
raised, but then one of them lowered her hand. How did she know?
This is a variation of the above problem, but very hard for some people to
solve. Everyone can see that each woman could be thinking that her own
forehead might be red or white because the other two women could be raising
their hands because of each other. Again, this is the point where most people
stop, and indeed, where the women stopped while all three hands were up. The
trick to solving this problem is to REALLY put yourself into the smart woman's
shoes. If you REALLY were she, you'd say, either I have a white spot or a red.
Suppose you had a white spot. Then the other two women would be looking at
one white spot and one red. They would each quickly figure out that that only
reason the others hand was up was because of their own red spot. The fact that
neither of them figured it out was the tip off to the first that she must also have
a red spot. Most people put themselves in the place of the first person, but to
solve this one, you must then also put yourself in the place of a second woman.
10.Mr. Reader's five daughters each gave books for Christmas to one or more of
her sisters. Each presented four books and each received four books, but no two
girls allocated her books in the same way. That is, only one gave two books to
one sister and two to another. Beth gave all her books to Alice; Christy gave
three to Edith. Which sisters gave the four books to Deborah?
This sounds like a perfect one for the grid method, but we're going to fill the
grid with the number of books given to each sister. Note that it is not required
to tell who gave how many books to each sister, but only to Deborah. It may
not be solvable all the way, but let's try. First let's make a grid with what is
given, with names at left meaning "Gives" and names at top meaning
"Receives".

Alice Beth Christy Deborah Edith

Alice

Beth

Christy

Deborah

3
0

Edith

Okay, now what? There are a lot of cells to fill in. How do we start? First, we
can see that Alice already received her four, so no other sister gave her any, so
we can put zeros in the rest of the first column, and also in the rest of her row.
Moreover, we can notice that one sister gave one book to each of her sisters.
That sister had to be Alice, because none of the other other sisters could give
Alice a book because she had received her four already. Thus we can fill in the
first row too:
Alice Beth Christy Deborah Edith
Alice

Beth

Christy

Deborah

Edith

3
0
0

Now we look at the total in the last row and see that it is already 4. So the last
cell in the last row must be zero:
Alice Beth Christy Deborah Edith
Alice

Beth

Christy

Deborah

Edith

3
0

0
0

Now we come to the problem that we don't know if Christy gave her fourth
book to Beth or Deborah, and we need to know that to solve the problem. But
there is a way to keep filling in the table other ways. Look at Deborah's books
received. She only has one so far and needs to get four and has only two sisters
left to give them to her. Thus, she must get one book from one sister and two

from the other. But Deborah cannot receive two from Christy, who only has one
left to give. So Deborah must receive one from Christy and two from Edith:
Alice Beth Christy Deborah Edith
Alice

Beth

Christy

Deborah

Edith

Technically we are done at this point because we can say that Deborah received
one book from Alice and Christy, and two from Edith. But how can we resist
filling in the rest of the table? Clearly Deborah must be the one giving away
two books to each of two sisters because there are only two left to give them to.
And so Edith must the be sister who split up the books 2-1-1. Thus we can fill
in the entire table. Note that each gives four books and each receives four:
Alice Beth Christy Deborah Edith
Alice

Beth

Christy

Deborah

Edith

Isn't that an astounding amount of information to fill in from so little given?

That is why this problem is one of my favorites.
11. How can you connect nine dots in three straight rows of three with four straight
lines without raising the pencil from the paper?
This calls for a creative answer. It requires going beyond the end of the square
of nine dots:
O------O-------O
|\
/
| \
/
| \
/
O
O
O
|
\
/
|
\ /
|
/
|
/ \

O
O
|
/
|
/
| /
| /
|/

12.A man needed to pay his rent and was out of money, but found that his rent was
worth about one gold link on his chain per day. What is the fewest number of
cuts he can make in his 23-link chain to pay the rent for up to 23 days?
This problem is great because it requires only two links to be cut. Cut link
number 4 and link number 11 counting from the same beginning link. He then
has 2 pieces of length 1 (the cut links), and one of 3, 6, and 12. He can then pay
the rent as follows. One each of the first two days he can give a cut link. On the
third day he gives the chain of 3 and gets his two cut links back. He uses them
on days 4 and 5, and then trades all given so far and gives the 6-link chain on
day 6. He then again repeats the first steps for days 7-11. On day 12 he gets all
those links back and gives the 12-link chain. The then repeats the actions of the
first 11 days to go all the way though day 23. For those knowing numbering
systems, it will be noticed that this is basically a trinary numbering scheme.
13.An explorer wishes to cross a barren desert that requires 6 days to cross, but
one man can only carry enough food for 4 days. What is the fewest number of
other men required to help carry enough food for him to cross?
There are probably a lot of ways to solve this but my way was first to realize
that if each of the men ate his own food then even if we begin with a hundred
men, each can only get four days into the desert. Clearly the idea is to get only
the one explorer across and have the helpers return back. By simply trying a
few ideas the answer is clearly that two other men are required.
The first helper only goes on day into the desert. He feeds the other two men
during the first day, so that at the beginning of the second day, he only has one
day rations left. So he goes back to camp. On the second day, the second helper
feeds himself and the explorer. On the beginning of the third day the helper
now has two days rations left so he heads back. The explorer is two days into
the journey and still has all four days of his food left, so he continues on alone.
14.A traveler meets a native in the jungle at a the fork in the trail, where only one
path goes to the village. The traveler does not know which path to take and
knows that the native could be either from the tribe of Truth-tellers, who always
tell the truth, or from the Liars, who always lie. What is one question he could
ask the native to discover the path to the village?

There are at least a hundred variations on this problem and they are not all
based on the same idea. This is one of the simplest but it is still tricky. The idea
is to find a question such that either native will answer the same. That requires
that the question include some sort of double negative, which will cancel out
the fact that he may be lying. One example is "If you were from the other tribe,
which path would you say goes to the village?" The truth teller will point to the
wrong path, and so will the liar (think about it). So whatever path is pointed to,
take the other one.
15.Twelve billiard balls all weigh the same, except for one that is either light or
heavy. Determine in three weighings on a balance scale which is the "odd ball",
and whether it is light or heavy.
What makes this problem hard is the last requirement to tell in every case
whether the ball is light or heavy. There are many ways to find the odd-ball, but
I only know one way to really do this problem, and it is elegant because in
every case but one, the scale could balance or go either way on each weighing.
This is my way:
Weighing 1. Put four on each side of scale. If they balance, it is case A. If not,
then B.
Weighing 2, Case A. Put three of the four unknown (unweighed) balls on one
side of scale and 3 of the 8 normal from first weighing on other. If they balance
it is case Aa, if not Ab.
Weighing 3, Case Aa. Put the only unweighed ball on balance with any other
(normal) ball. If it goes up, it is light, if down it is heavy. If it balances
something is wrong! (This is the one case where it cannot balance).
Weighing 3, Case Ab. You now know that the odd ball is among the three new
ones just weighed, and you already know whether it is light or heavy
(depending on if that side of scale went up or down). Weight two of those three
against each other. If it balances, the other one is the odd ball. If not, the one
that goes in the direction you already know is the odd ball. That is, if you
already knew one of the three was light, then the side that went up has the light
ball.
Weighing 2, Case B. Take the four balls from the side of the scale which went
down and put two on each side of the scale. Also take two of the four from the
side that went up and put on each side of the scale, noting which are which.

Now there are three balls on each side of the scale. If it balances, it is case Ba,
if not Bb.
Weighing 3, Case Ba. Now we know that one of the two balls used in the first
weighing but not the second is light. Weight either one against any other
standard ball. If it goes up it is light, otherwise the other one is.
Weighing 3, Case Bb. Whichever side went down has two balls that might be
heavy, or there could be one light one on the other side. Weight the two
possible heavies against each other. If one side goes down, that is the heavy
ball. If they balance, then the one the might be light on the other side is indeed
light.
16.A prisoner was given a chance to be blindfolded and pick one ball from two
bowls that would contain a total of 50 white and 50 black balls. Choosing white
meant freedom, black meant death. He asked if he could divide the balls
between the bowls before he was blindfolded and his request was granted.
What is the best way to divide the balls between the bowls?
He asked that all the balls be put in one bowl except one white ball in the other.
There was a 1/2 chance of getting the bowl with the white ball, and 100%
chance of getting a white ball in that case. Even if he got the other one, he still
had a 49/99 chance of life, which is nearly 1/2. Thus the total odds are about
1/2 (if right bowl) + 1/4 (half the time if wrong bowl) = 3/4.
17.How can three missionaries and three cannibals cross a river in a canoe that
holds at most two people, if the cannibals must never outnumber the
missionaries on either side?
This answer is being added to this page on 17 Feb 2007. Before today, I had an
additional constraint in the problem that the two cannibals could not cross
together. For the answer, I said that it was hard and I'd have to come back to it.
Today I came back to it, and it was not only hard, it is easy to show it is
impossible, and no one has told me after several years! The only possible first
move would be that one missionary and one cannibal cross together, and then
the only move would be that the missionary brings the canoe back. Then there
is no possible second move! If you saw that and didn't tell me, shame on you.
So today I dropped that mistaken constraint and here's an answer:
Send two cannibals over first and have one bring back the canoe. Then repeat
that, and then send two missionaries across and have one bring back a cannibal.
Then send both the remaining missionaries over, and have a cannibal return the

canoe. Now all the cannibals are on the near side of the river, and the
missionaries on the far side. Now just have the cannibals bring the rest over in
two trips and you're done.
18.What is an English word that contains the five vowels a,e,i,o,u in order?
Someone at work asked me this and I cheat to get the answers by using an
electronic dictionary with wildcards. He was thinking of "facetious", an one
could even add a "y" in "facetiously" if desired. Other answers include
"abstemious", "arsenious," but that's about it unless you allow extra vowels or
multiple words. I know this isn't exactly a logic puzzle, but here it is anyway.
19.The following puzzle is about two actual historial people.
George and Evelyn never met but they carried on writing until late in life. It has
been said that Evelyn loved George, but she was too old for him. George
married in 1880. He converted to Catholicism in 1930. During World War II, he
served with the Royal Marines. Partly in recognition of this, Evelyn's
subsequent writings analyzed the character of that war.
Evelyn died in 1966 in Somerset. Her first full-length novel had been published
in 1859. She is buried in Highgate Cemetery. He died at age 62, after having
published his autobiography in 1964. He lived one year longer than she did.
How could these statements all be true? George was George Elliot, pen name of
Mary Ann Evans, who lived from 1819-1880. Evelyn was Evelyn Waugh
(1903-1966), a man who was an English author known for his satirical about
wealthy London society. They both kept writing books until late in life (not
letters to each other). Evelyn loved George means that he loved her books, just
as he could have loved Shakespeare. The rest is just a statement of facts,
arranged to confuse, hoping the reader would assume the George was male and
Evelyn female.
20.The following is the only puzzle in this list which I created. It was a birthday
gift for Brent, a nutty friend who reminds me of a big, rambling bear. Can you
find his first, middle and last name spelled out in the verse, using a simple
arithmetic code?
"Dizzy Bear" Brent: neater, no nuttiest
Brent; rambling,
Big and ageless.

His name is Dennis Brent

Briggs. If you got Dan Brent
Briggs, you did great, but
you fell into the trap of
accepting a highly probable
short first name that was not
part of the puzzle before
The verse in rows separated by three letters.

The verse in rows separated by five letters.

looking at all possible answers. If you had found "Dennis," there would have
been no doubt in your mind.
The first letter of each line and of the first three words form an acrostic,
implying that his initial might be DBB. The code is to count forward a fixed
number of letters to find a hidden name. For example, begin on the "B" in
"Bear" and count forward every three letters. You find that it spells out "Brent."
Note in the illustration that it forms a perfect cross, designed to make it clear
that it is not there by chance, in order to help you discover the code.
Now count every 5 letters beginning at the first letter to get "DBrentBriggs."
That confirms the suspicion of the first initials, but leaves the first name
unknown. Starting with the first "D" you can find the name Dan by counting
every seventh letter. But to be thorough you should try all possible counts.
Counting every 11th letter yields "Dennis." Because that is a much longer name
(and hence improbable to be there by chance), and because it begins and ends
on the first and last letter, it should be clear that it is the one the puzzle designer
had in mind. Note that even the capitalization of the letters comes out correctly.

By the way, these codes are the same as used in the very controversial so-called
"Bible Codes," except that those codes can run forward or backward.

My Favorite Math Puzzles

by John P. Pratt
last updated 7 Nov 2008
None of the following puzzles has a trick answer, or unwarranted assumptions. They
are arranged approximately in order of difficulty; the first few can be done by
elementary school children, but they may need to be taught how to think. I tried to
include a wide variety of types of puzzles, so that each would teach a new lesson in
finding creative solutions by breaking a variety of kinds of mental blocks. Moreover,
most of them can be solved mentally by using a judicious point of view.
1. Three men each paid $10 to share a $30 hotel room. Later, the manager felt bad
about overcharging them for a $25 dollar room, so he gave the bellboy 5 onedollar bills to return to them. The bellboy returned one dollar to each of the
men, but kept two for himself. So the men paid $27 for the room, plus $2 to the
bellboy for a total of $29. Where did the extra dollar go?
2. If you had fifty common U.S. coins that added up to exactly a dollar, how many
dimes would you have?
3. A race car is going around a track that is a square, one mile on a side. If it goes
60 mph around the first two sides and 30 mph on the the third side, how fast
must it go to average 60 mph all the way around?
4. If a hiker averages 2 miles/hr uphill and 6 miles/hr coming back the same trail,
what is his average speed going both ways?
5. The coach, who also taught math, said he'd give each of the eleven boys on the
football team the same amount of money to buy candy, provided that each spent
the money differently on the 2, 3, 4, or 6 cent candy. If he gave each the
smallest amount with which that could be done, how much did each receive?
6. If 6 anteaters can eat 6 ants in 6 minutes, how many anteaters would it take to
eat 100 ants in 100 minutes? Another variation is: If a chicken and 3/4 can lay
an egg and 3/4 in a day and 3/4, how many chickens does it take to lay a dozen
eggs lay in a week? (Jr. High).

7. Four black cows and three brown cows give as much milk in five days as three
black cows and five brown cows give in four days. Which color cow gives the
most milk?
8. How many times a day do the hour and minute hands on a clock line up exactly
with each other?
9. Without writing down any trial solutions, prove that the following digit
substitution problem has no solution:
E L E V E N
- T H R E E
E I G H T

10.A tournament had A and B divisions, each with from 3 to 10 contestants. Each
division was a round-robin, in which every contestant plays every other
contestant. One contestant was not allowed to register late because there were
already so many matches to be played. However, that decision was reversed
when he showed that allowing him to enter would actually decrease the total
number of matches by 2, provided that his friend were allowed to change
divisions. How many contestants ended up in each division?
11. Two professors met again after several years and one said he was now married
with three children. When the other asked their ages, the first said that the
product of their ages is 36. The second asked for another clue and the first
asked if he could see the number on the house across the street. When the other
said yes, the first said that the sum of their ages equaled that number. The
second said he still could not determine their ages. Then the first said that his
oldest child has red hair. Finally the second knew their ages. What were their
ages and how did he know?
12.A boy spent exactly one dollar and bought exactly 100 pieces of candy,
including some at $ .05, $.02, and 10 for $.01. How many pieces of each kind
of candy did he buy?
13.On a TV quiz show a contestant is shown three closed doors and told that two
of them have nothing behind them, but that one has a new car as a prize behind
it. The contestant makes her choice of doors where she thinks the prize is. Then
one of the other two doors is opened where there is no prize, and the contestant
is asked if she would like to change her guess. Do the odds favor changing the
guess? Why or why not?
14.If Tom is twice as old as Howard will be when Jack is a old as Tom is now, who
is the oldest, next oldest and youngest?

15.A spoonful is removed from a cup of wine and placed in a cup of water and
stirred well. Then a spoonful is removed from the resulting solution and put
back into the cup of wine. Is there more water in the wine or vice versa?
16.A spider is one foot from the floor in the middle of 12 foot square end wall of a
30-foot long room. A fly is situated in the middle of the other end wall, 1 foot
from the ceiling. What is the shortest walking distance from the spider to the
fly?
17.A book has 600 pages and an average of 1 typographical error per page. What
is the probability of finding n of them on any one page (for n = 0, 1, 2, or any
integer). (Hint: use a Poisson distribution.)

Math Puzzle Answers

by John P. Pratt
last updated 31 Mar 2007
1. Three men each paid $10 to share a $30 hotel room. Later, the manager felt bad
about overcharging them for a $25 dollar room, so he gave the bellboy 5 onedollar bills to return to them. The bellboy returned one dollar to each of the
men, but kept two for himself. So the men paid $27 for the room, plus $2 to the
bellboy for a total of $29. Where did the extra dollar go?
This is sort of a trick question, but it usually takes people a surprisingly long
time to get it. The trick is the word "plus". In reality, the $2 should be
subtracted from (not added to) the $27 to get $25 paid for the room. There is no
missing dollar.
2. If you had fifty common U.S. coins that added up to exactly a dollar, how many
dimes would you have?
You would have 2 dimes. You might also have 40 pennies and 8 nickels, or you
might have 45 pennies, a quarter and 2 nickels.
3. A race car is going around a track that is a square, one mile on a side. If it goes
60 mph around the first two sides and 30 mph on the the third side, how fast
must it go to average 60 mph all the way around?

No, the answer is not 90 mph, and it is also not 120 mph. The average time is
the total distance divided by the total time. 60 mph is 1 mile per minute. To
average one mile per minute around a 4 mile track, it must finish the race in
four minutes. It spent one minute on the first leg, another on the second, and 2
minutes on the third. Thus it has used up all four of the minutes needed! Thus,
no matter how fast it goes, it cannot average 60 mph all the way around.
4. If a hiker averages 2 miles/hr uphill and 6 miles/hr coming back the same trail,
what is his average speed going both ways?
This is similar to the last problem, in that you cannot simply average speeds
and get 4 mph as the correct answer. The answer is easiest to see if you pick
any distance at all for the length of the trail, say 6 miles. Going up takes 3
hours and coming down takes one hour. That is 12 miles in 4 hours, so the
average is 3 mph.
5. The coach, who also taught math, said he'd give each of the eleven boys on the
football team the same amount of money to buy candy, provided that each spent
the money differently on the 2, 3, 4, or 6 cent candy. If he gave each the
smallest amount with which that could be done, how much did each receive?
TBA
6. If 6 anteaters can eat 6 ants in 6 minutes, how many anteaters would it take to
eat 100 ants in 100 minutes? Another variation is: If a chicken and 3/4 can lay
an egg and 3/4 in a day and 3/4, how many chickens does it take to lay a dozen
eggs lay in a week? (Jr. High).
If 6 can eat 6 in 6 minutes, then those same 6 can eat 12 in 12 minutes, 24 in 24
minutes or 100 in 100 minutes. You can think of it as all 6 as working on one
ant in one minute and then going to the next ant.
As for the chickens and eggs, you can come up with a formula, which I did in
my last posted solution, but it gives no insight into how to do the problem or
what are the principles at work. One method I use to solve problems is to begin
with something I know, which is whole numbers of chickens. Suppose 2
chickens could lay 2 eggs in 2 days. Let's try varying some of those numbers to
see what happens. If 2 chickens lay 2 eggs in 2 days, then it takes each chicken
two days to lay an egg. So 1 chicken would lay 1 egg in 2 days, and 47
chickens would lay 47 eggs in 2 days. So we learn Rule 1: We can multiply
the first two numbers by the same number and keep the third the
same. Now let's keep the middle number fixed. How long would it take for 1
chicken to lay 2 eggs? Half as many chickens working would take twice as long

to produce the same output. So 1 chicken could lay 2 eggs in 4 days, and 4
chickens could produce 2 eggs in 1 day. So we have Rule 2: If we multiply the
number of workers by N and keep the output fixed, then we must divide
the time by N. Now suppose we keep the number of chickens fixed. How long
would it take 2 chickens to produce 4 eggs? It would take 4 days. And 2
chickens could produce 6 eggs in 6 days. So we have Rule 3: We can keep the
first number fixed and multiply the last two by the any number and it will
be true. Now let's solve the problem using these rules.
Method 1: Use two of the rules to change the numbers to the desired ones. If
7/4 chickens can lay 7/4 eggs in 7/4 days, how many chickens would it take to
lay 12 eggs in 7 days? We can use either Rule 2 or Rule 3 to change the number
of days to 7. Using rule 3, we multiply the last two numbers by 4 and get that
7/4 chickens can produce 7 eggs in 7 days. Now use Rule 1 to change the
number of eggs while leaving the days unchanged. We multiply the first two
numbers by 12/7 (to get a dozen eggs) and get the answer that 3 chickens can
lay a dozen eggs in a week. (Exercise for student: Get same result by using
Rule 2.)
Method 2: This problem was submitted by my friend Moray King who prefers
the method of always beginning by applying Rule 1 first to find the output of
one worker. Multiplying the first two numbers by 4/7 means that 1 chicken can
produce 1 egg in 7/4 days. Now we can apply Rule 3 and multiply by 4 to get
one week: 1 chicken can produce 4 eggs in 7 days. And now Rule 1 again and
multiply by three to get the desired number of eggs: 3 chickens can lay 12 eggs
in 7 days. That took an extra step, but it is easier to remember and conceptually
very easy. Which of the Rules would have solved the anteater problem in one
step?
7. Four black cows and three brown cows give as much milk in five days as three
black cows and five brown cows give in four days. Which color cow gives the
most milk?
I don't see a way to solve this by inspection because the numbers are too close.
One way to solve it is by beginning with my Rule 2 (which keeps production
the same) from the last problem. Thus, to see how many of the latter mixture
would be needed to produce the same milk in 5 days (5/4 the time), we multiply
the cows by 4/5. That means that 2.4 black cows and 4 brown cows produce the
same milk in 5 days as do four black and three brown. That means that 1 brown
cow is producing as much as 1.6 black cows, so the brown is more.
Now let's solve it with algebra. The rate of production of each cow times the
time equals the amount of milk. Let rB be the rate for Black cows and rb be for
brown cows. Then (4*rB + 3*rb)* 5 days = (3*rB + 5*rb)* 4 days. Solving this

equation for the ratio of rates rB/rb yields 5/8, which is the same answer. So the
brown cow produces 8/5 as much!
8. How many times a day do the hour and minute hands on a clock line up exactly
with each other?
No, it is not 24. Look at a clock. The hands align at 12:00, then 1:06, 2:12, ...
10:54, but that is all. There is no 11:60 because that is the same ast 12:00. So
they align 11 times per revolution of the hour hand, or 22 times per day.
9. Without writing down any trial solutions, prove that the following digit
substitution problem has no solution:
E L E V E N
- T H R E E
E I G H T

TBA
10.A tournament had A and B divisions, each with from 3 to 10 contestants. Each
division was a round-robin, in which every contestant plays every other
contestant. One contestant was not allowed to register late because there were
already so many matches to be played. However, that decision was reversed
when he showed that allowing him to enter would actually decrease the total
number of matches by 2, provided that his friend were allowed to change
divisions. How many contestants ended up in each division?
TBA
11. Two professors met again after several years and one said he was now married
with three children. When the other asked their ages, the first said that the
product of their ages is 36. The second asked for another clue and the first
asked if he could see the number on the house across the street. When the other
said yes, the first said that the sum of their ages equaled that number. The
second said he still could not determine their ages. Then the first said that his
oldest child has red hair. Finally the second knew their ages. What were their
ages and how did he know?
This is my all time favorite problem. To do it, first write down all the real
possibilities that the number on that building might have been. Assuming
integer ages you get the following which equal 36 when multiplied:
Ages = 1,1,36 (sum = 38)

Ages = 1,2,18 (sum = 21)

Ages = 1,3,12 (sum = 16)
Ages = 1,4,9 (sum = 14)
Ages = 1,6,6 (sum = 13)
Ages = 2,2,9 (sum = 13)
Ages = 2,3,6 (sum = 11)
Ages = 3,3,4 (sum = 10)
The big clue is that the second professor DID NOT KNOW after having been
told the sum equalled the number on the house. Why didn't he know? The only
reason would be that the number was thirteen, in which case there are two
possible answers. For any other number, the answer is unique and the professor
would have known after the second clue. So he asked for a third clue. The clue
that the oldest had red hair is really just saying that there is an "oldest",
meaning that the older two are not twins. Hence, the answer is that the redhead
is 9 years old, and the younger two are both two years old.
12.A boy spent exactly one dollar and bought exactly 100 pieces of candy,
including some at $ .05, $.02, and 10 for $.01. How many pieces of each kind
of candy did he buy?
11 pieces of the nickel candy, 19 of the 2 cent, and 70 of the 10/penny.
13.On a TV quiz show a contestant is shown three closed doors and told that two
of them have nothing behind them, but that one has a new car as a prize behind
it. The contestant makes her choice of doors where she thinks the prize is. Then
one of the other two doors is opened where there is no prize, and the contestant
is asked if she would like to change her guess. Do the odds favor changing the
guess? Why or why not?
The odds favor changing your answer. This problem is famous because Marilyn
vos Savant, the "smartest person in the world," answered this question in her
column in Parade, in one sentence like I just did. Then several famous math
professors challenged her, saying that it made no difference, that the chance
became 1/2 for each after the other door was opened. Marilyn turned out to be
right and gave a nice, short proof. I'll give a different proof which my mother
used.
When I asked my non-mathmatical ninety-year-old Mother this puzzle, I was
astounded that she got the right answer in seconds, reasoning as follows. She
said, "the chance is 1 in 3 that it is behind the door she chose, and zero chance
that it is behind the one that was opened, so there must be a 2 in 3 chance that it

is behind the other one." That is exactly right. To see why, pretend that there
were 100 doors instead of three. Suppose they kept opening all 98 other doors,
so that only the original door chosen was left and one other. Now would you
change doors? There is only a 1/100 chance that the first door was right, and a
huge chance (99/100) that the other is right.
14.If Tom is twice as old as Howard will be when Jack is a old as Tom is now, who
is the oldest, next oldest and youngest?
TBA
15.A spoonful is removed from a cup of wine and placed in a cup of water and
stirred well. Then a spoonful is removed from the resulting solution and put
back into the cup of wine. Is there more water in the wine or vice versa?
There are equal amounts in each. I'll come back and show why some day.
16.A spider is one foot from the floor in the middle of 12 foot square end wall of a
30-foot long room. A fly is situated in the middle of the other end wall, 1 foot
from the ceiling. What is the shortest walking distance from the spider to the
fly?
No the answer is not 42 (going straight up or down and around). The only way I
know to do this problem is to drawn pictures of every possible way to cut the
room apart and have the spider walk in a straight line between the points. You
have to know the Pythagorean formula that sum of the squares of the legs of a
right triangle equals the square of the hypotenuse. You'll know when you have
the answer because it comes out in round numbers.
17.A book has 600 pages and an average of 1 typographical error per page. What
is the probability of finding n of them on any one page (for n = 0, 1, 2, or any
integer). (Hint: use a Poisson distribution.)
You need higher math for this one, but I put it in because of how nifty the
answer is. It turns out that the probability of n errors per page is 1/(en!) where e
= 2.71828 and n! means n x (n-1) x (n-2) ... 1.
For example, the probabily it zero errors per page is 1/e or 1/2.7, which is also
the probabily of 1 error per page. The chance of 2 errors per page is half that
and of 3 is 1(3x2) or 1/6 of the chance of 1. If you add up all of the possible
probabilities of up to all 600 errors being on one page, the all add up to 1 (or
very close to one. Technically, if you all them all the way to infinity, they add to
one.)

Jacob's Missing Descendant

Jacob's extended family at the time he moved to Egypt is listed in
the Bible, but some informationabout one descendant may have
been purposely hidden. If there is no mistake in the following
summary and interpretation of the Biblical account, what canyou
logically deduce about the identity of Jacob's missing descendant?

1. All seventy living souls of the house of Jacob, including all of his living male and
femaledescendants, were in Egypt when he arrived there with those who accompanied
him. (Gen. 46:6, 27).
2. Sixty-six of Jacob's descendants came to Egypt with him. This count includes only
Jacob's literaloffspring; none of his sons' wives is included (Gen. 46:26).
3. Except for Joseph and his two sons, who already resided in Egypt (Gen. 46:27),
Jacob took withhim all of his son(s), his sons' son(s), his daughter(s), his sons'
daughter(s) (Gen. 46:7), and all ofhis great-grandchildren ("little ones," Gen. 46:5).
4. These are the names of Jacob's descendants when they had all arrived in Egypt,
along with subtotals for each of his four wives (Leah, Zilpah, Rachel, and Bilhah):
a. Leah had 33 living descendants. Her sons were Reuben, Simeon,
Levi, Judah, Issachar,and Zebulun, and her daughter was Dinah.
Reuben's sons were Hanoch, Phallu, Hezron andCarmi. Simeon's
sons were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of
aCannaanitish woman. Levi's sons were Gershon, Kohath and Merari.
Judah's sons were Er,Onan, Shelah, Pharez, and Zerah, but Er and
Onan had died previously. Pharez' sons wereHezron and Hamul.
Issachar's sons were Tola, Phuvah, Job and Shimron. Zebulun's
sonswere Sered, Elon and Jahleel (Gen. 46:8-15).
b. Zilpah had 16 living descendants. Her sons were Gad and Asher.
Gad's sons were Ziphion,Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.
Asher's sons were Jimnah, Ishuah, Isui andBeriah, and Serah was
their sister. Beriah's sons were Heber and Malchiel (Gen. 46:16-18).

c. Rachel had 14 living descendants. Her sons were Joseph and

Benjamin. In Egypt, the sonsof Joseph and his wife Asenath,
daughter of an Egyptian priest, were Manasseh and
Ephraim.Benjamin's sons were Belah, Becher, Ashbel, Gera,
Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim,and Ard (Gen. 46:19-22).
d. Bilhah had 7 living descendants. Her sons were Dan and Naphtali.
Dan's son was Hushim.Naphtali's sons were Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer and
Shillem (Gen. 46:23-25).