17 September 2015

A simple but elegant puzzle

Five friends at the gym came upon the new weighing machine recently installed there. They decided to take their weights in pairs (two at a time). The five of them can have ten pairings. They found the weights to be 259, 251, 264, 281, 268, 242, 257, 266, 253 and 275 pounds.
From this can you find out what were the individual weights of the friends?

If you are reading this on FB, message me if you have found the answers and your method.

Category: Puzzles | 4 Comments on A simple but elegant puzzle
13 September 2015

Math puzzle (relatively easy)

Yet another custom when my nephews and niece are around in their granddad’s house along with me is to go out for a walk after dinner and solve mathematical or logic puzzles. You might remember how, last time, we got stuck on getting two numbers (was it 19 and 21??) using the digits 1, 2 and 3 and any number of operators.

Last night, we came up with a variation – Using the digits 1, 2 and 4 and no other digits (and you can use them only once) you have to come up with 1 thru 25. 20 posed an interesting problem. Can you try it?

Using 1, 2 and 4 get 20. You can use any number of mathematical operators and symbols any number of times (but no other digits than the above and that too only once). For the record, trigonometric functions are not allowed since there is an assumption of the unit (radians/degrees). We reluctantly accept logarithms but try to find alternate answers. We certainly accept concatenation. Meaning you can get 16 by simly saying 12+4.

Category: Puzzles, Vacations | 19 Comments on Math puzzle (relatively easy)
6 September 2015

Wait a minute…

West Point is where the U.S. Military Academy is. This is where the best and strongest of us all are trained to protect the country and its citizens. Yesterday, in the academy, thirty of these best and strongest were badly hurt… not in hand to hand combat or a live practice gone awry… but in a pillow fight!!! A pillow fight!!! How exactly do you get a concussion in a pillow fight?

Our enemies will be trembling in fear… once they figure out how to stop laughing !! 🙂

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/05/us/west-point-pillow-fight/

Category: Humor | 3 Comments on Wait a minute…
3 September 2015

The day after Chris Christie became President

[Yes, this is the third flight of the week and I am bored 🙂 But fresh from the bout of Top Five things that would happen the day after Donald Trump became the President, I figured I should turn my attention to Chris Christie too. Feel free to add to the list of what happened the day after Chris Christie became the President of USA]

Christie lost no time in calling up the Nobel Prize Commitee to find out when would he be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize which, per his understanding, is given to anybody who gets elected to be the US President 🙂 Eventually, a compromise was reached between White House staff and the Powers That Be to enter Chris Christie’s name in the Guinness Book of World Records under the section “What man made object on Earth is visible from the moon”. 🙂

In his first TV interview after being elected the President, Christie was asked why he believed Americans trusted him to solve the immigration problem more than anybody else. Christie pointed out that most of the illegal immigrants cross into the USA through well concealed tunnels underground. He credited USA citizenry for recognizing his superior level of experience in shutting down tunnels to strand people on either side compared to any other candidate.

In anticipation of a large White House contract (to track illegal immigrants), Fed Ex boosted their total capacity by announcing an imminent deal to buy UPS. The CEO of Fed Ex explained that, in line with the mood of the citizenry, the new company will be called FedUPS. The outgoing UPS CEO, recognizing that FedEx won the war over them, admitted “We never really quite found out what Brown could do for us”.

Category: Humor | 23 Comments on The day after Chris Christie became President