So Nikita and I were having dinner together and asking each other puzzles. One we came up with was “How many countries can you name that starts and ends with the same letter”? Each and every one that we came up with – Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria… were with “A”. We could not find a single non-“A” country. Can you? (meaning country names that start and end with the same letter and it is not A)

Case A: Imagine you have a rope tightly wound around a basketball. How much more rope do you need for the rope to be one foot away from the surface of the basketball at all times? (as if it is tightly wound around an imaginary ball that has radius one foot more than the radius of the basketball). I do not need an exact answer now. Just imagine it.

Case B: Now imagine you have a rope tightly would around the equator of the earth (what, about 25,000 miles or so?). How much more rope do you need for the rope to be one foot away from the equator at all times? (as if the radius of the earth had increased by a foot). I do not need an exact answer now either. Just imagine it.

Now for the puzzle:
In which case do you think you need more rope – Case A or Case B? Any rough idea by how much?

I know it is only Tuesday but I am on my flight back home and there are two of my friends who have sent me puzzles that I thought can be posted here…

This one comes courtesy of Amrith Kumar. I sent him an answer – but I have not received confirmation whether I am right or not. So, we might have to wait till he publishes the answer.

Think of all the 4 digit numbers ( leading 0s count). Essentially 0000 to 9999. Now pick only those numbers where the first two digits add up to the same number as the last two digits. So 1533 qualifies as does 0312 and so on.

You have to prove that the total of all such numbers (if you add them up) is divisible by 3 as well as 11.

Long coast to coast flight now 🙁 Here is something to keep you busy as I take a nap 🙂
Once again, send me personal message on FB if you have the answer – not in the Comments section.

Last week was my elder daughter (Natasha)’s fifteenth birthday. She had a bunch of school friends over for dinner and sleepover. The shrill decibel levels with a dozen teenagers at our house was enough for the dog to sleep most of the time outside our house 🙂 But I digress. One of her friend’s mom has a cupcake business and we were glad to give her some business. Her standard packagings were 6 cupcakes to a packet, 9 cupcakes to a packet and 20 cupcakes to a packet. We ordered 60 and she delivered 3 packets of 20 each.

Which leads me to my question – what is the maximum number of cupcakes we could have ordered that she would not have been able to fit neatly in her packets? (e.g. 17 cupcakes would be impossible to neatly fit in her packets – there will be some leftovers. I am looking for the highest number that would not fit in her 6/9/20 packet combinations)

Flying back from St. Louis. Thought of a puzzle that incorporates my love for running in it..

There are 4 runners in a race. How many possible outcomes can be there in that race. Be aware that there can be ties. Which means two or three or even all of them might finish the race at the same time.

To explain it further, if A B C and D are the runners, one outcome could be D came first, A and C came joint second and B came last. This would be different from D coming first , A coming second, C coming third and B coming last. Got it?

For people who is reading this on FB and not on my blog, always send me your answers by personal message. I just made this up – so I do not know the answer myself, but I have an hour of flight left to figure it out 🙂

Thursday evening flying back home. Puzzle time.
Put 10 coins in four rows – top row has four coins, next has three, next has two and bottommost has one (will look a bunch of grapes – see the picture).
Now by moving only THREE coins, you have to get the bunch of grapes to look like upside down. (so, top row has one coin, next has two….)
This is not a trick question. The arrangement is exactly the same – but upside down.

Puzzle time!!
That was a great trip to San Francisco. Lot of business done. Caught up with a few friends. Missed a lot more. Have to come back…Now for the five hour flight back….
Here is the customary puzzle on the way back.
There are three boxes – one has white color tennis balls (see story later in the post), another has yellow color tennis balls and the third has a mix of the two colors in it. They are labeled “White”, “Yellow” and “Mixed”. Here is one problem though – all of them are wrongly labeled!!!
You are allowed to pick one box – upon which, I will open it, pick the first ball that I can reach in to and show you the color.
You have to get all the right labels on the right boxes from that. How would you do that?
Usual rules of sending me personal message in FB with answer applies.

Now for the story – when we were growing up in India as a child, we used to play cricket (that was our winter sport, soccer being the summer sport). And we used tennis balls to play cricket – except we did not know they were tennis balls. In fact, I did not even know what tennis looked like till much later. I am not sure why but we used to call them “cambis” balls. And they were always white in color!!! I saw a traditional yellow color tennis ball way later in my life. Nowadays, I see my nephews play with yellow tennis balls all the time (although they still call it “cambis” ball).

It is only Tuesday and I am already flying back home! I asked two of my colleagues who are traveling with me to give me a puzzle for my FB friends – they were of no help!! So, here goes one from me…

Form a ten digit number comprising of two 4’s, two 3’s, two 2’s, two 1’s and two 0’s such that the two 4’s are separated by 4 digits, the two 3’s are separated by 3 digits, the two 2’s are separated by 2 digits, the two 1’s are separated by 1 digit and the two 0’s are separated by 0 digits.
(as always send me a personal message when you crack it)

Today Linda Michelson Sandler reported that her husband – who is not a FB friend of mine – but should be – has been wondering why I have not posted any more puzzles. You know you have created a problem when people are asking around why you are not posting puzzles 🙂

I had to quickly think of this one. If you know it send me PM.

You are given a bunch of ropes and a few match sticks. What you know about the ropes is that they all burn at very different rates at different segments but each one of them burns off completely in exactly 1 hour (60 minutes).

How can you measure 45 minutes? What is the minimum number of ropes and match sticks you need and how would you do it?

Puzzle time: The last puzzle given by my brother in law – I am still trying to decipher the answer from three of my friends – one of whom is the brainy-types and has changed his mind thrice….

But today is Thursday and I should be flying home…. so here is one that is easier …

How do you get 100 using one “1” and four “7”s. You can use plus, minus, multiple, divide symbols and parentheses.

e.g. 177-77

Now give me another answer…

If you have cracked it, send me PM. I will recognize you publicly…