Spirit Of Genius

Suppose there are twin brothers; one which always tells the truth and one which always lies. What single yes/no question could you ask to either brother to figure out which one is which? (Condition is you can't ask question whose answer you already know. e.g. does earth rotate around the sun?)

How to identify liar/truth teller among twins?

This should be that question!

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Question To Identify Liar/Truth Teller

First know about twins.

We should ask one question,

"Would your brother say that you tell the truth?"

Now if the question is asked the truth teller, then he knows his liar brother would say NO to this question. Hence he would say NO straightaway.

And if the question being asked to liar then he knows that his brother is going to say NO to this question but as a liar he would lie once again & would say YES to the question asked.

So depending on what reply we get, we can easily identify the liar & truth teller brother.

Reply distinguishing liar from truth teller

Remove Matches To Match Number

Remove six matches to make 10.

Shown here how it can be done!

Matches To Match Number

What was the challenge?

It's pretty simple one. Nowhere it is mentioned that you have to make it as

10 & not allowed to make TEN. So three sticks from first, one from second &

2 from third gives us TEN.

However, we can make it as 10 as well. Removing 1 stick from first, 4 from

second & 1 from third produces 10.

The True Statement?

A. The number of false statements here is one.

B. The number of false statements here is two.

C. The number of false statements here is three.

D. The number of false statements here is four.

Which of the above statements is true?

Find it here!

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The Only True Statement

How it was tricky & what were others?

One has to be true & other 3 must be false. Let's consider each case one by one.

Case A : According to this statement the number of false statement is 1 which is contrary to given condition that 1 is true & 3 are false. So it can't be true.

Case B : As per this, number of false statements = 2 which is again contrary to given condition of 3 false statements.So it can't be true.

Case C : As per this, number of false statements =3 exactly matching the given condition.

Case D : This implies number of false statements = 4 meaning that all the statements including itself are false. This is opposite to given condition. So this has to be false as well.

So the statement C is true & all other are false!

A Strange Liar

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."

On which day does Richard tell the truth?

Am I a liar?

Find the truth here!

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Truth Of a Strange Liar

What was his story?

To find the truth we need to logical deduction here.

Now if statement on Day 1 is untrue then Richard must be telling the truth on Monday or Tuesday.

And if Day 3 statement is untrue then he must be telling the truth on Wednesday or Friday.

But he speaks true only on 1 day. So both statements of Day 1 & Day 3 can't be true at the same time. If so, then Richard speaks true on 2 days either Monday/Tuesday or Wednesday/Friday. This means that one of statements from Day 1 must be true & other must be untrue. That also makes the statement on Day 2 untrue always.

Case 1 : Day 3 statement is untrue.

In this case, Richard must be telling truth on either Wednesday or Friday. The statement on Day 1 would be true according to above logical deduction. Hence Day 2 must be either Thursday or Saturday. In both cases, statement on Day 2 would be true.

Case 2 : Day 1 statement is untrue.

If the statement made on Day 1 is untrue then Richard tells truth on Monday or Tuesday. Other statement on Day 3 must be true means Day 3 must be either Monday or Tuesday. If so, then Day 2 must be either Sunday or Monday. In case of Sunday, Day 2 statement would be true & in case of Monday Day 2 statement would be untrue. Hence Day 2 must be Monday & Day 3 must be Tuesday.

So Richard tells truth on Tuesday.

Locker Room & Strange Principal

A high school has a strange principal. On the first day, he has his students perform an odd opening day ceremony:

There are one thousand lockers and one thousand students in the school. The principal asks the first student to go to every locker and open it. Then he has asked the second student go to every second locker and close it. The third goes to every third locker and, if it is closed, he opens it, and if it is open, he closes it. The fourth student does this to every fourth locker, and so on. After the process is completed with the thousandth student, how many lockers are open?

Strange task given by principal on first day of school

What principal was trying to teach?

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The Lesson Taught By Strange Principal

Where it did begin?

While finding the solution we need to keep basic fact from the problem in mind. Since lockers were closed initially, the lockers which are 'accessed' for odd number of times only are going to open. Rest of all would be closed.

Now task is to find how many such lockers are there which were 'accessed' for odd number of times.

Let's take any number say 24 for example, which is not perfect square & find out how many factors it has.

24 = 1 x 24
24 = 2 x 12
24 = 3 x 8
24 = 4 x 6

So factors are 1,2,3,4,6,8,12,24 i.e. 8 numbers as factors which is even number. Every factor is paired with other 'unique' number! So this pairing always makes number of factors 'even'. In the problem, this lock no.24 will be 'accessed' by 1st, 2nd, 3rd..................24th student. That means 'accessed' even number of time & hence would remain closed.

Now let's take a look at lock no. 16 in which 16 is perfect square. Finding it's factors,

16 = 1 x 16
16 = 2 x 8
16 = 4 x 4

we get 1,2,4,8,16 i.e. 5 numbers as factors which is odd. The reason behind is here 4 appears twice (with itself) while rest of others are paired with other 'unique' number. Hence, number of factors of a perfect square are always odd. Now here lock 16 would be accessed by 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, 16th i.e. 5 times. Hence it will be open.

Like this way, every lock with number which is perfect square would be 'accessed' for odd number of times & hence would remain open! e.g. 1,4,9,16,25,49 & so on.

Now 961 (31^2) is the maximum perfect square that can appear within 1000 (32^2) as 1024 goes beyond.

Hence there would be 31 locks open while rest of all closed!

The mathematical fact taught by strange principal

Lesson Of The Day

So what lesson taught by strange principal? The number which is perfect square has odd number of divisors.

Unlock The Distance

Distances from you to certain cities are written below.

BERLIN = 200 miles
PARIS = 300 miles
ROME = 400 miles
AMSTERDAM = 300 miles
CARDIFF = ?? miles

How far should it be to Cardiff ?

Decode The Pattern and Unlock The Distance

How far? Find Here!

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The Distance Unlocked