M018   School Reunion

            At the Sweethearts High School students reunion Jim Bigboy found that his friends were each born one year apart and when the ages were added up they came to 115.

            Q.  How many friends were there?  

            ANS: Five friends. (21,22,23,24,25)  

M019   Fast Walking  

            Two friends in the Oldfogies Geriatric club pride themselves in their  walking             speed. Speedy Walker can walk one Kilometre in 15 minutes and Ozzy Walkfast can do it in 20 minutes. In a recent interclub competition the two were 1 Km apart and they walked towards each other.

            Q.  How long will it be before they meet?  

            ANS: 8.57 minutes  

M020   The Gun Fight  

            The cowboy outlaw gang The Wayward Brothers led by Buck Wayward             robbed the Fort Lodge County Bank of $100,000.  The loot was to be shared equally (in whole dollars) by the gang members.  However a gun fight commenced which left some of the gang dead.  The amount received by each gang member is now $15,000 extra.

            Q.  How many of the gang died?  

            ANS: 6 died. 

M021   Age Old Problem  

Absent minded mathematics Professor Con Undrum has a student friend Ocker        who is three years younger.  The Professor said "If we add half Ocker's age to          one-third his age and one-quarter his age that will add up to my age".

            Q.  How old is the Professor?  

            ANS: 39  

M022  Space Freight  

            Space freighters land each day on the planet Zenon, each loading from the             mines with 30 Tonne of the precious metal Zenonite.  However due to a catastrophe in another part of the galaxy the number of space freighters arriving each day is reduced by 30.  The total daily tonnage previously loaded must now be shared by the remaining freighters.  Each freighter must now carry 45 Tonne.

            Q.  What is the total daily load of all the freighters?

            ANS: 2700 Tonne

M023   Age Confusion  

            Professor Humdrum, mathematician extraordinaire, said that his friend has             three children Peggy, Allan and Sue.  Allan is now only half as old as Peggy and Sue is one quarter Peggy's age.  However in eight years time both Allan's age and Sue's age added together will equal Peggy's.

            Q.  How old is Peggy now?  

            ANS: 32 years old  

M024   Money Change  

            Little boy Bertie decided to buy a birthday present for his girlfriend.  He purchased some perfume with $40 and received the change.  Upon purchasing another item he received only half the amount in change as he received after buying the perfume.

            Q.  How much was the perfume?  

            ANS: $14  

M025   Food Cost  

Cedrick Centura had $100 to spend on his weekly food items.  His purchases at the grocer was $1 more than the cost of meat purchased at the butcher.  He noted that the change given by the butcher was equal to the cost of the meat.

            Q.  How much was spent on meat?  

            ANS: $33.  

M026   Lost His Marbles  

Young Freddie Dooker was the champion marble player in the school, having more marbles than anyone else.  However when he played Tiger Deadeye he lost one quarter of all his marbles but gained three later when he played Skinny Losem.  Next day on the way to school he lost one third of his marbles to Squint Hardly.  After school he went to the local shop and purchased as many marbles as he first started with.  His total marble collection was now 56.

            Q.  How many did he start with?  

            ANS: 36  

M027   Shovel Together  

            Trevor Muscles can shovel one Tonne of soil in five minutes but his son Ron             can do it in ten minutes

            Q. Shovelling together how long will it take to move three Tonne of soil.  

            ANS:  10 minutes  

M028            Gaining Time  

            Professor Tim Chrono's watch is so accurate that it gains only one second each     day.

            Q.  How often will it show the correct time?  

            ANS: Every 120 years (approx)  

M029            Navigation by Ford  

Willy Gethere was a navigator in a Model T Ford which was entered in the Alphawood to Betaville Car Navigation Trial conducted by the Fordcanardly Veteran Car Club. He calculated that if he took a half, quarter, and eighth of their distance from Alphawood and add them together it would equal a distance of 6Km less than their distance from Alphawood.

            Q.  How far is he from Alphawood?  

            ANS: 48Km

M030   Weigh it Up  

            Using a beam balance any article up to 13 kg (in whole Kg) can be weighed             using three weights.

            Q.  Which are the three weights?  

            ANS: 1, 3, 9 Kg  

M031            Brickem Up  

            Bertie Layem was a brick layer who commenced in the trade as an apprentice          laying a certain number of bricks in one hour.  He found that each year he could double the number of bricks layed per hour.  Over a six year period he could now lay 372 more bricks per hour than when he first started.

            Q.  How many bricks per hour did he lay at the beginning?  

            ANS: 12 per hour  

M032            Trickey Cement  

            Tom Trickey purchased cement from the hardware store and paid for it with a          $100 note.  If the cement had cost half as much then he would have received  twice as much change minus one dollar.

            Q.  How much did he pay for the cement?  

            ANS: $66

M033   Share the Loot  

            The Loot Brothers Tom, Mick and Tim held up and robbed the Fudge City stage coach.  When they got to their hide out they found they had 21 sacks of gold.  They had to share 7 full, 7 empty and 7 half full sacks of gold.  With a little thought Tom decided he could not only share equally the gold but also the sacks without pouring gold from one sack to another.

            Q.  How did he do it?  

            ANS: 3F, 3E, 1HF ;  3F, 3E, 1HF;  1F, 1E, 5HF;  = 7 bags, 31/2 gold  

M034            Puzzling Number  

Numerologist Freddy Digital considered the numbers 10 through to 19 highly significant.  In fact many numbers can be obtained by using all the numbers and only the mathematical signs pluses and minuses.

            Q.  Can you obtain a total of 49 by this method?  

            ANS: 10 +11 +12 -13 +14 +15 -16 +17 +18 -19 = 49  

M035   Two Faced Time  

            Snowy Timewise noticed that the North facing clock at the town hall had             stopped 42 minutes ago.  It had stopped at one half as many minutes to ten o'clock as the correct South facing clock showed minutes past ten.

            Q.  What is the correct time now?  

            ANS: 10.28