Math Riddles

 
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Question: You have been given the task of transporting 3,000 apples 1,000 miles from Appleland to Bananaville. Your truck can carry 1,000 apples at a time. Every time you travel a mile towards Bananaville you must pay a tax of 1 apple but you pay nothing when going in the other direction (towards Appleland).

What is highest number of apples you can get to Bananaville?

Answer: 833 apples.

Step one: First you want to make 3 trips of 1,000 apples 333 miles. You will be left with 2,001 apples and 667 miles to go.
Step two: Next you want to take 2 trips of 1,000 apples 500 miles. You will be left with 1,000 apples and 167 miles to go (you have to leave an apple behind).
Step three: Finally, you travel the last 167 miles with one load of 1,000 apples and are left with 833 apples in Bananaville.

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Question: Sum Sam and Product Pete are in class when their teacher gives Sam the Sum of two numbers and Pete the product of the same two numbers (these numbers are greater than or equal to 2). They must figure out the two numbers.

Sam: I don't know what the numbers are Pete.
Pete: I knew you didn't know the numbers... But neither do I.
Sam: In that case, I do know the numbers.

What are the numbers?

Answer: The numbers are 3 and 4.

Since Sam knows the sum of the numbers (x + y) he would only know the answer immediately if the sum was 4 (2 + 2) or 5 (3 + 2). Then when Pete (who knows x*y) knew that Sam didn't know the answer the product must have several numbers that add up to the sum (7 = 3 + 4, 7 = 5 + 2). When Pete doesn't know the answer at this point we know the product must have more than one pair of viable factors (12 = 3 * 4, 12 = 6 * 2). At this point Sam knows the numbers are 3 and 4 because they are the only numbers that meet these criteria.

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Question: A tomato vine is 3 meters long. The bottom foot of the vine doesn't grow any tomatoes but the rest of the vine grows a tomato every 5 inches.

How many vegetables can grow off of the vine?

Answer: The vine won't grow any vegetables, a tomato is a fruit! But the vine will grow 21 tomatoes.

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Question: It takes ten men ten hours to build a certain wall. How long does it take five men to build the same wall?

Answer: No time, the wall is already built. There is no need to build it again.

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Question: A smart landscaper is given the task of placing 4 trees so that they are all the same distant away from each other.

How does he do this?

Answer: He puts three trees into a triangle then one on a hill in the middle (this forms a tetrahedron).

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