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Question: If you have an 11 minute and 13 minute hourglass, how can you accurately time 15 minutes?

Answer: Start both hourglasses then when the 11 minute hourglass has finished immediately flip it again. When the 13 minute hourglass runs out the 11 minute hourglass will have 9 minutes left, so flip it and it will last another 2 minutes, 13 minutes + 2 minutes = 15 minutes.

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Question: If you have a rope around a soccer ball and the moon, which rope would have to increase in length more to create a one meter gap between the rope and the soccer ball/moon?

Hint: Remember, Circumference = Diameter * π

Answer: They would both increase length by 2 π meters. Since Circumference = Diameter * π, when they increase in length it is true that Circumference = (Diameter + 2) * π. Distribute the π and you get Circumference = Diameter * π + 2 * π.

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Question: A man taking the census walks up to the apartment of a mathematician and asks him if he has any children and how old they are. The mathematician says "I have three daughters and the product of their ages is 72." The man tells the mathematician that he needs more information, so the mathematician tells him "The sum of their ages is equal to our apartment number." The man still needs more information so the mathematician tells him "My oldest daughter has her own bed and the other two share bunk beds."

How old are his daughters?

Answer: His daughters are 8, 3, and 3. The prime factorization of 72 is 2 * 2 * 2 * 3 * 3, so the possible ages are 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, and 18. Using the prime factorization and these numbers the only combinations of numbers that work for the first clue are:

18, 2 and 2.
9, 4 and 2.
6, 6 and 2.
6, 4 and 3.
8, 3, and 3.

Since he doesn't know the ages after this piece of information the sum of the three numbers must not be unique. The sum of 8, 3, and 3; and 6, 6, and 2 are the same. Now the final clue comes in handy. Since we know that the oldest daughter has her own bed it is likely that she has the bed to herself and is older than the other two so there ages are 8, 3, and 3 rather than 2, 6 and 6.

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Question: How can you make the following true by adding a single line: .9 = 1.

Note: ≠ is not the answer.

Answer: .9 = 1.

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Question: There are 1600 people sitting around a circular table. The first person (person 1) has a sword and kills the second person then hands it to the next alive person (in this case person 3). Person 3 stabs person 4 and gives the sword to person 5. This goes on until person 1499 kills person 1500. Then person 1 kills person 3 and so on. This is repeated until there is only a single person remaining.

Who remains in the end?

Answer: Person 1153.

If you have any number of people equal to a power of 2 (2, 4, 8, etc.) then the first person will be the last remaining. The closest power of 2 to 1600 is 1024 (210). So the first person to go of the 1600 when there is 1024 people left will be the last person remaining. 1600 - 1024 = 576. 576 * 2 = 1152. Person 1152 will be the 576th person killed and person 1153 will be the first person to go of the remaining 1024 people.

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