HARD NUTS TO CRACK

A man drove from A to B. On the first day he travelled 1/3 of the distance. On day two he travelled 1/2 of the remaining distance. On day three he travelled 2/3 of the remaining distance. On day four, after covering 3/4 of the remaining distance, he was still 5 miles away from B. How many miles had he covered in total upto day four? View Answer

During the recent football competition, 5 schools were competing. Each school played each other once, with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points if they lost. Here are the final points after all of the matches:  A     6 B      5 C     4 D      2 E      ? How many points did E end the season with? View Answer

During a recent contest, the total number of points scored by the first six players was 103 and every score was above zero. The first player scored half the points of the second player, who in turn scored 6 points fewer than the third player. The third player in turn scored two thirds the points of the fourth player. The fifth player managed to score the same number of points as the difference between the first and fourth player's points. Finally, the sixth player scored 14 fewer than the fifth player. Can you determine how many points the sixth player managed to score? View Answer

Exactly how many minutes is it before eight o'clock if 40 minutes ago, it was three times as many minutes past four o'clock? View Answer

Many years ago, a cruise liner sank in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The survivors luckily landed on a remote desert island. There was enough food for the 135 people to last four weeks. Nine days later a rescue ship appeared, unluckily this ship also sank, leaving an additional 36 people stranded on the island to now share the original rationed food. The food obviously had to be re-rationed, everyone was now on three-quarters of the original ration, so how many days in total would the food last, from the day of the original sinking? View Answer

What is represented by the following? TTTTTTIIIIIIIMMMMMMEEEEEE ABDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ View Answer

What is represented by the following representation? View Answer

What number is three quarters of eight ninths of one half of 2001? View Answer

Two boxers are in a match scheduled for 12 rounds. (Pure boxing only - no kicking, UFC takedowns, or anything else). One of the boxers gets knocked out after only six rounds, yet no man throws a punch. How is this possible? View Answer

What makes this number unique -- 8,549,176,320? View Answer

What is unusual about the following words: revive, banana, grammar, voodoo, assess, potato, dresser, uneven? View Answer

A sundial has the fewest moving parts of any timepiece. Which has the most? View Answer

Which driver never commits a traffic offence? View Answer

What comes down, but never goes up? View Answer

If you count twenty horses on your right going into town, and twenty horses on your left coming home, how many horses have you counted in all? View Answer

What can be right, but never wrong? View Answer

Tom came to a bridge marked "Total weight 100 kilos." Now, Tom weighed 95 kilos, but he had three pineapples, each weighing 2 kilos. He couldn't throw them across the river, because the pineapples would be smashed to pieces. How did Tom cross the bridge? View Answer

Albert Amblefoot walked outside in a heavy rainstorm for half an hour without getting a single hair of his head wet. He didn't wear a hat, carry an umbrella, or hold anything over his head. His clothes got soaking wet. How could this happen? View Answer

Two girls appeared at the registrar's office of a college. The receptionist handed each of them a questionnaire to fill out. Each girl wrote the following facts on the questionnaire. Each had the last name Smith. Each was born on February 29, 1960. Each was born at 376 East 53rd Street, Mumbai. Each had a father named Rohit Sharma and a mother named Shikha Sharma. When the girls had completed the questionnaires they handed them to the registrar. The registrar read them and asked, "Are you two girls' sisters?". They replied, "Yes, we are." Looking up from his papers, the registrar saw the two girls and noticed that they looked exactly alike. He said, "You're twins, aren't you?". They both promptly answered, "No." Assuming that all the answers they gave were true, and that they had the same mother and father, how do you account for the fact that they were not twins? View Answer

I have two notes amounting to five hundred and fifty rupees in my purse. One is not a fifty note. How can this be possible? View Answer

A milkmaid adds 4 litres of water to 2 litres of milk before distribution. By mistake she added 2 litres water to 4 litres of milk. How much more water has she to add to rectify her mistake? View Answer

“Intellectual endurance” is the staying power, the capacity to persist without getting distracted. At one point your brain ceases to cooperate, but please don’t stop doing this calculation. Take a few minutes rest and start again. This is one way of developing intellectual endurance. Take a ‘single digit number’ and a ‘three digit number’ of your choice... For example, suppose the numbers are: 8 and 156, write down on a paper as 8-156. Go on adding 13 to the first number and deduct 7 from the later. Do it simultaneously (Here is the example. your first number is 8 - 156. Hence your second number would be 21-149, third 34-142). At the end... what are your final figures when you reach the single digit answer on the right hand side? Don’t jump to calculate end figures, do it step by step to test your patience. View Answer

Suppose a=b. With this equation, I will prove that a + b = b in four steps. Find out where (in which step) I went wrong? Step one: if a=b, then a²=ab. Step two: Deduct b² from both: (a² - b²) = (ab - b²). Step three: (a + b) (a - b) = b (a - b). Step four: Deduct (a-b) from both: a + b= b. How is this possible? In which step lies the mistake? View Answer

A had 5 chapattis, B had 3 and C had nil. They all ate equally and C paid 8/- to them as the price for what he had eaten. How much A and B should get from the said amount? View Answer

If a clock takes 5 seconds to strike 5 pm, how long will it take to strike 10 pm? View Answer

It keeps you from flying off into space. It's what makes you fall flat on your face. And if it could talk like you and I do, I think it would say "I'm pulling for you". View Answer

A moth devoured words. When I heard of that wonder it seemed strange— That a thief should swallow a song, That a thief should eat a great man’s speech. And for all his labor, that thief was no wiser – For the words he had swallowed. Who was the thief of words? View Answer

A dealer bought a number of cats at Rs. 344 each, and a number of dogs at Rs. 265 each. He then discovered that the cats had cost him in all Rs. 33 more than the dogs. Now, what is the smallest number of each that he must have bought? View Answer

A man left a legacy of Rs. 1 ,00,000 to three relatives and their wives. The wives received together Rs. 39,600. Jane received Rs. 1000 more than Catherine, and Mary received Rs. 1000 more than Jane. John was given just as much as his wife, Henry got half as much again as his wife, and Tom received twice as much as his wife. What was the Christian name of each man's wife? View Answer

A father's child, a mother's child, yet no one's son. View Answer