Questions tagged [word-problem]
A mathematical puzzle that's stated in words, usually in terms of a story or a situation that dresses the problem up.
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An unexpected appearance
Sandra walked to dinner alone one night. She had a lovely meal at a restaurant. No one else talked to her and she sat on her own table. At the end of the meal, she asked the waitress for the bill and ...
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A group of friends at a restaurant.
Four groups of four friends each are having dinner at a restaurant. There are four tables, table A, B, C, and D, seating four each, arranged in a square like so.
A B
C D
Each table looks like this.
...
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Let the Good Times Roll [closed]
Let the Good Times Roll
You've decided to drive cross-country to New Orleans for Jazz Fest (and some sweet, sweet Creole cookin').
On Day 1: You make good time, travelling halfway there.
On Day 2: ...
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Ernie and the Pirates of the Caribbean
A few weeks ago, I dropped in to see Ernie to ask if he was willing to look after the cat while I was on holiday in the Caribbean. “No problem.” he replied then showed me an old leather-covered book, ...
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Is my friend insane?
My friend is soon going to an asylum. This is devastating. I have known him for years and he's a fine, sane man. But he sent me a note and it doesn't make any sense...
Has he really lost his mind or ...
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The box with the curious inscriptions
A librarian browsing the basement of a library came across an empty box. Its contents were missing, and to her annoyance even its label had been vandalized.
The label did tell her that the box had ...
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The telltale code
The other night, while writing this Java class that could be serialized into a socket, I fell asleep and had a weird dream.
In my dream, when I ran the program, the socket and the class object ...
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To each his own
You are a graduate student in theoretical mathematics, dabbling every so often in some interesting but equally useless computer science theory. From the beginning of the year, Professor Carl Hayden ...
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Where am I? A scene of death
Hint (for those of you who are stuck):
In this question, I have given a total of 5 hints (or even more).
Once you have the answer, please include how these hints worked.
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Solving Simpletonian Security
Simpletonia had an army at last. Ed, the Big Boss, was thrilled and delighted. Jo, the Other Boss, was also thrilled and delighted. Di, Su, Al, Mo, Sy... everybody was overjoyed that now they had a ...
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Bottles of wine, poisoned with time
You are the ruler of a medieval kingdom. This time, you've decided to throw a royal party with 10,000 bottles of wine, rather than just 1,000.
You remember the problems the courtier gave you with the ...
user88
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Ernie and the Revisitation of the Aunts
I was hanging around at home last week, a little lost for something to do, when I got a phone call from Ernie. He was in a bit of a panic because a guest was going to drop in later in the day. He had ...
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The Secret Agent Who Got Shot
You are a top secret agent trying to get into a enemy hide out. When you arrive at the enemy base, you see two guards at the door. You could take them out but that would make a ruckus and the enemies ...
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Fuzzy the Fuzzball
Fuzzy the fuzzball was very sad.
He had lost his fuzz.
Everyone knew if you lost your Fuzz you could no longer be a fuzzball.
Fuzzy went to this friend Frizzy and shared his dilemma.
"Don't worry, ...
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Try and find the words
Each line refers to one word - find them!
26. Who needs a best friend?
26. all powerful.
50. Doctors lose business.
63. Judging books now, are we?
73. I point and squeak!
94. Clay-making magic!
...
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A Story in the Sea Shanty?
A bottle washed ashore this morning and I found a note inside. This seems like it may just be a sea shanty, but I feel there is meaning in the words, and I'd like to know what inspired it.
A crew ...
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Mysterious Murder Mystery - The Four Brothers
You get a call in the middle of the night which wakes you up violently—a call which you were not expecting. Your cell phone rings loudly because you have forgotten to turn the ringer off from the day ...
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Uncle Mort's Idiots
Uncle Mort was dead. Samuelson, the family lawyer, read the will. It stated that since he had no children of his own, his whole estate was to be divided between his two nieces, Roseanne and Chelsea ...
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A Question Concerning Alice In Cryptic
After her adventures in Wonderland and The Looking Glass Alice led a varied and interesting life. One day, when she had grown to be an attractive young woman, she found herself in the town of Cryptic. ...
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The Dwarves' Test
One day, the chief of the dwarves decided he wanted to test his tribe. So that night, he told the dwarves that he would paint on each dwarf's back a dot colored either red or blue. Each dwarf will ...
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Ernie and the Cake Cutting
Ernie had spent most of the afternoon at my place, helping me with the tile grouting in my new bathroom. It had been a difficult and messy job, so when he asked if I could do him a "small favour" I ...
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Ernie and the slice of Pi
Ernie is a renowned polyglot. Why just last week I saw him helping out at a Mathematics conference by acting as a simultaneous translator for seven guests who only spoke Hungarian, Icelandic, Swahili, ...
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A Secret Message In Plain(ish) Sight
I think my math teacher is a spy. On the first day of class, they wrote most of a secret message on the board - teacher said there were some letters missing. They said that anyone who could solve it ...
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Ernie and the Grand Tour
It had sounded like a great idea at the time. Ernie had been gifted a travel package for himself plus eight companions (he chose to bring along seven friends from his Wine Club, plus me) by the ...
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This ant sure is smart. But how fast is it?
A mad scientist uses ethically questionable methods to study the spatial cognition of ants.
Last time, he left his lab ant in a cubic room and filled it with painfully intoxicating gas, capable of ...
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Similar to knight/knave puzzle: Insane asylum
Premise: These are like the knight-knave puzzles; only now we are visiting insane asylums, where there are only patients and doctors. Moreover, each of them are either insane or sane. Sane inhabitants ...
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Ernie and the Artificial Emmental
I dropped in on Ernie last week to help him prepare for his annual hosting of the Wine and Cheese Club party. This was a special occasion because the invited guest was the famous oenophile and ...
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How was your day at work?
A woman was employed as a temporary receptionist. She met her boss, was given some brief instructions then sat down at the desk and waited for clients.
The first client examined the magazines and ...
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Ernie and the Unexpectedly Exposed PIN
I dropped in on Ernie a few days ago. As I pushed open the door to his workshop I could hear a clanking, hissing noise and then saw Ernie emerging from a great clouds of steam, his face blackened with ...
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Evil Kidnappers are the worst!
You wake up to the sight of a lamp hanging from a grey ceiling. You ask yourself, Where am I? The last thing you remember is falling asleep in bed last night. Sitting up, you look around. You're on ...
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Two Affinity, and Byonde!
A group of 10 students in a summer learning camp (fun times!) is asked to complete a brief survey to help them determine which of their new classmates they're most compatible with. The survey lists 10 ...
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Which candidate is most washed up?
Donovan Clump and Hermione Timmon are political candidates in the electoral race for "Most Thankless Job in Modern History".
Both candidates set out into the wilderness at the same time. Rains are ...
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Finding Mr. Rich's Password
It was a slow day at the office. Despite its name, Problem City was fairly quiet as of late. Joey was slowly melting into his chair when he recieved a phone call. Joey slowly swiveled his chair to ...
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MC Frontalot 80085
MC Frontalot is a musician, and one of his songs is a word problem that seems to me like it belongs here. If you want to listen to it instead of just reading the lyrics, a quick video search of "MC ...
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What happened to the missing £10? [duplicate]
I have come across a puzzle, which makes no sense. Does anyone know the answer to the below?
You and two friends go on holiday. When checking out, the total bill comes to £300. You pay the bill ...
GSS
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Jack Sparrow and The quest for the missing Compass . Part 1
Hopefully this puzzle is not as easy as the last one.
Jack Sparrow wakes up startled just when he was deep in slumber, after his night out with the "Ladies".
He checks his pocket and finds it empty. ...
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Two lists of favorite words
My great aunt Edith keeps this list of her favorite words tacked on the refrigerator:
Atlas
Chance
Detail
Frost
Hand
Magnet
Orange
Ring
Sand
Tiger
Winter
Wolf
My great uncle ...
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A Murder Most Foul: Alicia Adams
Forgive me if this matches an existing murder mystery. I tried to search before writing this one up
Outside the office building, sirens wailed and flashing lights illuminated the snow covered ground. ...
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Which data file is genuine?
NASA has spent hundreds of millions of dollars gathering data about cave systems in one region of the planet Mars. The project just finished up, and analysts will soon be ready to start analyzing the ...
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5 Letter Word, Removing letters
Take away my first letter, and I still sound the same.
Take away my last letter, I still sound the same. Even take away my letter in the middle, I will still sound the same. I am a five letter word. ...
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Ernie and the Alien Invasion
Yesterday I dropped in on Ernie to show off my new j-watch. Ernie wouldn't be impressed by instant wrist-mounted access to social media sites like me-tube, tweeter and farce-book so I thought I would ...
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Diabolic Substance
What is it :
Colloquially, it is a Diabolic way to win at athletic events.
Take a single one, and it might be shaped like a star.
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Find the composite poison in the wine bottles
You are the ruler of a medieval kingdom who loves throwing parties. The courtier who tried to poison one of your wine bottles last time was furious to learn that you managed to identify which bottle ...
user88
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Obi-Wan vs Grievous
19 BBY, the Galactic Republic spots General Grievous in Utapau, the Separatists' Council Base; the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi is sent there to deal with him.
After a long search, Obi-Wan comes face to face ...
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Puzzle: Covert spy investigation
You are working for the CIA as a spy. One day you get a secret offer from the US president to spy on the CIA for him and to go and investigate the truth about a CIA covert operation which happened 10 ...
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Two Clever and Thirsty Soda Packaging Workers
You and your friend Roger are in charge of a soda packaging line. The sodas arrive on a pallet that is shaped like a cube. The two of you must take sodas from the pallet and fill four-pack holders (...
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Recipe for Success
One evening you receive an e-mail from an acquaintance, asking for your help. The e-mail runs as follows:
Dear friend,
I need your help! I've forgotten the combination to my safe and I need ...
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Five loaves and the extra traveller [duplicate]
Two people are travelling together. One of them has three loaves of bread;
the other one has two. At some point they stop to eat lunch. A third traveler that happens to walk by joins them.
They split ...
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Secrets over the phone [closed]
Let's say, for instance, your friend needs one of your passwords to do something while you're away. He calls you and asks for it. Thing is, you don't want him to know your password.
How then would ...
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Our spies are listed, but which one is actually next to be hit?
Berlin, 1973
We knew that they were on to several of our people, but unfortunately we weren't sure which ones. Pulling them out before we were certain would needlessly disrupt important sources of ...
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