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Here is the archive of past puzzles and their solutions

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Date (w/e) Make Words Prize Crossword Find Words Brain Teaser
05/09/20 puzzlexxxxx solution puzzlexxxxx solution
No correct solutions this week
puzzlexxxxx solution See just below
29/08/20 puzzlexxxxx solution puzzlexxxxx solution
No correct solutions this week
puzzlexxxxx solution See just below
22/08/20 puzzlexxxxx solution puzzlexxxxx solution
No correct solutions this week
puzzlexxxxx solution See just below
15/08/20 puzzlexxxxx solution puzzlexxxxx solution
No correct solutions this week
puzzlexxxxx solution See just below
08/08/20 puzzlexxxxx solution puzzlexxxxx solution
No correct solutions this week
puzzlexxxxx solution See just below
01/08/20 puzzlexxxxx solution puzzlexxxxx solution
No correct solutions this week
puzzlexxxxx solution See just below

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Date (w/e) Brain Teaser Solution
05/09/20 In the diagram, can you move eight matches to ask for help? Here's how... Dark matches are newly placed; pale ones show where they came from. (dot dot dot DAASSH DAASSH DAASSH dot dot dot)
Well done, Allan Currie!
29/08/20 Ignoring Australasia/Oceania, for fairly obvious reasons (and Antarctica, for even more obvious ones), which of the continents has the most landlocked countries and which has the least? As a related challenge, which are the world's two doubly-landlocked countries? There are most land-locked countries in Africa, with 16, closely followed by Europe on 15. Ignoring Oceania/Australasia, as we said (all of whose nations are island nations), the lowest is North America, with none. Most North American countries are either island states or else have coastlines on both the Atlantic and the Pacific, although some of the smaller countries have a coastline on only one ocean.
In between, there are Asia (12) and South America (2).
The two doubly-landlocked states are Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein.
As a matter of interest, the full list is:
Africa - Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Europe - Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Czechia, Hungary, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Moldova, North Macedonia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland and Vatican City.
Asia - Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
South America - Bolivia and Paraguay.
22/08/20 Jack is looking at Anne, but Anne is looking at George. Jack is married, but George is not.
Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?
  • Yes
  • No
  • Cannot be determined
We don't know Anne's status, but it doesn't matter. If Anne is unmarried, Jack (married) is looking at her. If she is married, she is looking at George (unmarried), so either way the answer is 'YES'.
15/08/20 “Pas d’elle yeux Rhône que nous”
This phrase suggests which of the following?
  1. Go deeper
  2. Be independent
  3. Look hard before crossing
  4. See through obscurity
  5. None of the above
If you didn't get it, just read it out loud a few times...
If you paddle your own canoe, you are acting independently, so the answer is (2) Be independent
08/08/20 A boat sits in the harbour with a rope ladder hanging down the side. The rungs on the ladder are each one foot apart. There are 24 rungs and the water level is at the sixth rung.
If the tide has just turned and rises at a rate of 0.5 feet every 40 minutes, how long does it take to reach the 14th rung?
As the boat rises with the tide, the water will always be at the sixth rung!
01/08/20 Imagine that it was possible to run a rope all the way around the Earth, at the equator, so that the ends just meet. Now imagine that you raise the rope exactly one metre above the surface of the equator, all the way around. How much more rope do you need so that the ends just meet once more? The length of your original rope is 2πr, where r is the radius of the earth at the equator. The longer rope you require will be 2π(r+1), as it has to be 1m further out from the centre. The extra rope required is the difference between the two.
Now, 2 x π x (r+1) = (2 x π x r)+(2 x π x 1), which is 2πr+2π, so the extra rope required is 2π metres, or approximately 6.28m.

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