¨How many brothers do you have, Benny?” asked Jasper.
“I have just as many brothers as sisters,” said Benny.
“How many siblings do you have, Joan?” asked Jasper of Benny’s sister.
“I have twice as many brothers as sisters,” said Joan.
Can you work out how many siblings there were in Benny’s family?
“How many fish have you caught today, Captain Codworthy?” queried Samuel Nibbs, the bookkeeper of the Acme Fishing Enterprise, as the Aurora docked at the quay.
“More than yesterday, I hope,” he sneered.
“If there had been five times as many as there really are, I would have had just as many over 99 as I now have below it,” replied Captain Codworthy and left the bridge.
Samuel Nibbs was left nonplussed, fingers confusedly tapping buttons on his calculator.
Can you work out how many fish Captain Codworthy caught that day?
Two mathematicians, Albert and Lenny, were busy firing off rockets to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
“Hey Albert, how many rockets do you have left?” asked Lennie, who loved to see and hear the rockets burst into colorful explosions in the night sky.
“Well, Lennie, I have exactly half as many rockets as I have matches in my matchbox,” replied Albert cryptically.
“Interesting. So how many matches do you have in your matchbox?” asked Lennie.
“If I hadn’t used 20 of the matches, I would have had exactly half a box full,” said Albert cheerfully.
“And I wonder how many matches there were in the matchbox when it was full?” asked Lennie.
“Exactly six times as many as the number of rockets I now have,” answered Albert.
“Great!! Now we can keep firing rockets for a while,” replied Lennie happily.
Can you work out how many rockets Albert had?
“Lennie, have you done your math homework?” asked daddy, while driving home from school.
“Yes, daddy I did it during math class,” said Lennie with a bored expression.
“That was fast,” said daddy in surprise, “was it so easy?”
“Yes, daddy, too simplistic. Can you give me something interesting to puzzle on,” asked Lennie.
“Yes, I can: There is a four digit number with sequential digits that is divisible by seven,” said daddy with a smile. “Can you find it, Lennie.”
“Oh, thank you so much, daddy I like that one,” said Lenny enthusiastically jumping up and down on the car seat.
And Lennie worked it out before they got home.
What would you say is this number?