Archive for December, 2018

The Choice of Christmas Gifts

Sunday, December 30th, 2018

“Jimmy, you can choose two gifts, but they must be from different types,” said uncle Henry.

“Hmm, what should I select,” said Jimmy, looking at the five different video games, six books, and four toys on the shelf at the Toys for Kids store.

“Remember, two gifts, but none from the same gift type,” said uncle Henry.

“Ok, uncle Henry, I’ll take that one and one of those,” said Jimmy happily.

How many choices of two gifts would you say Jimmy had?

The Friendly Safe

Thursday, December 27th, 2018

“Are you telling me that another uncle has passed away, Jill!!” exclaimed Jack, taking another sip of a hot chocolate while sitting at a café table at Chez Pierre’s, “how many uncles do you have??”

“Well, Jack, I do have quite a number of them, ten on either side of my prolific rural families. Uncle Ulysses, the business magnate, who was lost while exploring ancient Inca tunnels in the Andes, was a favorite of mine. He was quite fond of solving riddles,” said Jill with a reminiscing fond smile.

“So uncle Ulysses left you a mansion and lands way out in the countryside,” said Jack, fascinated.

“Yes, it will be a fine hideaway for us. I’m planning to check it out this weekend, coming along?”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” said Jack.

After a long trip deep into the interior, inspecting the estate lands, getting to know the major domo, staff, and exploring the many rooms in the large mansion, they wound up in uncle Ulysses’ office admiring a large painting of general Simon Bolivar, uncle Ulysses’ idol.

“Jill, do you see that curly Gothic decoration below the painting,” said Jack. pointing.

“I see it, the curlicues seem to end up in knob that looks like a button,” said Jill, pensively.

Soon they were eagerly pushing on the knob, but only when Jack pressed and rotated the Gothic decoration did the painting suddenly swing aside with a swoosh, exposing a modern electronic wall safe.

They opened a golden envelope with “Jill” written on it in stylish handwriting that was glued to the back of the painting of general Simon Bolivar, which read:

“My dearest niece, If you read this, I have gone missing and will not return. The valuables of your inheritance are contained in this safe. To safeguard against others opening it, in addition to the fingerprint screen, you’ll need to solve the following simple riddle to arrive at the six digit combination.

Riddle: ‘Two numbers are amicable and their sum is 504, the divisors of the one adding up to the other and vice versa.’

I’m sure you will make good use of your new estate and the fortune contained in the safe.

Your loving uncle,

Ulysses.

P.S. The safe will lock up after two incorrect code attempts, but as you are my clever riddle-solving niece, I’m sure this won’t be a problem.”

“Nice uncle,” said Jack, “I’m greatly impressed.”

“As you’re the student of number theory, Jack, you open it,” said Jill firmly.

“No problem, Jill, place your finger in the slot and we’ll have the safe open in a jiffy. I like this place,” laughed Jack, pulling out a yellow notepad and an India ink pen from his bag.

So what would you say is the combination to the safe?

The Wine Tavern

Monday, December 24th, 2018

One Saturday evening in late winter, Jason, Melanie and Bob were sitting around a cozy table at the newly opened Bacchus Wine Tavern, that was promoting a novel wine pouring system consisting of five different types of wine and a random wine selector.

“Considering this new wine pouring system, what do you guys figure is the probability that we two get an identical wine in each of our glasses and Melanie gets one with a different wine type?” said Jason with an impish, quizzical grin.

“Good question,” replied Bob, “let’s see how it goes after we’ve gone through some rounds,” he suggested with eager anticipation.

“By that time, I don’t think any of us will be able to figure it out,” laughed Melanie, and hailed a waiter to bring the first set of triple glasses.

What would you say is the probability that Melanie, gets a glass of wine that is different and Bob and Jason get the same wine?

About how many rounds do you figure would be needed for Melanie to get her odd glass of wine?

The Bookstore Shelf

Saturday, December 15th, 2018

Harry was busy arranging books on a book shelf at the Wide Horizons Book Shop. Harry was positioning two copies of Inferno,  three copies of The Da Vinci Code and four of Origin.

A little boy stood there watching Harry.

“I’ll bet you don’t know in how many ways you can arrange those books on the shelf,” said Lenny teasingly.

Harry looked behind him and saw the grinning, mischievous face of a five-year old looking up at him.

“Well, obviously in just six ways, kid,” said Harry.

“Not if you mix all the books in all possible ways,” replied Lenny impishly.

“What a pesky kid,” said Harry backing off to stand away from the book shelf and scratch his head.

“Just to give you a hand, mister, check how many different words you can make with the letter group ‘mississim’ and you’ll have the answer. That way you won’t have to move the books around,” said Lenny on his way out of the store.

In how many different ways would you say the books can be arranged?


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