Ken's blog

As Jill swung through the door of the Blue Swan café one busy Saturday afternoon, she saw Jack sitting at a window table staring intently at his mobile phone, nervously sipping a coffee.

“What’s so fascinating on your phone, Jack? ”

“Jill, I could win a ten thousand dollar prize if I work out a code.”

“What code are you talking about.”

“A puzzle website is offering a promotional prize, but I have one hour to work out a code to win it.”

“Is it that difficult?” said Jill.

“Yeah, the code is based on a five-digit number that when quadrupled gives the reverse of itself, which is the number I need,” said Jack.

“Oh, that’s a tricky one.  Any more information?”

“Well, there is a strange hint I can’t figure out,” said Jack with a forlorn expression.

“And what’s that?”

“The cryptic hint is: ‘The cross sum is the middle. Half the first is the second. Cube the start to get the end.’”

“I’ve run into this type of thing in my course on number theory with professor MacDooley. Does a fifty-fifty share sound ok to you, Jack?”

“Sure, Jill. What else can I say,” shrugged Jack.

Jill quickly pulled out a notepad, calculator and pen from her bag, sat down and got busy writing. Jack ordered her a cappuccino.

What would you say is the code needed to win the prize?

Two grandfathers sat discussing their families on a bench under an olive tree.

“How old is your granddaughter Rachel, Moishe?” asked Benny.

“Well, I’m twelve times older than Rachel.”

“How about some more info, Moishe.”

“Well, her mother, Sarah, is six times older. And her mother’s age divided by two gives a remainder of one.”

“Any other details you can offer?”

“Sarah’s age divided by three, four and eight also give a remainder of one, but five none,” added Moishe.

“Thanks, Moishe, that’ll do the trick.”

“And how old is your granddaughter, Miriam, Benny?”

“Twice Rachel’s age plus eight months.”

The two grandfathers continued discussing their families on the bench under the olive tree.

Can you work out the ages of Moishe, Sarah, Rachel and Miriam.

One sunny Saturday afternoon, Melvyn, Sam and Bart were sitting around a parasol table enjoying some drinks by the swimming pool at the Sasquatch Hills country club, discussing the merits of their own swimming pool pumps.

“I know we all have the same pool size, as it was installed by my cousin Harvey’s company, ACME Pool Heaven, Inc. Let me tell you, guys, my pump can fill the pool in just thirty minutes,” said Melvyn enthusiastically.

“You must have gotten the cheap pump version, Melvyn, mine can do it in twenty minutes,” said Sam, gurgling down a large swig of beer.

“Since mine does it in in ten minutes, you both obviously don’t have the Tiger Turbo Pump,” said Bart, stroking his Van Dyke while eyeing nubile pool fauna.

“Hey guys, how long do you figure it would take to fill your pool if all three pumps were used,” said Molly, the summer-job waitress, who had overheard the conversation while serving their Mega Burger Specials.

Melvyn, Sam and Bart were left nonplussed as Molly walked off, considering whether they would give her a tip or not.

How long would you say it would take to fill the pool with all three pumps filling at the same time?

Speedy Surveys Inc. one afternoon sent five surveyors to carry out a statistical study on matching birth data from a base point In the walking street of Mapletown.

The surveyor would ask a random person to give their first name, day and month of birth, then check for a match on their list. As soon as a match was found the surveyor would return to the base point with the list.

After return of the five surveyors with their lists, the data was collected and the process repeated again for a total of ten times.

The data were then compiled into a complete report for Speedy Surveys Inc.

As a special bonus, surveyors who interviewed someone who had the same birth data as themselves were awarded a free pizza meal at the famous Guiseppe’s Pizza House.

What would you say was the average number of persons that had to be interviewed by a surveyor to get a birth data match?

What would you say was the probability that at least two of the five surveyors were awarded a free pizza meal?