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Puzzle #15: June 2017
Puzzle #14: May 2017
My 3-minute list: bane, brain, cane, crane, chain, Dane, drain, feign, gain, Jane, lane, lain, mane, main, pain, pane, plain, plane, airplane, complain, sane, slain, stain, skein, Spain, strain, train, vane, vein, vain, wane, wain, Wayne, Zane, arraign, explain, quatrain, guzzle, muzzle, nuzzle.
Puzzle #13: April 2017
- Johnny had 100 pieces of candy. He ate 90 of them. What does he have now?
- What starts with ‘e’ and ends with ‘e’ and has one letter in it?
- Brown was killed on Sunday afternoon. His wife said she was reading a book. The butler said her was taking a shower. The chef said he was making breakfast. The maid said she was folding clothes. Who killed Mr. Brown?
Puzzle #12: March 2017
- Trouble
- Mailbox
- She has 5 kids. Each daughter has the same brother.
Puzzle #11: February 2017
My True Letter Switch list uses the following as its 10 different starting/ending letters: D, E, G, K, M, N O, P, R, S.
no – on
gum – mug
keep – peek
epics – spice
dagger – ragged
Were you able to come up with a different list? How many other words can you find? What about a 7-letter word pair? Email me if you’d like to brag!
Puzzle #10: January 2017
If I counted correctly, including 2017, there have been 306 Prime-Number Years so far. The next one comes in 10 years, 2027.
Puzzle #9: December 2016
I came up with 14 different sums (-14, -5, -3, 4, 7, 9, 13, 15, 18, 25, 27, 36, 195 and 207) from 20 different equations:
2 + 0 + 1 + 6
2 + 0 – 1 + 6
2 + 0 + 1 – 6
2 + 0 – 1 – 6
2 – 0 – 1 – 6
2 – 0 – 1 + 6
2 – 0 + 1 – 6
2 – 0 + 1 + 6
20 + 1 + 6
20 + 1 – 6
20 – 1 + 6
20 – 1 – 6
20 + 16
20 – 16
201 + 6
201 – 6
2 + 0 + 16
2 + 0 – 16
2 – 0 + 16
2 – 0 – 16
Just imagine, though, how many you could come up with if these rules allowed you to turn the + sign 45 degrees ( to make the + into an x) which would add multiplication to the mix; and/or if you included division as well; and/or used the – as a negative sign; and/or used parentheses (and if you don’t know how to use parentheses in math, it’s something for you to explore). How many different sums then? Let me know if you find out. I have new books to write!
Puzzle #8: November 2016
First a hint:
The answer is in the following sentence. Put the lid on the pot and simmer over nice, even heat, or until random apple chunks are still visible amidst saucy-looking rest of it.
Still stumped: Look at the initial letters of seven words in the middle of the sentence.
Your answer: One hour. But for the recipe’s sake, that’s approximate. Stir throughout cooking time and keep checking!
Puzzle #7: October 2016
Courtney, doctor, potato chips
Lawrence, King Tut, bubblegum
Taylor, tooth, chocolate
Puzzle #6: September 2016
I played along. Before my 5 minutes ran out, here’s what I came up with (and yes, all these are real words):
me, be
set, met, pet, bet, see, tee, bee, pee, ere, per
pets, pest, best, bets, tees, bees, pees, rest, meet, mete, sere, mere, seep, beep, peer, seer, beet, stem, pert, tree, teem, step
reset, terse, steer, ester, meets, metes, peers, beeps, beets, trees, ember, beset, teems, beret, steep
embers, berets, pester
Oops! I missed a lot! If you want to see a full word list, do an Internet search for Scrabble Word Finder then type SEPTEMBER into the search box. Thanks for playing!
Puzzle #5: August 2016
Okay. This is not easy at all, not to calculate and not to follow along. But I think you can do it. Ready? Deep breath:
Here are the steps:
- Convert from the Metric System into the U.S.’s Imperial System. 1 meter = 3.28 feet so 100 meters = 328 feet.
- Figure out how many feet Usain Bolt traveled each second. 58 seconds ÷ 328 feet = .029207… seconds. (The “…” means that there are more numbers to make this a fully accurate answer, but the additional amount is so minuscule, it won’t change our answer significantly.)
- Know how many feet are in a mile. That’s much easier. 5,280
- Multiply the number of feet in a mile by the amount of seconds it takes him to travel one foot. 5,280 x .029207 = 154.21296 seconds. This means Usain Bolt, on average, traveled one mile in 154.21296 seconds.
- We know that there are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour, so if you do the math, 60 seconds x 60 minutes, you also know there are 3,600 seconds in an hour.
- Now we need to find out how many hours it would take him to travel one mile (miles per hour as opposed to miles per second). To do that, we need to divide again; the number of seconds it takes him to travel one mile divided by the number on seconds in an hour. 154.21296 ÷ 3,600 = .04283693… (Division can be messy.)
- So if Usain Bolt can travel one mile (assuming he could keep up his speed for that long) in .04283693 hours, and if we divide that into 1 hour (1 ÷ .04283693), then we calculate that Usain Bolt was running 23.34 miles per hour.
- The simple answer is, YES! He could have received a speeding ticket!
Do realize two things: 1). He started at 0 miles per hour and it took him the entire race to achieve his fastest speed. Therefore, if you were to calculate him using his fastest second, his speed would have been higher. 2). Sprinters like Usain Bolt cannot keep up that blazing speed for a full mile.
One more note: There are other ways to arrive at this answer–you can start by calculating the number of meters in a mile–so feel free to play around with it.
NOW THAT YOU’VE HAD A MENTAL WORKOUT, SOMETHING ELSE TO DO: Mark off a 100-meter distance, and using the method above, see how many miles per hour you can run!
Puzzle #4: July 2016
ACHES, BRUSH, DOMES, AMPLE, TUBAS, TRADE, LACES, BAKER, TASTE
(You may find alternate words for a couple of them. Let me know if you do!)
In order, the middle letters spell HUMPBACKS. And yes, I was fortunate to see humpback whales near Juneau, Alaska. My pictures aren’t that great because, most of the time, I was too much in awe to remember my camera, especially when it came to a rare sighting: two humpback whales bubble net feeding. Click here to see what that means.
Puzzle #3: June 2016
If you searched (and listened) carefully you will have found the following numbers:
Line 1: 10 (curtain)
Line 2: 6 (Essex)
Line 3: 2 (tutus)
Line 4: 8 (late)
Line 5: 11(Elle Evans)
Line 6: 1 (wonderful)
Line 7: 40 (for tea)
10+6+2+8+11+1+40=78
Add in another 10 (from Line #1) and your total is 88 which is the number of keys on a standard piano (the word from Line #3).
Puzzle #2: May 2016
For the math part, multiply the first and second number, then the first and third numbers, then the second and third numbers.
In this case (515) would work out this way:
5×1=5, 5×5=25, 5×1=5 Your answer is 5255 which, when translated in a standard cipher where A=1, B=2, C=3, etc., the answer to the puzzle and the riddle is EYE.
Puzzle #1: April 2016
Each word here contains letters only from the first half of the alphabet. Three other words which would fit the list: fleece, each, alike. What is the longest word you can come up with? What is the shortest word?