Hello, everyone! Merry Christmas! I was thinking some of you early-arrivers might need a little something to keep you occupied while waiting for Mass to start. Try your hand at the following brain-teasers, all Christmas-themed (the answers are located somewhere in this bulletin!):
Two mums and two daughters went out for Christmas dinner. Each ate one portion, yet only three portions were eaten in total. How is this possible?
What is interesting about this phrase: “A Santa spit taboo bat tips at NASA.” ?
If it takes 5 elves 5 minutes to make 5 dolls, how long would it take 100 elves to make 100 dolls?
You have a 3-Litre jug, a 5-Litre jug, and an unlimited supply of mulled wine. How do you get exactly 4 Litres of mulled wine without estimating?
A scientist puts bacteria in a petri dish at exactly noon. Every minute, the bacteria divides into two and doubles in size. At exactly 1 PM the petri dish is full. At what time was the dish half full? (okay, it’s not exactly Christmas-themed, but a number of us HAVE been sick)
If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands?
ANSWERS ARE BELOW THIS LINE
It was a grandmother (who is obviously also a mother), mother, and daughter who went out for dinner together!
It’s a palindrome (the same backwards as it is forwards).
It takes one elf 5 mins. to make one doll. Therefore, 100 elves making 100 dolls would, of course, still take 5 minutes!
Fill the 3 gal jug, then pour it into the 5 gal jug. Do this again, but stop pouring when the 5 gal jug is full. That leaves you exactly 1 gal in the 3 gal jug. Now dump out the 5 gal jug. Pour the 1 gal from the 3 gal jug into the 5 gal jug, refill the 3 gal jug, and now you have exactly 4 gallons (3 in the 3 gal jug, and 1 in the 5 gal jug). Ta-da!
12:59pm. This little cheeky brainteaser depends on a tendency to over-think the question. You really don’t need to consider the ins and outs of bacteria, half-life, and decay; you just need to work backwards and use a little bit of common sense! At 1:00pm the dish is full. If bacteria doubles every minute, then one minute earlier, the dish must have been half-full.
7.5 Degrees. Did you think the answer was 0? You are not alone! Most people rush into answering the question and forget that the hour hand moves too; at 3:15, it will actually be a quarter of the way between 3 and 4 (because a quarter of an hour has gone by).
To calculate the answer: You know that the entire clock is 360°. The number of degrees between 3 and 4 will be a 12th of that. 360°/ 12 = 30°. And the hour hand will have traveled one quarter of the way between that 30°. 30/ 4 = 7.5°. So if the minute hand is at 3, then the distance between both hands is actually 7.5°!