Yet another . . . hint! Connect the dots!

Hey people remember the toothpick problem given two weeks back? Well, I’ve got only ONE answer for that till date which, though wrong, was ingeniously so.

Hey people remember the toothpick problem given two weeks back? Well, I’ve got only ONE answer for that till date which, though wrong, was ingeniously so. Therefore here’s a hint if you want to go back: pay attention to the ellipsis (dots) before the “200”.
 Now consider a cube if you will. When it’s painted red and cut into one-inch cubes, there are (a) twice as many cubes with one red side as there are cubes with two red sides; and (b) there are eight times as many cubes with no paint as there are cubes with three painted sides. What are the dimensions of this cube?

If you can work that out within 30 minutes read no further. If not, here’s a clue: A cube three inches on each side is painted red all over and then sliced into one-inch cubes. How many of the smaller cubes are: (a) red on three sides? (b) red on two sides only? (c) red on one side only? (d) red on no side? (DON’T send in solutions to this one, it’s only the clue!) (But if you can’t work even that one out in 30 minutes then say goodbye to a cruel world and hop into the nearest well.)

THROUGHPUT
(The puzzle with the progeroid syndrome was: “Remember some tin containers which you had to heat when their lids got stuck and wouldn’t come off? Question: What difficult problem’s answer does this illustrate?”)
This illustrates the expansion of metals on heating. Other difficult problems which have the same answer are the fitting of iron rings to wooden wheels. -- Nrusingha Behera; ncb123.age@gmail.com (Yes, NB, but what difficult problem’s answer does it illustrate?)
I think the problem you might be referring to is the age old one where you ask that if a doughnut shaped piece of metal is heated does the hole in the middle expand or contract. The answer is that it also expands because the whole thing expands including the hole! The majority of people think it contracts! -- Dhruv Narayan, dhruv510@gmail.com
(The second problem was: “Which is the odd one out: 16435934; 51966; 14600926; 14613198; 13286381; 47838; 11649182; 48813?”)

Oh, boy! This is a toughie. When I was about to give up, my brother asked me to try perhaps in binary, octal and hex representations. There lurks the answer. When I represent them in hex notation, all but one translate to proper words in English. I get FACADE, CAFE, DECADE, DEFACE, CABBED, BADE and BEAD. 11649182 becomes B1C09E. -- Saishankar Swaminathan, saishankar482@gmail.com
11649182. This is the only number which cannot be converted to a hexadecimal (alphabetical) word. Just open your PC, go to Calculator, select Programmer and feed the number in Dec. You will get the corresponding Hexadecimal word. These are: FACADE, DEFACE, CABBED, etc. and so on. However, 11649182 becomes B1C09E and is the only odd one out. -- Wing Commander Raju Srinivasan, rajusrinivasan@gmail.com

Among the first five to have also got it correct are: Seshagiri Row Karry, srkarry@yahoo.com; Ajit Athle, ajitathle@gmail.com; Altaf Ahmed, ctrlaltaf@yahoo.in;   Abhay Prakash, abhayprakash@hotmail.com; Shashi Shekher Thakur, shashishekher@yahoo.com.)
(The third one was: “Write “oLr” on the first line. Then write “elteltelt” on the second, third and fourth lines below it. Why is this a human (rights) being?”)
I struggled for a while with oLr and ELT, ELT, ELT. Then I saw BUT GOOGLE THIS NOW. That’s what I did and voila the answer is  “L in or” and “rows of elt”, giving Eleanor Roosevelt. --  J Vaseekhar Manuel, orcontactme@gmail.com
The answer is “Eleanor Roosevelt”.  It is ‘L’ in ‘or’ (followed by) rows of “elt”. She was a well known human rights activist. K Narayana Murty, k_n_murty@yahoo.com

BUT GOOGLE THIS NOW
1. Take oil and water in a beaker. The oil floats in a separate layer above the water. In which direction should one accelerate the beaker to mix the oil and water?
2. A treasure is protected by 64 simple Ramsay locks. Each one opens on entering a two-digit number and each has a unique number. If four locks are opened consecutively, a door opens. If a wrong attempt is made, all the locks, which have not resulted in opening of a lock, are reset. If a computer tries 10 keys per second, what is the maximum time a computer will take to open the treasury?

Mukul Sharma

Sharma is a scriptwriter and former editor of Science Today magazine.(mukul.mindsport@gmail.com)

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com