PUZZLE: You have two ropes each of which take exactly an hour to burn through re

gardless of where you light them. They don't burn uniformly. Work out a way of m
easuring precisely 15 minutes.
SOLUTION: If you light both ends of one rope, it will burn in exactly a 1/2 hour
. Thus, burn one rope from both ends and the other rope from only one end. Once
the one rope (which is burning from both ends) finally burns out (and you know a
1/2 hour has elapsed), you also know that the other rope (which is burning from
only one end) has exactly 1/2 hour left to burn. Now light the second end of th
e rope. This remaining piece will burn in 15 minutes.
-------------------------------------------------odd number of stones at 10 m distance from each other in straight line, a person
begins picking them up one at time beginning from the middle stone and bringfs
all stones to the center stone, if total distance travelled is 4.8km then how ma
ny stones are therer?
.....................
Hundred tigers and one sheep are put on a magic island that only has grass. Tige
rs can live on grass, but they would rather eat sheep. Its a Magic Iceland becau
se if a Tiger eats the Sheep then it will become a sheep itself (and hence can b
e eaten up by another tiger).
Tigers don t mind being a sheep, but they would never want themselves to be eaten
up. All tigers are intelligent and they want to survive. They however, don t care
of survival of others. (Sounds Familiar?? )
Will the sheep survive or will it be eaten up?
Solution:
This problem and the problem of pirates belong to the same family of Puzzles, wh
ere the puzzle is solved by simplification. Lets Consider the case when there ar
e less Tigers
If there is 1 tiger, then he will eat the sheep because he does not need to worr
y about being eaten. Sheep will Not survive.
If there are 2 tigers, Both of them knows that if he eats the Sheep, the other t
iger will eat him. So, The Sheep will Survive.
If there are 3 tigers, then they each of them knows that if he eats up the Sheep
, then Iceland will be left with 1 sheep and 2 Tigers and as shown in the previo
us case, the Sheep will survive. Hence each tiger will try to eat up the sheep.
The sheep will Not Survive.
If there are 4 Tigers, then the sheep will Survive.
And so on .
So, If there are even number of tigers the sheep will Survive, else it will die.
Hence, if there are 100 tigers the sheep will Survive.
............................
1. You have 12 balls which look exactly the same. Eleven of them have the same w
eight, but one of them is either lighter or heavier than the others (you don't k
now which). Using a balance scale, you can determine which ball is the "odd ball
" (and whether it is too light or too heavy) in three weighings. How do you do t
his?
2. Indiana Jones needs to cross a flimsy rope bridge over a mile-long gorge.

It is so dark that it is impossible to cross the bridge without a flashlight.

Furthermore, the bridge is so weak that it can only support the weight of two pe
ople.
The party has just one flashlight, which has a weak beam, so whenever two people
cross, they are constrained to walk together, at the speed of the slower person
.
Indiana Jones can cross the bridge in 5 minutes. His girlfriend can cross in 10
minutes. His father needs 20 minutes, and his father's sidekick needs 25 minutes
.
They need to get everyone across safely in one hour to escape the bad guys.
Can they do it?
3. A group of jealous professors are locked up in a room. There is nothing else
in the room but pencils and one tiny scrap of paper per person. The professors w
ant to determine their average (mean, not median) salary so that each one can gl
oat or grieve over their personal situation compared to their peers. However, th
ey are secretive people and do not want to give away any personal salary informa
tion to anyone else. Can they determine the average salary in such a way that no
professor can discover any fact about the salary of anyone but himself or herse
lf? (For example, even facts such as "3 people earn more than $40,000" or "no on
e earns more than $90,000" are not allowed.)
4. You are locked in 50 x 50 x 50-foot room which sits on 100-foot stilts. There
is an open window at the corner of the room, near the floor, with a strong hook
cemented into the floor by the window. So if you had a 100-foot rope, you could
tie one end to the hook, and climb down the rope to freedom. (The stilts are no
t accessible from the window.) There are two 50-foot lengths of rope, each cemen
ted into the ceiling, about 1 foot apart, near the centre of the ceiling. You ar
e a strong, agile rope climber, good at tying knots, and you have a sharp knife.
You have no other tools (not even clothes). The rope is strong enough to hold y
our weight, but not if it is cut lengthwise. You can survive a fall of no more t
han 10 feet. How do you get out alive?
______________