1. A fish weighs three quarters of a fish plus three quarters of a pound. How many pounds does the fish weigh?
2. A man is trying to take a fox, a rabbit and a bag of carrots to the other side of a river but his boat is only big enough to take himself and one other at a time. He doesn’t want to leave the fox alone with the rabbit in case the fox eats the rabbit and he doesn’t want to leave the rabbit alone with the carrots in case the rabbit eats the carrots. How can the man get all three across the river safe and intact?
3. As punishment during his detention, Barry’s teacher orders Barry to carry one hundred heavy sand bags across the athletics track to the long jump pit. After struggling with the first few, Barry has an idea. He realises that if he puts something into each sandbag it will make it lighter to carry. What was Barry thinking to put in each sandbag?
4. What is the next letter in the series – OTTFFS…?
5. A farmer keeps some ducks on his farm. He puts two ducks in front of a duck, two ducks behind a duck, and one duck in the middle. How many ducks does he have?
6. Can you guess the next letter in this series?
CYGTNLIT…?
Answers:
1. 3lbs. Use algebra: Let x = weight of one fish. Then solve x = (¾)x + ¾
2. He should take the rabbit on its own across first. He can then return alone for the fox. Once he has taken the fox to the other side, he then brings the rabbit back with him. He then takes the carrots over to the other side where the fox is waiting. He returns one last time to pick up the rabbit and complete his mission of taking all three to the other side safe and intact.
3. A hole.
4. S. They are the initial letters for the numbers one, two, three, etc.
5. Three.
6. S for Series. They are the first letters of each of the words of the question.
