Suzanne Sutton
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My mom insisted that everyone would want some brain teasers on a site about a brain tumor.
Well, maybe not everyone, but here goes: (answers below) If you have some favorites, send them to me! More will be added so keep returning and keep thinking!
1. Can you name a common English word of more than four letters that begins and ends with the letters "h e "? (Hehe doesn't count!) Hint: there are actually two such words, and one of them is a little bit related to the theme of this website!
2. A man named Frank was
standing at a bus stop waiting for the bus. 
To pass the time, he was chatting with a woman named Jackie who
was also waiting for the bus. Frank said to Jackie, "I have a daughter. She has
as many brothers as she has sisters. Each one of her brothers has twice as many
sisters as he has brothers." How many sons and daughters does Frank have?
3. Charlie is at the same bus stop, and wants to join the fun. He says, "I have daughters, too. They are all blondes, but two. They are all brunettes, but two. They are all redheads, but two." How many daughters does Charlie have?
4. I am one simple
word, but I mean different things
One of my meanings brings great forceful swings,
The other of me, may have curve, like the first...
But only one meaning can help quench a thirst.
One of my meanings will often bring cheers,
Either of them could hold a few beers.
5. You wake up happy to be alive. You want to put a ribbon around the earth to celebrate your joy. The ribbon is about 40,000 kilometers. But then you want to celebrate even more. You want to put the ribbon up on sticks, each of them 1 meter high, all around the earth. How much more ribbon will you need?
6. You w
alk
into a room with bags of gold coins. One bag contains fake gold, however. All of the
bags, including the fake one, contain the same number of gold coins. Each gold coin
weighs one ounce. Each coin from the bag of fake gold weighs 1.1 ounce. There
is a scale in the room, but you can only use it ONCE. What would you weigh on your ONE
weighing to determine which is the fake bag? [ Hint: this question was once on an
episode of Columbo. He solved it, with the help of his wife].
7. Here's one Suzanne's students should get! (
Hint: think simultaneous linear equations!) Three companies agree to split the
$1,000,000 cost associated with a toxic waste cleanup, as follows: 1) Company A agrees to
pay four times the amount of Company B; 2) Company C agrees to pay one-fourth the sum of
the amounts paid by Companies A and B. How much will each company pay? 
8.You are a bus driver. At the first stop, 4 people get on. At the second stop, 8 people get on. At the third stop, 2 people get off, and at the last stop, everyone gets off. The question is: What color are the bus drivers eyes?
9. Six glasses are lined up in a row, three full
followed by three empty. How can you move one glass so that they now alternate, one
full and one empty....?
10. An egg salesman was asked how many eggs he had
sold that day. He replied, "My first customer said, 'I'll buy half your eggs and half
an egg more'. My second and third said the same thing. When I had filled all three orders,
I sold out of eggs without having to break a single egg the whole day." How many eggs
were sold in all?
More to come... also, please send us some of your favorites!
1. Headache.
And Heartache.
2. 3 sons, 4 daughters. You can solve this using algebra. Let S = the number of
sons, and D = the number of daughters. From the first sentence we get that S + 1 =
D. From the second sentence we get that 2 ( S-1) = D. We can then substitute
to get that S + 1 = 2(S-1), or S = 3. Then D = 4.
3. Charlie has three daughters: one blonde, one brunette, one redhead.
4. A pitcher.
5. ONLY about 6.28 kilometers. It seems like it would be a lot more, doesn't it? But, since C = 2 pi r, where C = 40,000 km, then when you put the ribbon up on sticks the radius, r, now is r + 1. Putting that into the formula we get that the new circumference is 2 pi (r + 1), doing the math we get that C = 2 pi r + 2 pi . So the new ribbon is only 2 pi bigger than the previous 2 pi r, (which ws 40,000 km.) And 2 pi is about 6.28.
6. You take one coin from bag one, two coins from bag two, three coins from the third bag, four coins from the fourth bag, and so on. You put them all on the scale, and weigh them. If the first bag contained the fake gold, the weight will be off by .1 ounce, since there was only one of these. If the second bag contained the fake gold, the weight will be off by .2 ounces, since there were two of these. If the third bag contained the fake gold, the weight will be off by .3 ounces, and so on.
7. Algebra makes this one easy. Let x, y and z stand for the different amounts. Then x + y + z = 1,000,000. And, x = 4y. And z = 1/4 (x + y). Now substitute, to get 4y + y + 5/4 y = 1,000,000. Add "like terms" and we get 6.25 y = 1,000,000. So y = 160,000. Then x = 640,000. Then z = 200,000.
8. The problem begins "you are a bus driver." So the answer is the color of YOUR eyes!
9. Pick up the second glass and pour it into the fifth glass.
10. Seven. First he sells 3 1/2 + 1/2, or 4. Then, 3 remain. Half of this is 1 1/2, plus 1/2 makes 2, leaving one. Half of one, plus a half equals one, so he had seven n all.