#2111 - Sign Puzzle

As the school year was progressing, a teacher was distressed that more and more of her students were beginning to tease and make fun of one another. She decided to do something about it. When they returned to the classroom after Spring Break, they saw a mirror on the wall with a sign next to it.
When one of the students came to her crying about the names she had been called at recess, she sent the girl to the mirror with these directions: Read that sign quietly to yourself. Repeat it over and over, gradually running the sounds together. Each time, look at yourself in the mirror. Soon you will be smiling.
Sure enough, when the student followed these directions, she came away smiling.
Each time a student would come to the teacher feeling low, she would give them the same directions. Sometimes they would have difficulty, so she would go over to read the sign with them. Eventually, each one would come away smiling.
This is what the sign said: I.Y.Q.Y.Q.R.

Why did this little exercise help her students feel better about themselves

When the students read the letters out loud, running them together, and looking in the mirror, they realized that they were telling themselves, 'I like you like you are!' It may not be perfect grammar, but the teacher reached her goal of building self-esteem in her students who had a low opinion of themselves because of teasing

#2112 - sherlock puzzle

A wife and her husband were driving in their car on the highway. All of a sudden, they ran out of gas. So the husband said to the wife, 'Now, you stay here. I will go down the highway to the nearest gas station, and I will be about 1 hour. Just listen to the radio and read some books, and remember to lock all the windows and doors. I will leave the keys with you.' So, off the husband went, and the wife first locked ALL the windows and doors. Next, she turned on the radio, and this is what she heard on the news report:
'THERE IS A MURDERER ON THE LOOSE. HE WAS LAST SEEN ON THE HIGHWAY, WEARING ALL BLACK, ABOUT 5 FOOT 11 INCHES. PLEASE, BE AWARE AND CONTACT THE POLICE IMMEDIATELY.' The wife got very scared. She turned off the radio and double checked the locked doors. Then she saw the murderer, only a couple feet away from the car. An hour later, the husband returned to his car. Inside the car, his wife was DEAD, she had been murdered. All the windows were still locked, and the doors. No windows were broken, and the car was in PERFECT condition. No scratches or anything, it was the same way as when he left it. How did the murderer kill the wife?You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to solve this ??

The car was a convertable, and the roof was open.

#2113 - Hardest Mathematical Columbus Puzzle

The Puzzle: Here is a famous prize problem that Sam Loyd issued in 1882, offering $1000 as a prize for the best answer showing how to arrange the seven figures and the eight 'dots' .4.5.6.7.8.9.0. which would add up to 82

The dot over a number signifies that it is a repeater which would go on for ever, as when we endeavor to describe 1/3 decimally as 0.33333 . . . . (etc)
With a series of numbers we place the dot over the first and last, as with 0.97979797979 . . . (etc)
The remarkable feature being that a proper fraction divided by 9s e.g. 46/99 is exactly equal to the numerator with the repeater sign followed by the decimal.

#2114 - Train Puzzle

Charles walks over a railway-bridge. At the moment that he is just ten meters away from the middle of the bridge, he hears a train coming from behind. At that moment, the train, which travels at a speed of 90 km/h, is exactly as far away from the bridge as the bridge measures in length. Without hesitation, Charles rushes straight towards the train to get off the bridge. In this way, he misses the train by just four meters! If Charles would, however, have rushed exactly as fast in the other direction, the train would have hit him eight meters before the end of the bridge.

What is the length of the railway-bridge?

Let the length of the bridge be x meters.
Running towards the train, Charles covers 0.5x-10 meters in the time that the train travels x-4 meters. Running away from the train, Charles covers 0.5x+2 meters in the time that the train travels 2x-8 meters.

Because their speeds are constant, the following holds:

(0.5x-10) / (x-4) = (0.5x+2) / (2x-8)
which can be rewritten to
0.5x2 - 24x + 88 = 0
Using the abc formula we find that x=44, so the railway-bridge has a length of 44 meters.

#2115 - Maths Teaser

Try to find out a multi-digit number that if multiplied by the number 9 or any of its multiplications products (18, 27, 36, 45,..) will result in the multiplication factor repeated (n) number of times

The number is: 12345679
12345679 * 9 = 111111111
12345679 * 18 = 222222222
12345679 * 27 = 333333333
And so on...

#2116 - Distance Puzzle

Two friends decide to get together; so they start riding bikes towards each other. They plan to meet halfway. Each is riding at 6 MPH. They live 36 miles apart. One of them has a pet carrier pigeon and it starts flying the instant the friends start traveling. The pigeon flies back and forth at 18 MPH between the 2 friends until the friends meet.

How many miles does the pigeon travel?

54
It takes 3 hours for the friends to meet; so the pigeon flies for 3 hours at 18 MPH = 54 miles

#2117 - Sepetember Cipher Puzzle

If EELS + MARK + BEST + WARY = EASY
What does HELP + BARK + WARD + LEAD equal?

Hard, using the first letter of the first word, the second letter of the second word, etc

#2118 - Good Riddle

At a local bar, three friends, Mr. Green, Mr. Red and Mr. Blue, were having a drink. One man was wearing a red suit; one a green suit; and the other a blue suit. 'Have you noticed,' said the man in the blue suit, 'that although our suits have colors corresponding to our names, not one of us is wearing a suit that matches our own names?' Mr. Red looked at the other two and said, 'You're absolutely correct.' View Answer Discuss

Since none of the men are wearing the color of suit that corresponds to their names, and Mr. Red was replying to the man in the blue suit, it had to be Mr. Green to whom he replied. We then know that Mr.Green is wearing a blue suit. Therefore, Mr. Red is wearing a green suit and Mr. Blue is wearing a red suit.