IMPOSSIPUZZLES

1

“You want money, eh?” said Uncle Phil, counting his cash. “Well, I have half as many 10ps as 1ps, but my 1ps are worth half as much as my 5ps, and that’s all.” The children waited. “What do we do?” asked Lola. Uncle Phil smiled. “Something easy,” he replied. “Work out how much I have, and you’ll each get exactly half. It’s less than a pound altogether.” How much did he have?

2

Barry held out an invoice. “Look at this,” he said. “One figure completely missing in the total amount. It’s for two gross of tequats we got from Moon Imports.” Joey explained, “Multiply by the unit price. There’s no tax, and their pricing is the same whether you buy one or a thousand.” “Fine, but I’m not sure of the unit price,” Barry told him. “All this shows is eight blank four three pounds and thirty-six pence total. You tell me what digit should be where that blank is.” Well?

3

“The jokers are still in the box,” said Borislav. “But there must be other cards missing from this pack.” “Yes, I know. But it’s the same for both of us, and we do have more than half a pack anyway,” replied Igor. “Let’s cut for deal, aces high.” Each drew a club. “Well!” said Borislav. “It must be long

5 6

odds against that.” Igor smiled. “9 to 1 against, to be exact,” he declared, and he was right. How many clubs did they have there?

4

Patrick stopped and pointed back to the table. “Look, Dad. There’s still some money on the plate,” he said. “You gave the lady two pounds and she brought back your change. How much did it cost?” “That’s extra. A tip for looking after us so nicely,” Oisin explained. “But if our bill had been 20 pence more, the change would have been only twothirds what it was.” Well?

Daniel handed back the photo. “Your grandson, eh?” he commented. “How old is he now?” “I thought you’d ask,” Jared chuckled. “Some years ago he was the square root of my age then, but that same number of years from now I’ll be five times what he’ll be.” Surely you can solve that one!

Shira held up a sheet of paper. “D’you want to keep this?” she asked her husband. “It’s got our house number and a lot of figures all over it.” “That’s right. Something I worked out on our number, but you can throw it away,” replied Blake. “It happens to be exactly 33 times the sum of its digits.” Believe it or not! But what was the number?