IMPOSSIPUZZLES

1

Did you order the wine?” Susan asked. “The three sorts I told you?” “Of course. Just as you said, twenty bottles in all,” Joe replied. “£2.49, £2.97, and £3.84 a bottle. Exactly sixty pounds the lot.”

How many bottles were ordered at each price?

2

“I saw you in the shop, but you were too busy choosing tiles to see me,” said Ali, “A job at home?” “It’s our back patio,” Beth replied. “You know it’s square, all square tiles. Now we want to enlarge it, so I was getting an additional forty-nine of the same size tiles that I’ll need.”

How many tiles would that make altogether?

3

Mike handed back the sheet of paper. “Those two serial numbers?” he said. “I see no connection between them except that both have eight digits.” Joe replied, “If you take the last three digits of the smaller one and put them in front of the others, you get the other number. And that’s just one less than three times the smaller number.” What was that smaller number?

4

Anna had collected all the money from the shattered jar. “We’ll have to start saving again,” she declared, handing her brother some coins. “I’ve kept exactly one third for myself. Here’s your share, and that leaves just 99p for Jason and Eliza to fight over.” Jeff checked. “You’ve got 10p more than them,” he commented. “But you did clear up the mess.” How much did he receive?

5

“D’you remember Pierre’s new address?” Harry asked. “It’s Glen Drive, but what number?” “Well,” said Tatiana, “Twice his number, added to its separate figures makes 99.”

What was Pierre’ s number?

6

“I just heard we’ll have to put up £50 more for the outing this year than we paid last year, but there’ll be nineteen fewer of us to share the expense,” said Matt. “Well, you share it equally anyway, so it’s only a small increase all round,” Aga commented. “It was about a thousand pounds altogether last year, I think you said.”

Her husband nodded. “That’s right. An extra three pounds, and I don’t suppose anyone will mind.”

How many would share the cost, and at how much each?