Mindbenders

Can you tackle this tricky set of logical posers, fiendish word games and mathematical mysteries?

Solutions at the end

1 Four children painted some rocks then decided to weigh them to find the heaviest. Tim’s rock is heavier than Tammie’s yet lighter than the pink rock. Tommy’s rock is lighter than the blue rock yet heavier than Tim’s rock. Toby did not paint the red rock and Tammie did not paint the silver rock. Can you order the rocks from lightest to heaviest?

2 Which two words meaning ‘cut’ and ‘join forces’ combine into one meaning ‘each in turn’?

3 Find the wild cats in these anagrams: a) Weapons Lord, b) The Ache, c) Laniary Nexus.

4 The quartermaster of a military base is counting all their equipped missiles. There should be nine on the tanks, three times that on the fighters and twice that on the helicopters. If there are equal numbers of each vehicle and

573 missiles in total, what’s the lowest amount they’re short by?

5 How many minutes is it until 4pm if 5 minutes ago it was four times as many minutes past 12 noon?