Roger’s Roundup
During this time of coronavirus isolation, it’s important to stay in good spirits. Over the course of the past several years, a few things came up that struck me as funny, interesting, or — best of all — puzzling, and I posted them on my Facebook page. Here are a few of them.
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There was a series of photos showing signs from the Indian Hills Community Center in Colorado displaying punny dad jokes. Here are some:
“Dogs can’t operate MRI scanners… but catscan.”
“Our mountains aren’t just funny… they’re hill areas.”
“Turning vegan would be a big missed steak.”
There are many others. Type Indian Hills Community Center funny signs into your favorite search engine.
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Brain teaser time!
As a math teacher, you visit a store where they’re selling individual wooden block letters. You decide to buy some number words made out of the letters, and you inquire about pricing. You learn that the letters in “ONE” cost a total of $1, the letters in “TWO” cost a total of $2, and the letters in “ELEVEN” cost a total of $11. How much do the letters in “TWELVE” cost? Show your work!
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Saw this brain teaser on YouTube.
There are 25 robot horses. Each robot horse has been pre-programmed to complete a race course in a unique given time.
You don’t know the assigned times for any of the robots. You can arrange races between up to 5 robot horses at a time.
Each horse will complete the race in its programmed time every time it races.
You aren’t allowed to watch or time the races in any way, but some random time after the end of each race, you’re given a printout with the order the robot horses completed the race, from first through fifth. The printout contains no other information.
What is the minimum number of races you’d need to run in order to determine which robot completes the course fastest, which completes it second fastest, and which completes it third fastest overall?
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Answer to the first brain teaser above:
“TWO ELEVEN” and “ONE TWELVE” are anagrams of each other. TWO + ELEVEN costs $13, so since ONE + TWELVE has exactly the same letters, it also costs $13. Take away the $1 for ONE, and you’re left with TWELVE costing $12.
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Answer to the second brain teaser above:
Seven races are needed. For the first five races, divide the horses into five groups of five, and race them. For the sixth race, take the winners of the five trials, and race them.
The winner of the showdown is the fastest horse overall. For the seventh race (the loser’s bracket), race the second- and third-place horse from the showdown winner’s first race; the winner and runner-up from the showdown’s second-place horse’s trial; and the winner of the showdown’s third-place horse’s trial. The winner of the loser’s bracket is the second fastest horse, and the runner-up in the loser’s bracket is the third fastest horse.
Roger Cline is a staff writer for the Snyder Daily News. Any comments about this article can be made to roger@snyderdailynews.com