Last year for Christmas, I got a stocking stuffer that was a day-by-day calendar with brain teasers. It's produced by Mensa, supposedly. The brain teasers mostly consist of word problems, and I've found any number of mistakes. But today's takes the cake. Here it is:

If Charlie were one year older, he would be half Pat's age. In two years, he will be half her age then. How old are they now? (Hint: Neither one is yet a teenager.)

Can anyone else find the problem with this word problem? (It's not a grammar issue.)

Are you referring to a gramatical problem? I can only assume you are, being the grammar police and all. I'm not seeing it, though.

btw - Charlie is 1 and Pat is 4. Does this mean I can join Mensa, now? Oh, or Charlie is 3 and Pat is 8. So... Multiples?

If Charlie were one year older, he would be half Pat's age. In two years, he will be half her age then. How old are they now? (Hint: Neither one is yet a teenager.)

Multiple answers?
If Charlie is 3 then Pat would be 8 and in 2 years Charlie is 5 and Pat is 10. If Charlie is 5 then Pat would be 12 and in 2 years Charlie is 7 and Pat is 14.

That's just the two solutions I came up with really quick.

Sorry. It's not a grammatical issue. And both of you are getting real close.

Can anyone else find the problem with this word problem?

I'm not sure that I see a problem with this word problem.

Looks to me like Charlie is currently 20 and Pat is currently 42.

But that seems too easy.

Edit: never mind I didn't read the part where neither is *yet* a teenager.

Ah, I think I have it.
(Hint: Neither one is yet a teenager.)

Doesn't matter. Charlie's 13 and Pat's 28. Then you go to 15 and 30. It's a useless piece of information

If Charlie were one year older, he would be half Pat's age. In two years, he will be half her age then. How old are they now? (Hint: Neither one is yet a teenager.)

It appears to solve to a series:

0 and 2 : 1/2 2/4
1 and 4 : 2/4 3/6
2 and 6 : 3/6 4/8
3 and 8 : 4/8 5/10
4 and 10 : 5/10 6/12
5 and 12 : 6/12 7/14
6 and 14 : but I guess one is a teen then...

-jk

Yeah. The problem is that, discounting the ``hint'', there are an infinite number of answers, and, if you assume that ages don't have to be integers, there are an infinite number of answers even making the hint a mandatory part of the puzzle.

That is, the implied equations of

c + 1 = p / 2

and

c + 2 = (p + 2) / 2

are equivalent. They both reduce to the same thing.

Yet the official answer is ``Charlie is 3, Pat is 8''.

That's the problem with this entire calendar. No one seems to have double-checked the puzzles at all. It's very frustrating, especially considering that Mensa put their name on it. You'd think there would be some quality verification -- that someone would have taken the few hours to go through and solve all 365 puzzles. But noooooo.

Charlie is 57 and Pat is the oldest person in the world (116). In two years time, Charlie will be 59, and Pat will be dead.

Seriously though, the problem is that there is no single solution - and only the teenager statement does anything to narrow things down. Charlie could be any age { 0 <= C <= 5}.

If Charlie were one year older, he would be half Pat's age.
C+1 = P/2
2(C+1)=P
2C=P-2
C=P-1

In two years, he will be half her age then. How old are they now?
C+2 = (P+2)/2
2(C+2)=P+2
2C+4=P+2
2C=P-2
C=P-1

here's another puzzle (sorry if it's lame, but it took me weeks)

O,T,T,F,F,S,S,E,?

N,T,E,T,T,F,F,S,S,E,N,T

(it gets real boring after that).

N,T,E,T,T,F,F,S,S,E,N ...

And actually, I've always seen it start with Z.

One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight

Ok, here's one:

Where do the next few letters go?

A__________E__ F___H
___B__C__D______G

Please disregard the underscores as the BBS was deleting the spaces...

- Jon

I   K L M N           T   V W X Y Z

  J         O P Q R S   U

Yep Bitt, ya got it!

Did you know it already or just figure it out?

- Jon

It was actually a question a week or two ago in the titular stupid puzzle calendar, but I got it then pretty quickly, too.

That was an easy one. Especially typed. It's sometimes harder to see the straight lines versus curves when written out by hand.

But I love logic problems. So keep em coming!

Ok, this is a logical trivia question... You CAN figure this out with logic.

Name the animal with the highest blood pressure?

- Jon

...but how many vertebrae does it have?

Ok, here's one:


And here's another.

I have three American coins whose face value adds up to 25 cents. One of the coins is not a dime. What are the three coins?

tanstaafl.

Two dimes and a nickel.

I like this one, a little silly though.

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals
attend except one. Which animal does not attend?

4. There is a river you must cross but it is inhabited by crocodiles.
How do you manage it?

1) Open door, put giraffe in refridgerator, close door.
2) Open door, remove giraffe, put elephant in.
3) Elephant - he's in the fridge.
4) Wade straight through - all the crocs are at a conference.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Give the man a rubber trisket!

See, I told you it was silly. It's amazing how many people can't think straight through it like that though.

Here's the original text (as I got it anyway):

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?
   
   The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door.
   This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.
   
   
2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?
   
   Did you say, "Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator?" (Wrong Answer)
   
   Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door.
   This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.
   
   
3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend?
   
   Correct Answer: The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there.
   This tests your memory.
   
   
4. There is a river you must cross but it is inhabited by crocodiles.
   How do you manage it?
   
   Correct Answer: You swim across. All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting (Remember).
   This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.
   
   
   According to Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of
   the professionals they tested got all questions wrong. But many
   preschoolers got several correct answers. Tom Golden Consulting says
   this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the
   brains of a four year old.
   
   
   

you know. I need to read the board more often. I got here waaaay too late.

Name the animal with the highest blood pressure?

(That should be a period.)

No one got around to answering this one, really. Giraffe?

Yeah, sorry about the incorrect punctuation.

Giraffe is correct.

- Jon

No one got around to answering this one, really. Giraffe?

...and ?

Bit slow to respond - been away a few days - but just let me say that the lack of verification does not vaguely surprise me. Of the eighty-odd Mensans I know, I would only reckon two have any common sense at all. The rest should really be kept in their caves to do 'clever' stuff