Arts: How to find solutions

Puzzle-solving is an art!

The puzzles discussed here appear in the blog before this one.

The wolf, the goat and the cabbage

The key to this sort of problem is to ask: which pair (or pairs) are safe together? Then you start by taking one of those, and build up logically.

The key to this sort of problem is to ask: which pair (or pairs) are safe together?

The explorers’ short walk

Two explorers saw a bear trying to get into their supply dump. Knowing the dump was bear-proof, they left, hoping the bear would go away. They walked one kilometre south, one kilometre east, and one kilometre north. They were then back at the supply dump and the bear was still there, so one of them shot it. What colour was the bear?

The puzzle of the lost pets

For convenience, I will repeat the statements here:

1. Three pets, including a kiwi, a budgerigar and a wombat have been lost.

2. The pet lost in the garden is owned by Alastair.

3. Brianna does not own a wombat.

4. Callum’s pet was lost in the bush.

5. The kiwi was not lost in the bush or in the park.

I needed to draw up a table, and start filling it in: numbers indicate the statement used.

Owners	Alastair	Brianna	Callum
Pets
Places

By item 2, Alastair’s pet was lost in the garden.

By item 5, the kiwi was lost in the garden.

By item 3, Brianna does not own the wombat so Callum does, and Callum’s pet was lost in the bush. Here is the partly completed table:

Owners	Alastair	Brianna	Callum
Pets	kiwi (5)		wombat (3)
Places	garden (2)		bush (4)

So Brianna’s budgerigar was lost in the park. Finished!

The hole thorough the sphere

Learn from this: if there is enough information, even though you don’t know the diameter of the hole, so clearly, that doesn’t matter. The result will be the same, even if the hole has a radius of zero. So the answer is ⁴/₃ x π x 3 x 3 x 3, or 36π cm³. 

Learn from this!

To search this blog, use this link and then use the search box

Another way: use the index!