A chess tournament is taking place on knock-out terms (the one who loses the match is out of the game).
(a) If 10 matches are played in total, how many players participated?
(b) If 20 players took part in the tournament, how many matches were played?
There’s a girl who has a large family. She has an equal amount of brothers and sisters, but each brother only has half as many brothers and sisters. What’s the correct amount of brothers and sisters?
There were two grandmothers and their two granddaughters.
There were two husbands and their two wives.
There were two fathers and their two daughters.
There were two mothers and their two sons.
There were two maidens and their two mothers.
There were two sisters and their two brothers.
Yet there are only six, who are buried here,
All are born legitimate and relationships clear.
How can this happen?
You have a thousand Re. 1 coins with you. You have ten bags with you and you can put any number of coins in each of the bags. The condition is that if someone asks you for any amount between 1 and 1000, you must be able to give that amount by just giving the bag (you are not allowed to open the bag and give coins).
A man is shown a portrait painting. He looks closely, then tells, “Brothers and sisters have I none, but that man’s father is my father’s son!†Who is the man in the portrait?
The day before the 1996 U.S. presidential election, the NYT Crossword contained the clue “Lead story in tomorrow’s newspaper,” the puzzle was built so that both electoral outcomes were correct answers, requiring 7 other clues to have dual responses.