In front of you, there are 9 coins. They all look absolutely identical, but one of the coins is fake. However, you know that the fake coin is lighter than the rest, and in front of you is a balance scale. What is the least number of weightings you can use to find the counterfeit coin?
A girl was sitting in her hotel room when she heard a knock on the door. She opened the door and found that a man was standing outside. The man said, "Oh! I am really sorry, I thought this was my room." He then walked through the corridor to the elevator. The girl did not know the man. She closed her door and called security asking them to apprehend the man. What made her suspicious of that man? He might have been genuinely mistaken.
A beggar on the street can make one cigarette out of every 6 cigarette butts he finds. After one whole day of searching and checking public ashtrays the beggar finds a total of 72 cigarette butts. How many cigarettes can he make and smoke from the butts he found?
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.
