If you had an infinite supply of water and 5-quart and 3-quart pails, how would you measure exactly 4 quarts? What is the least number of steps you need?
A convention is held where all the big logicians are summoned. The master places a band on everyone's forehead. Now all of them can see others bands but can't see his own. Then they are told that there are different colours of bands. All the logicians sit in circle and they are further explained that a bell will ring at regular intervals. The moment when a logician knew the colour of band on his forehead, he will leave at the next bell. If anyone leaves at the wrong bell, he will be disqualified.
The master assures the logicians that the puzzle will not be impossible for anyone of them. How will the logicians manage ?
I ask Joseph to pick any 5 cards out of a deck with no Jokers.
He can inspect then shuffle the deck before picking any five cards. He picks out 5 cards then hands them to me (Jack can't see any of this). I look at the cards and I pick 1 card out and give it back to Joseph. I then arrange the other four cards in a special way, and give those 4 cards all face down, and in a neat pile, to Jack.
Jack looks at the 4 cards i gave him, and says out loud which card Joseph is holding (suit and number). How?
The solution uses pure logic, not sleight of hand. All Jack needs to know is the order of the cards and what is on their face, nothing more.
Before the start of the car race, John and Jacob have the same amount of fuel in their car. With this fuel, John can drive for 4 hours while Jacob can drive five hours.
After a time they realize that the amount of fuel left in John's car is 1/4th of the fuel in Jacob's.
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.