The following quiz round was submitted by Andy Lake from the UK. Many thanks Andy, great work
1. At 7 am a train moving at 90 kph leaves Birmingham heading for London. At 8 a.m. An identical train travelling at 110 kph leaves London heading for Birmingham. Which train will be closer to London when they meet?
2. If seven people meet each other and each shakes hands only once with each other, how many handshakes will there have been?
3. Name one eight letter word that has kst in the middle, in the beginning, and the end.
4. Assuming that you are paying, is it cheaper to take one friend to the movies twice or two friends to the movies at the same time?
5. Mr. And Mrs. Jacks have five children, half of them are boys. How is this possible?
6. Which of the following words does not belong with the others and why? Father, aunt, sister, cousin, mother, uncle.
7. There is a train one kilometre long, travelling at a rate of one kilometre per minute through a tunnel which is one kilometre long. How long will it take the train to pass?
8. A man and a boy who are walking together step out with their right feet first. The boy walks three paces while the man walks two. When will they both put their left foot forward together? Explain.
9. What five letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
10. How many times do the hour and minute hand cross each other in a twelve hour period? (start at 12:00 noon and count that as once)
11. What substance weighs more in its liquid form than in its solid form?
12. A bottle of wine weighs exactly 120 ounces. Since the bottle itself weighs exactly twice as much as the wine, how much does the wine weigh?
13. Why is a manhole cover round? (give two reasons)
14. If a plane crashes on the Italian/Swiss border, where do you bury the survivors?
15. A window cleaner is cleaning the windows on the 25th floor of a skyscraper, when he slips and falls. He is not wearing a safety harness and nothing slows his fall, yet he suffered no injuries. Explain.
When they meet, they will be in the same spot.
2. Twenty one.
Most people would people would think there were 43 handshakes, but when "a" shakes hands with "b", "b" has already shaken hands with "a" and need not to do it again.
3. The eight lettered word is inkstand, "in" is at the beginning, "kst" is in the middle, and "and' is at the end.
4. It is cheaper to take two friends at the same time.
In this case, you would only be buying three tickets, whereas if you take the same friend twice you are buying four tickets.
5. The other half are also boys.
6. Cousin does not belong since all the others refer to a specific gender
7. Two minutes.
It takes one minute for the front of the train to pass through the tunnel, and an additional minute for the back of the train to pass entirely through the tunnel.
8. Never. Every second cycle their right feet will go forward together, but never their left.
9. The word 'short'.
10. They will cross each other eleven times as indicated at the times below.
1). 12:00 2). 1:05 3). 2:10 4). 3:16 5). 4:21 6). 5:27 7). 6:32 8). 7:38 9). 8:43 10). 9:49 11). 10:54.
You cannot count 12:00 twice.
If you consider several twelve hour periods in a row, the twelve o'clock coincidence occurs only once in each cycle.
Therefore it is counted initially or at the end.
11. This rather popular substance is water. At 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the density of ice is .9175, whereas, the density of water at 32 degrees is .9988. When you add ice to water, you will notice it always floats.
12. 40 ounces.
13. It cannot fall though the hole like a square one could and it can be easily moved by rolling.
14. You don't bury the survivors
15. He was cleaning the inside of the windows