So how did your grey matter stand up to our puzzles? Feeling confident? The moment of truth has arrived…
Click on the question to reveal the answer.
Susie is from Uttoxeter and she’s getting married to Simon. Steve is from Torquay and is making an honest woman of Ellen. Jenny is from Enfield and getting hitched to her partner, Nick. Is it Anthony or Adrian who comes from Doncaster and will be waiting at the altar for Rebecca?
Adrian.
Additional Explanation
The second letter of the name matches the initial of the place and the third letter of the name matches the initial of the partner.
ADRIAN comes from Doncaster and his partner is Rebecca.
Nick and Laura are going to Brighton. They set off from home in separate cars. Nick travels at 45mph and Laura at 40mph. If Nick stops after 35 miles to set up a picnic, how long will it be before Laura can stop him eating all the pies?
5.833333 minutes.
Additional Explanation
Work out how long it will take car A to travel the distance, then work out how long it will take car B. The difference in time is how long it will take car B to catch up.
Here is an unusual safe. Each of the buttons must be pressed once only in the correct order to reach OPEN. The number of moves and direction to move is marked on each button. 1c means move one place clockwise and 1i means move one place inwards. Which button is the first you must press?
1a on the inner circle
Additional Explanation
To work out which button you must press first, work backwards looking for the button that takes you to OPEN then look for the button that takes you to that and so on.
A 330-yard long train, travelling at 60mph, enters a tunnel of half a mile in length. How many seconds will elapse between the moment the front of the train enters the tunnel and the moment the end of the train clears the tunnel?
41.25 seconds
Additional Explanation
Add the length of the train on to the length of the tunnel. Time taken = distance divided by speed.
Which symbol should replace the question mark to continue the sequence?
£. The sequence $ # & X £ runs along the top row then returns along the second row with the first symbol becoming the last symbol each time.
Additional Explanation
$ # & X £ becomes # & X £ $, then & X £ $ # and so on.
What number should appear next in this sequence?
1 6 30 120 360 720 ?
720.
Additional Explanation
Multiply by six, then five, then four, then three, then two and finally by one.
1 x 6 = 6. 6 x 5 = 30. 30 x 4 = 120 and so on.
In a survey, 19 people said they had travelled to Paris by bus three times in the last month. 14 people said they’d gone there by train five times over the same period. Finally, five people said they’d travelled by bicycle seven times in the last month. How many people had gone to Paris by coach and how many times had they done so in the last month?
8 people had travelled to Paris by coach 5 times in the last month.
Additional Explanation
The alphabetical value of the last letter of the form of transport gives the number of people and the number of letters in the form of transport gives the number of times they have travelled.
BUS has 3 letters and S is the 19th letter of the alphabet.
What should be the value of the fourth string?
32.
Additional Explanation
A white circle is worth 5, a grey circle is worth 7 and a black circle is worth 13.
From the first column you will see that black + white = 18. Therefore, from the second column you will see that black + grey = 20. The third column will then reveal the value of grey to be 7 and the other values will then be apparent.
How many miles should it be to Rhodes on this strange signpost?
18.
Additional Explanation
Each vowel is worth one and each consonant is worth four. These are totalled to give the distance.
Rhodes would be 4 + 4 + 1 + 4 + 1 + 4 = 18.
In the final of a game show, Simon is asked to pick one of three doors. There is nothing behind two of the doors, while the third is hiding the star prize of £10,000. After choosing a door, the host opens one of the two Simon hasn't picked to reveal nothing but fresh air. He then asks Simon if he'd like to stick with his original choice, or switch to the one other remaining unopened door. What should he do and why?
The correct answer is to switch
Additional Explanation
This is based on a famous statistical problem once printed in a magazine. The correct answer is to switch, as it gives you a 2/3 chance of winning, as opposed to a 1/3 chance if you stick with your original choice. However, this goes against common sense, and many statistics professors wrote in to say that the answer was wrong. The key lies in the fact that the host didn't open the first door at random - he couldn't choose the one Simon had chosen, nor the one he knew was hiding the star prize. We can give the mathematical answer too!
Someone has eaten the cake you made for your Mum's birthday next week. Out of your three flatmates - Tom, Ellie and Matt - one always tells the truth, and two always lie when food disappears. Tom says 'I didn't eat your cake', Ellie says 'Matt ate your cake' and Matt says 'I didn't eat your cake.' So who did eat it?
Tom ate the cake.
Additional Explanation
One of Tom and Matt must be telling the truth (because only one person ate the cake), which means that Ellie is one of the liars and Matt didn't eat the cake. Therefore Matt was telling the truth and Tom must be lying.
At full pelt, water gushes out of a tap at 7.5 litres a minute. If the overflow is blocked and it takes 90 seconds for a 6-litre sink full to go down the plughole, how long to the nearest second until the sink starts to overflow?
103 seconds
Additional Explanation
Every minute 7.5 litres are entering the sink, while 4 litres are draining. Therefore the sink is filling by 3.5 litres each minute. If the sink has a 6 litre capacity, then it will become full and start to overflow after 103 seconds
